NRA Annual Meeting - Guns of the Falklands War

I just sat in on the majority of a lecture by author and historian Martin K. A. Morgan on the firearms of the Falklands War. It could have been just was well been named FN Goes to War because the primary battle rifles and general purpose machine guns were either made or designed by FN Herstal.

The British used the L1A1 SLR, a semi-auto version of the FN-FAL, as their main battle rifle while the Argentinians used both the FN-FAL Model 50.00 and their own licensed DGFM/FMAP "DM" FAL. All these weapons were chambered in 7.62x51 Nato. This worked to the advantage of the British when they captured large stockpiles of Argentine Army ammo at Goose Green.

Morgan mentioned the anecdotal reports that troops with 2 Para switched their L1A1 rifles for the Argentinian select fire rifles that they captured at Goose Green. Interesting, I had just heard that same story of British soldiers trading firearms from an engineer at Remington after I told him I was going to this lecture. There must be some truth to this story for it to have come from such diverse sources.

The primary machine guns by both sides were again FN Herstal designs. The Brits used the L7A2 GPMG while the Argentinians used the FN Mag-58 GPMG.

NRA Annual Meeting - First Impressions

I spent Friday at the NRA's Annual Firearms Law Seminar which was well attended. Rather than reinvent the wheel, check out Sebastian's live blogging of that event. He did a great job. You can find it here, here, here, here, here, and here.

I'll have more about the seminar later.

I also had dinner with Marcus Luttrell yesterday. It was sponsored by Lucky Gunner to celebrate the launch of his Team Never Quit ammo line made by Snake River.

I did miss all the political speeches. As I understand it, all the potential Republican candidates were there except Rand Paul and Chris Christie. Paul is saying that he wasn't invited due to his NAGR connections. I will say that while I like much I learn about Rand Paul, the NAGR connection does cause me to question his judgment.

Today I plan to cruise the floor and maybe take in one or two of the seminars. More later.

Off To The NRA Annual Meeting

I leave in a few minutes for the NRA Annual Meeting in Nashville. I love the fact that the 2015, 2016, and 2017 meetings are all within relatively easy driving distance.

I will do my best to get some posts out over the long weekend. I will have some interesting stuff to talk about including shooting the new Glock 43, the Annual Firearms Law Seminar, having dinner with Marcus Luttrell, beer with Michael Bane, and acres and acres of guns.

New firearms introductions are starting to be announced.

Last week Ruger introduced a six-shot, 4.2"     SP-101 revolver in .327 Federal Magnum. The .327 Mag is a good cartridge looking for a home. I hope this helps it.

This week Remington introduced an alloy-framed small .380 ACP called the RM 380. It is supposed to be the first pistol made in Huntsville. I'm not sure what niche it is supposed to fill that hasn't already been filled. That said, Remington has this one chance to get it right after the R-51 debacle of last year.

Also, this week, Heckler Koch just announced a subcompact version of the P30. It is the P30SK which has a capacity of 11+1 in 9mm.

The P30SK ("SubKompact") has all of the sought-after characteristics of the larger frame P30 and P30L pistols but in a more concealable design.

The completely adjustable P30 grip feature -consisting of interchangeable backstraps and lateral grip panels -is replicated in the shortened grip frame of the P30SK. Changeable backstraps and grip panels allow the pistol to be easily modified to fit any individual user. Like its larger frame P30 counterparts, the P30SK is available in multiple trigger firing modes including HK's enhanced double action only "Law Enforcement Modification (LEM)."For the P30SK, the LEM trigger is configured with a "light strike V1"setup -requiring approximately 5.4 pounds-force to pull the trigger.

Finally, I have an iPod full of podcasts including, of course, the Polite Society Podcast to keep me going for the 5-hour drive. Nothing like a long drive to catch up on your podcast listening!