Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
More to the point, how was he going to carry the ammo?
More to the real point: How’s he going to PAY for the ammo?? One burst, fun as it would be, would drain my liquid assets. But it would be so much fun even if over darned quickly.
No sex jokes, please.
In Wisconsin you could own a Vulcan if you wanted, provided you obtained the Class 3 weapon permit from the ATF, but you could not afford to shoot it. Especially, as each round would be considered a “destructive device” by the ATF, and subject to a $200.00 tax.
Them Zombies take a lot of killin’…
Where was he gonna get a truck big enough to haul it around with?
Dude
That New Jersey traffic must be worse than I thought. “Dadgummed that guy cut me off, buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, spin spin spin. that’ll show the sumbitch”.
When I was a Whiting there was a guy at South Field caught going out front gate with a TH-57 rotor blade under his truck. They went to his garage and he had almost a whole jet ranger in there – cockpit, gages, engine, tail boom, tail rotor. needed main transmission and rotor blades.
He pleaded “not guilty”. Didn’t work. When asked why a helo when he couldn’t fly his answer was that he didn’t think neighbors would cooperate for takeoffs and landing an airplane on the road. Helo solved that problem. Duh.
What was he going to do with the cannon?
Pitch a remake of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot to Mr. C.Eastwood.
Insert obligatory Dirty Harry reference here.
There’s been many a time when people have been tail gating me and I wished I had a Vulcan or Ma Deuce in the trunk…
I’d much rather have a minigun. The ammo is much cheaper, and the weapon weighs less. I could also have one pointing aft, and the other pointing forward and so cover both directions.
Makes a good conversation piece. And great for goose hunting.
Thing is – if he can afford it, and doens’t have a felonly conviction, violent misdemenors, or been adjudicated mentally incomeptent, why shouldn’t he be able to own one (other than forging the papers to get it)?
How is it really different from my having this: [IMG]http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff30/subdjoe/flofront.jpg[/IMG]
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff30/subdjoe/MariposaFlo1440.jpg
Joe, I participate with the 1st US Cav at re-enactments on occassion. I’d heard the phrase “the roar of the guns” before but had no idea how significant their sound.
In my case, a surge of adrenalin, a slight quaking on the bowels, low-frequency sounds are supposed to cause that.
If you’ve seen the movie “Gettysburgh” and watched the cannon as they’ve gone off, you have an idea. Until you can feel the shock wave punch you as you’re 75 yards behind them, believe me the queen of the battlefield impacts your brain as much as its shells impact the body.
– Max
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZWAmsdGBiE&NR=1
Until you’ve felt that sound, it’s all speculation.
We had one guy in the 1st US Cav, it was hot in Boskobel, WI in August. Poor guy slaked his hydration with a watermelon. A whole watermelon. Which is probably five times the normal fiber intake he was used to.
He was good until the cannon fired. At that point he made a run for the heads and we didn’t see him until after the battle.
– Max
What did the paint scheme on your Hueys look like in the Civil War? Those being the early steam powered ones, I assume.
A friend of mine has a 4 acre vacant lot that I sometimes mow with my Deere. It is on the edge of town, and a reenactor used to live next to the lot, and he owned his groups cannon, so once in a while, I would mow to the sound of the guns.
A definate solid pressure wave, but not as nasty as the shock from a 5″/38. Truly a vicious piece of work there. I would not have wanted to be on deck on a Gearing fighting off kamikazes.
What did the paint scheme on your Hueys look like in the Civil War?
Having scoured the historical record, examined my own personal experiences, plus the writings of various commentators and authorities I feel comfortable in answering the question. It looked like feathers.
The shock wave from black powder is nowhere as intrusive as the shock wave from modern smokeless. Truth be told I don’t even wear hearing protection when firing the Sharps or the Army revolver, it’s just not that loud. Naturally, I do wear muffs when firing modern rifles with smokeless powder.
This little game of one-upsmanship does remind me of the story of Sgt. Jim Jesma. I’ve heard this story from a few folks, including the Sgt himself. Not being a witness I’m pretty much just passing along what was told to me, so no questions please — I was an impressionable young mid at the time and bought it, he was buying the rounds, and it was his story wasn’t it?
Seems Sgt. Jesma was a Force Recon Marine, and having returned from some missions was assigned to the USS New Jersey back in about ’68 to follow the Captain around as his personal bodyguard and escort. Seems the captain wanted to inspect a turret, the forward #1 turret as it happens, and instructed his guard to remain at the hatch. Which, being a Marine, Sgt Jesma did just that.
Lights start flashing, turrets start swiveling, our intrepid Marine stays at his post. The #2 turret’s guns are about 20′ above and 20′ ahead as he stands his post. The guns fire. Sgt. Jesma wakes up in Japan with one lung still collapsed, both eardrums broken, some internal injuries, and oh they were able to reattach one eardrum after a few days.
Now frankly I don’t care if the sea story is true, I use it to point out the effects of cannon shot are by no means directional and the low-frequency report of cannon, while not as loud as mortars or 120mm fixed emplacements, still have the ability to makes one’s body react.
Some nights I wish I could share a round at a local watering hole with Sgt Jesma. Even if his story was a bit embellished the man could tell a tale, and it would be worth the cost of a movie to have it told across a table rather than in a film or a book. It’s getting rare to hear stories from World War 2 and Korea, it won’t be long that Vietnam will become a second-hand tale told by the grandchildren of the vets who were there.
– Max
Max–won’t be long? Hey now! Easy guy, lets not rush things! (much as my long suffering wife might want to
)
Interesting thing about that movie – if you watch closely, you will see that there are no linstocks used, nor lanyards pulled. They set the guns off electronically.
I was at the 145th Anniversary reenactment last year, we had 65 gun on the CSA gunline. We didn’t execute a fire by file (piece from the left or right), and our front must have covered close to 1000 yards. The smoke and noise was impressive, even with the light charges we were using (a touch under half a pound of Fg). Standard service charge for a 3″ gun was one pound. The 12 pound Napoleons used 2 pounds for common shell, and 2 1/2 for solid shot, case, and canister.
I believe that the big coastal defense guns, 8 inch Rodmans, 100 pound Parrotts, and such, used upwards of 50 or 60 pounds.
Here is a fairly good one from 2007 in Duncans Mills, CA. Mine is the 7th gun. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONpMTGOnCBU
While you are there search youtube for “CWRS live shoot” and “Fresno night fire”.
What is the powder charge in the 5/38s? I would imagine that if you were on deck near one of those, you would end up, literally, on the deck.
And how about the 16/50s? 300 pounds of powder? I recall seeing two sets of three bags being rammed in, and aren’t those 50 pounds each?
Helicopters, at least in the south were either grey, much like modern Navy aircraft, or, if lacking the grey, then butternut, not too different from the desert tan used today.
Trivia – the Army Air Corps started in the Civil War with the balloon observation crews, I think attached to the Signal Corps.
5″/38′s used 15 pounds of SPD propellant, while the MK-7 16″/50 used 2X3 100 pound bag charges. Reduced charges for shore bombardment used 300 lbs. The uverpressure from the MK-7 was so great that when the Big Badger Boat ( BB-64 ) was shelling the Hitachi Steel plant along with her IOWA class sisters, and HMS KGV, Sky Control, the control center for the AA batteries, made Main Battery Control stop firing, as the over pressure was shearing the bolts on the antemma mounts for the MK-37 DP Fire Controls MK12/22 radars.
Thanks, Scott. Key-rist, 600 pounds of powder. That’ll get your attention. And 9 guns @ 600 pounds each…yeah, just a bit louder than a champaign cork.
Curious to know how you just kind of wander out of building/off base w/ that puppy, even with forged papers … no no, don’t look at the guy withe the CANNON sticking out of the back of his trunk … pay no attention.
Actually, even on a miliary base, things like that are pretty easy. If you have what looks like clean paperwork, and like you are supposed to be doing what you are doing, you can get away with a lot.
In the early 1970s there was a group that was stealing pianos. From stores. A crew went in, all with coveralls with some sort of logo, hard hats, and one guy in white overalls, white hard hat, and with a clip board with a bunch of papers on it. They went checking numbers, the guy flipped through his papers, pointed out tow or three, and the very professionally moved them out. They had papers, looked like they were supposed o be doing it, so it must have been OK.
Easy… carry a clipboard and look “official”.
When i was in college, a friend of mine was a security guard at a KMart. At that time, there were three K Marts in Madison, and the security department at one of the stores wanted to see if the employees at thier store were paying attention to what shoplifters were doing. So they got Dean and anothe security guard to come to that store and try and make off with something. Dean and his cohort wqalked in, walked back to sporting goods, picked up a canoe, ( K Mart carried such things back in the early ’80′s ) and just walked out the front door strapped it to the top of Dean’s car, and drove it over to the KM art that Dean worked at.
It’s all in looking like you know what you are doing.
Just think of the trouble the Nihon Kaigun would have saved themselves if they had just walked into the Philipines, with clipboards, rather than attacking Pearl and the Philipines! They would have completed the title transfer and been burrowed in like ticks before anyone would have been the wiser.
Well, since he wanted to open an aircraft simulator business I’m guessing it would have made a heck of a static display.
Someone should be glad he wasn’t enamored of A-10 Warthogs instead.
You want to see a real travesty of firearm justice, look here:
“The law is an ass”
——-Mr. Bumble, “Oliver Twist”
Quit beating around the bush and say what you really mean, VX.
And if we are not careful, we will get that here in our Republic.
When the AWB sunset a few years ago, I wrote to our dear Sen. DiFi about it, commenting that it was a good thing that it was going away. Her office screwed up and sent be both AWB letters – the “we must agree to disagree, and I say gunz-r-evil.” And the “We thank you for your support, here is the draft of the newer, more reasonabler AWB that will get even more of those evil gunz off the street” and that text of a proposal on the back burner. It was so strict that an 1866 lever action would be classed as an eeeee-vvviiilll assault weapon. This has been since modified, so that if it does come back and is passed, lever actions would not, at this time, become assault weapons. But we see what is in the wings for us.
yup the mother country went down the tubes a few years back. This is what happens when you don’t have a constitution and the associate bill of rights
Good grief…good thing we had that revolution thing.
Good news is that he was only sentenced to 12-months, suspended for a year.
Lex,
All’s tolerable, that doesn’t end tragically – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1236976/Soldier-given-suspended-sentence-handing-shotgun-police-given-award-instead.html – Mr. Clarke got a suspended sentence for a year.
Put it in the trunk, pointing backwards. Deters cops from chasing you.
For those unable to mount a cannon in the trunk, tailgaters can be discouraged with as little as an open window and a pouch of Red Man.
– Max
More better even; paint balls.
I’ve wished for a few, a time or two.
It’s been snowing all day, and my employer sent us all home about 0830. I went back onto roads that only an hour before had been bare, to real mess. One idiot in a Ford Expedition, tailgated me for about 2 miles, not even 10 feet from my back bumper. I wanted that mini-gun. I doubt it would have fit into the back of my 1990 Dodge Colt, however.
It took 2 hours to get home, when it normally takes about 40 minutes.
In tailgating scenarios I like to start with the basics. I find that my vision as I grow older dislikes those lights from the rear, so I slow down to encourage passing. To encourage passing I’ve been known to touch and ride the brake pedal just enough to engage the lights at random intervals.
What I’ve found most useful is that tailgaters want somebody else to make the path and they simply cruise behind. Getting into an exit-only lane or heading to an off-ramp only to change back to the interstate without signaling often finds them unable to react in time.
Most importantly, I’ve found that I can take an off-ramp, return to the interstate via the on-ramp, and find myself right behind said tailgater. Which makes him have to blaze the path and let me shine my lights in his mirrors. And suddenly I don’t care how long it takes to get home so long as I can be secure in the knowledge that I’m annoying him.
It’s petty, I know. I know also that I am not above being petty.
– Max
Worlds all time best tail gater cleaner: A can of PB Blaster. Just make sure it’s got the little red extender on the spray end, stick your hand out the window, squirt it into the slipstream of your car. It’ll go straight to his windshield, and as soon as he hits his wipers, or God forbid, his washer and wiper, He’ll be blind for sure
You ARE one slyly sadistic vengeful evil bastard, aren’t you, Byron? (PS: Thanks for the tip)
I’m a Cajun, Virgil, I don’t get mad, I get even
And when I do, you’ll remember not to go there again!
You beat me to it. That is evil and sly.
Wasn’t there a Johnny Cash song about the same sort of deal, only with a cadillac?
For your listening pleasure…
http://popup.lala.com/popup/504966164347811254
The same cannon is/was used on the old F-105 Thunderchief and the F-4E, both aircraft systems required 3000 PSI to run the gun system(linkless feed and drum storage system) for a rate of fire of 6000 rounds per minute.
A smaller similar system was used in the F-104 with a rate of fire of (I believe) 4000 rounds per minute but this was with an electric drive motor.
The Vulcan cannon was also used in the SUU-16 gun pod which had a ram air turbine, an improved SUU-23 gun pod was developed using some of the gun gas created to power the system.
Mike, the D model F-4 had a pod with an electric drive, the C model the pneumatic.
I should add that the reason they made the change is that, with the C model you could be pulling off the tgt on the range with your finger off the trigger and a couple-three rounds still could pop out going God knows where off the range due to remaining pressure in system. You obviously don’t have that problem with an electric drive.
At least he didn’t try to make one in his garage.
Been a while since I read Metzger’s Dog. Was that the same model?
Hey you kids! Get off my lawn! NOW!
I’ve never seena Vulcan, but radio Shack, back in the 70s, used to seel an album set with military noise on it. Among the sounds of a Carrier Flight deck, they had comparison sounds of various automatic weapons. They started, iirc, with the venerable M1919, a 30-06 machine gun first fielded in WW1. The a good ol’ Ma Deuce, then a Vulcan. You could hear the individual rounds going off with the first two. The Vulcan sounded like tearing cloth.
The GAU-2/B sounds like a chainsaw or dirt bike at full rev, especially when you’re seated abeam the muzzles; ear plugs and helmet required. The pressure wave from the muzzle blast would radiate through the helo cabin, causing the helmet to float and the sinuses to reverberate.
A little fun with the updated Dillon Aero minigun.
I can only imagine being near the M61A1 when it lights off.
Nice video.
Back in the olden times (F-4C, centerline mounted [sort-of] grease gun), we were told that the thing would melt if we fired it for more than a second or so. Still got off on using the rudder to spread the wealth on the ground.
20mm can most definitely ruin anyone’s day.
Knowing what the 20mm could do and the different types we used was pretty cool. Very much liked working with explosives of all types. Now, as to whether that was a good thing or not, well…
Perhaps I should have stayed in the field after getting out instead of going to school.
Grease gun…ROFL. Yeah.
Just to pick a nit, the Vulcan is a Gatling gun, not a cannon.
But I’ll settle for Gatling Cannon…
P.S. The above-referenced minigun is also a Gatling gun. Gotta love them multiple barrels…
If I remember correctly, rifles with bores under 0.5″ are referred to as rifles, and at over 0.5″ are referred to as cannon. The Gatling reference merely points to the mode of operation. At odds with this are some 20mm rifles, but they are single-shot items like the Solothurn S-18/100, as opposed to the automatic Oerlikon 20mm cannon. It used to be that rifles referred to all weapons with rifled barrels, the smoothbore being the default.
The use of “gun” is now used to denoted a crew-served artillery piece, the weapon itself probably being rifled yet not referred to as a rifle.
One thing about the usage of English in America, no matter what you say somebody is sure to misunderstand it.
– Max
When the USAF used the now closed Lowry AFB in Denver Colorado, the Aircraft Weapons Mechanic School was there along with other training programs. The Aircraft Gun School would at least weekly demonstrate the operation of two 20MM gun systems with a short live fire exercise conducted bt the training instructors.
The students were in a concrete bunker observing the aircraft cannons through a heavy glass window for safety while the instructors prepped the guns for firing. When the guns were ready, they were fired from inside the bunker toward a thick dirt enbankment. The M61 fired so quickly that if you blinked, you missed it.
A M39 was fired first with maybe 20-50 rounds, a lot of sound and fury, and then the M61A1 was lit off firing about the same number of rounds. It resembled the sound one gets by dragging a steel legged table across concrete floors. The “BRRRRRRRRRRR” would echo all across the base and those in the know would mention the “Roar of the Vulcan”
The Vulcan was run using the electric drive I believe used in the F-104 Starfighter as I never noticed any hydraulic power units and related hoses.
Lowry was a great base -my first PCS out of Lackland. First time I saw the Rockies and the real West. Great times and back then what the heck did I care about the cold and snow up in the mountains -it was F.U.N. I’ve not been back in almost forty years, though I’ve heard that Denver is rather smoggy and that Lowry is now a home development or subdivision?
Plus was able to make stuff and blow it up, which activity would be most frowned upon by the Feds were I to do so as a civilian. I’ve never forgotten what an inventive person can do with det cord.
The sound of a Vulcan, Mini-Gun or other energy converters -that is one of the sounds of Freedom!
For those the curious, General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products (fancy name for gun store)is entertaining for the window shopping that’s innit.
Stocking Stuffers?
I think it’s great that there is a link to “other solutions”.
GEEEZ what are the problems?