WW2 Supers d6: OOC

[jemmus]

Watch for the jetwash (if that's what it's called).
Happy Thanksgiving all!

[jemmus]

Saipan players, I had an Arisaka rifle when I was 11. My older brother bought it at a garage sale for $10 and sold it to me for the same. It had the chrysanthemum at the butt of the receiver still intact. (I learned later that most Arisaka's have that scratched off. Japanese soldiers filed the Emperor's symbol off before surrendering them). Unfortunately a shelf in a storage warehouse collapsed and they threw our stuff away, including the rifle.

[Rex]

I have owned a couple of Ariskaka’s actually. Both still had the emperor’s mark interestingly enough, but many were taken from the dead and they didn’t have time to remove it. I have owned most of the various wwi and wwii rifles at some point.

[jemmus]

How were they as rifles? Accurate? The bolt action and long barrel would seem to help with that.

[Rex]

They were OK for the era. I had better luck with Enfields and Springfields accuracy wise. K98's are rugged and heavy, but always work. My favorite has always been the Enfield mark V and my sporterized one will be one of my last rifles to go. Probably not as accurate as some of the others but rate of fire is unsurpassed, reload ability and reliability are great as well. Plenty accurate for anything out to 200+ meters. Mine wears a red dot on the front bridge now as I struggle with open sights now. Bolts can be more accurate but I have seen plenty of pumps, semi, levers, and especially single shots that can shoot with most bolts all day. As far as barrel length shorter is actually more accurate due to stiffness and vibration, but they used to be longer as it gives more velocity and more important makes them more effective spears when a bayonet is attached. Long barrels are a thing of the past for military rifles for lots of reasons but they wouldn't be if it reduced accuracy.

[jemmus]

Ah. I've heard from Lee Enfield owners that they're really accurate compared to other rifles, but that was decades ago. I'm sure there have been a lot of advances in the technology and understanding of the physics involved since then. I've believe handguns with longer barrels are more accurate than ones with shorter ones. I wrongly assumed that that applies to longer rifle barrels as well.

[max_vale]

I am not a gun owner or shooter but I’ve read a lot about the various weapons used and for Arisakas I’ve always read that the earlier produced rifles (pre 1943 or so), especially the 6.5mm version vice the 7.7mm, were much more accurate than the later ones as component quality and manufacturing quality control diminished significantly.

[Rex]

The biggest issue with short barrels that involves accuracy is actually not the barrel itself but the sights. With modern optics it doesn't matter, but with older sights the sight radius (distance between the front and rear sight) is critical. The longer the sight radius is the more precis your can hold and thus more accurate.

A belly gun, a handgun with a barrel of only a couple of inches really doesn't need any sights since its intended use is to just shove it into the belly of your victim or to use very close range at most. A hunting revolver on the other hand benefits from a longer sight radius so shots out to 100 yards or so are doable. The most common barrel length on revolvers until after WWII was actually about 5 inches. Which is the same length Browning chose for the 1911, conveniently. Of course his round, the 45 acp or automatic colt pistol duplicates the original 45 colt load for ballistics as well. Of course he claimed his goal was always just to duplicate the 45 colt it in an autoloader, such was the peace makers success.

[jemmus]

Interesting. I'm seeing that a lot of "gunfight" deaths in the Wild West were from belly gun type attacks. The victim's clothing would sometimes start smoldering. The Old West was pretty rough.

[Rex]

No doubt about the rough place thing. Most belly guns didn't have any sights at all. This was to allow them to be drawn quickly with little to no chance of them snagging on something. They were often concealed and holsters for them were rare. The revolver version (later called snub nosed or Saturday Night Specials) often had there hammers bobbed as well. True hammerless revolvers were first made by S&W, the model 1893. They were very popular with law enforcement. Note the "lemon squeezer" safety on the back strap, one of the first handguns with a safety and no rear sight, just a simple, smooth blade in front to reduce snagging.


https://shop.joesalter.com/Antique-Sand ... olver-1893

[jemmus]

My brother had a modern .38 like that, where the hammer didn't project out of the backstrap. Neither of us could hit an old coffee maker with it, at around 15 yards.

[Rex]

If it was a light weight snub nose shooting full power 38 loads they are a handful for sure. I prefer double action revolvers and shoot them pretty well, much better than pistols. But they can be very light (I own 2 snub nose that are lightweight, both sub 11 ounces) and with powerful loads very difficult to shoot, particularly at longer ranges. For defense most use the 21 foot rule for handguns (7 yards) so your 15 yards is longer than anyone would expect a belly gun to be useful. Inside 21 feet I am fine even without sights with most double action revolvers. Point and shoot. Also keep in mind that all handguns with no or non adjustable sights come regulated for a particular load (bullet mass velocity combo) and if you are using the wrong one you will be shooting off, potentially way off. Not everyone publishes the info (there are accepted loads and most shooters know them) but all will tell you if you reach out to them with an email or phone call.

[ateno]

People might multiple, trying to cover bases.

So I will be going into surgery tomorrow (Friday). Its a 2-3 hour surgery and 2-3 days in the hosp with 3-5 weeks off work. Please npc me appropriately until I am more coherent.

Eric

[ateno]

Im using the comp but not ready to post, wanted to let everyone know.

I check in but don't retain much yet.

Doing well and heading towards 100%

Eric

[Rex]

Excellent new Eric. Keep getting stronger!

[jemmus]

Great to hear Eric!