Army Wants More Powerful Pistol -Only One Real Answer!

                I have just glanced at an article claiming the US military is looking to replace the 9mm pistol with something more powerful. The obvious move is to simply go back to the .45 ACP, but the article also talks about looking at the .357 SIG and .40 S&W.

                Military trials in the past have often not been that scientific. A decision gets made in advance and the main purpose of the trial is to find evidence to support this decision. Some of you might reasonably be asking hasn’t the US military ever investigated handgun ammunition before? Yes they have! A very extensive study back in 1998. It found the .45 ACP to be superior to all lighter, higher velocity rounds. These findings have been mainly ignored.

                Millions of dollars will doubtless be wasted selecting a new calibre.

                Let us just consider for a second what the military needs from a pistol.

• It needs a round that works well at close range.
• It needs a round that can be used effectively with a suppressor.

                Logically it needs a heavy, subsonic round, not a high velocity supersonic round optimised for ranges of more than 75 metres. Only one military pistol round meets those criteria and in addition has a proven combat track record. The .45 ACP.

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Broccoli and Celery really are Horrible. It is Genetic!

                Decades ago President George Bush (senior) commented that he did not like broccoli. The provoked a massive media circus with outraged protests from broccoli growers. Bush seemed somewhat bewildered by this response. “I just don’t like the taste!”. Decades later, his son uses his position to forward his opinion that he dislikes gay marriage. He probably got off lighter than his father!

                The difference between gay marriage and broccoli is that no one has tried to force me to try gay marriage or homosexuality. Broccoli, on the other hand...My aunt gave me a cook book where nearly every recipe uses broccoli. In between the recipes are articles on the miraculous powers of broccoli. Even my nice Chinese take-away sneaks it into my order occasionally. My mother, typically just resorted to threats and bullying, but I held firm.

                It is OK to dislike broccoli! You are in fact in a majority! Broccoli is one of those foods where how it tastes depends on genetic factors. Broccoli contains compounds such as PTC (phenylthiocarbamide). Some people can barely taste them while other people find them repulsive. What is interesting is that the majority of the population can taste them. 70% of the world population can taste (and dislikes!) these compounds. In different regions this varies from 59-75%. Some non-tasters dislike this vegetable too!

          Let me emphasise that this is a genetic thing. Two people can eat the same thing but it will taste totally different to each. Two people can eat the same thing from the same plate and one will think “oh, that is nice” and the other will think “yuck!”. For the majority of the population, they will not like it!

          Celery seems to be another genetically determined taste. Some people talk about “pleasant nutty flavour” while to others it seems metallic. Celery is an ingredient in Marmite and notably even the advertising slogan of this product is “You will either love it or hate it”.

          If you like broccoli and celery, go ahead and eat it. But understand that most of the human race is not tasting the same as you are. If you are going to use these ingredients in a dinner, it is just good manners to find out if your guests are tolerant of them. The chances are they are not! If you are selling food commercially, avoid these things, most of your customers will want to! Stop sneaking it into our food, it is just wasting food and money! Stop forcing it on children, they probably have good reasons not to eat it. To them, it really does taste that bad!

Good Hosts do not serve Broccoli!

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Double Crossbows

                As I noted two posts back, crossbows are a rich subject. I had not intended to post so much on them, but I keep coming across interesting stuff. A good example is the following device (the bolt is pointing down).

                For more detailed information see these forum posts by its fabricator.

                The following device  ("Twinbow II") appears to use similar principles.  

 

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Special Forces Crossbows

                While locating illustrations for my previous blog post I came across some intriguing images. Some were of Special Forces units with crossbows. Also there were statements that a wide variety of Chinese units use crossbows, including their traffic police. Possibly “traffic police” in China covers a wider range of duties than the translation of their title suggests. Slovenians, Croatians, Spain, Greece, Serbia and Turkey are all fielding crossbows, some of them having been used in action. Trying to get some more concrete information on these modern uses of the crossbow has proved elusive. Plenty of opinion and conjecture out on the web, much of it with obvious errors.

                Some personal thoughts along these lines:-

                Contrary to what is often claimed, crossbows and bows are not silent. It is more accurate to say they are quieter than firearms. There is not muzzle blast and no supersonic crack. Bows and Crossbows do store quite a bit of energy, however, and when this is released some of this is as sound. If a bow is loosed from a location close to you you will be able to hear it and may locate the shooter.

                Bows do have recoil. Some people seem to thing recoil is something to do with the explosion of gunpowder. If a bow projects a bolt of one or two ounces at a hundred or more feet per second there is going to be a kick. Incidentally, that is why the railguns Arnie shoots in “Eraser” would have been a handful. Basic physics means a high velocity projectile expelled from a weapon will create recoil whether it is projected by gunpowder or electro-magnetism.  

                In medieval times it has been authenticated that there were crossbows with ranges in excess of 350 yards. Some siege crossbows could reach 450-500 yards and had draw weights of thousands of pounds. Most modern crossbows have draw weights of around 150 pounds. Even with high tech design and materials it is unlikely they are effective at more than 200 yards, probably less. Even compared to a subsonic bullet a crossbow bolt is considerably slower with means more curved trajectory, greater susceptibility to wind effects and longer time of flight to target. All of these will affect the practical effective range.

                Both bullets and crossbow bolts kill by penetration and blood loss. The impact of a bullet often has a stunning effect that allows these more lethal mechanism to have time to take effect. This is rarely seen with an arrow or bolt. This means someone shot with a crossbow may cry out, raise the alarm or trigger a bomb before hit kill or subdues them. This is assuming the bolt has not been treated with a poison or tranquilizer.  

                Many of the bolts shown in these photos are simple ogival points as are used for target shooting. While such bolts are sometimes marketed as being for hunting they are very poorly suited to for this purpose. One of the advantages of a bolt is that it can mount an edged head that can cut through soft body armour and webbing equipment.

                What are these modern crossbows being used for. A popular theory is “sentry removal” but there are a number of objections to how practical this is. The shooter would have to get relatively close and have a good estimation of range to allow for the ballistics of the bolt. To produce an instant, quiet kill the number of suitable targets is also limited. Special forces units have access to suppressed firearms including specialist weapons such as those produced by JD Jones. Such weapons are easier to carry than a bulky crossbow and offer a number of advantages including a quick follow-up shot when needed. As an aside, it seems incredible that any competent military force still fields solitary sentries!

                Line throwing has been mentioned as an application of crossbows, which makes some sense. A related application is to project a grapple that can be pulled back through the undergrowth to trigger tripwires. A similar system is in use using a grapple launched from the muzzle of a rifle like a rifle grenade. The grapple setting off any explosives does counter the argument that using the crossbow is more stealthy! Given that the line on the grapple must be relatively robust one wonders if alternate projection systems such as Atlatl might be just as effective at casting the grapple a similar distance.

                Perhaps the most interesting suggestion for using as crossbow is the idea that a hit from a crossbow will not set off any explosives the target may be carrying or wearing. Of course, the lack of incapacitation becomes a factor here too so the bolt probably needs to be combined with a fast acting (possibly lethal) does of tranquilizer or similar agent.

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