Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Do you know who designed that gun?


Digging through the bowels of VFTP Command Central's hard drive, I found this pic of me shooting the BAR at the LuckyGunner BloggerShoot...

(Dear FTC: No, srsly, I was rummaging around through my documents folder and found this. LuckyGunner didn't pay me bupkis for the link, or suggest it to me in any way. If you got to shoot a BAR, you'd put up piccies too. D'you know who designed that gun?)

41 comments:

Carteach said...

Sweeeet!

Sean said...

LuckyGunner, BulkAmmo - different brand same distribution.

Yes, many of us have figured discovered this dark secret. I just can't figure out the business motivation for parallel brands. Is it a Pontiac/Chevrolet type thing?

Tam said...

Wow, that sure is a dark secret...

The Blogosphere: Does it manufacture drama, or merely cultivate it? Film at Eleven! ;)

Anonymous said...

I radiate evil, vile, toxic waves of envy your way.

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

So who designed it? Some guy named Bar, or a gun designer that like to drink a lot so they named it after his favorite place?

Anonymous said...

Maybe John Browning?

Tam said...

NJT,

Blasphemy isn't funny. ;)

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

I'm just jealous.

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

I lashed out. Sorry.

Keads said...

Sweet! Envy? Check! I haz it!

mariner said...

I didn't even need to look at the firearm to know the designer must have been JMB (PBUH).

Stretch said...

St. John of Ogden
*faces Utah and bows*

Murphy's Law said...

JMB--proof that God loved America and wanted us to be free and well-armed.

NotClauswitz said...

WANT!

45er said...

That's on my list of things to fondle.

Old NFO said...

It shot nicely too! :-)

Divemedic said...

@45er:
Which? The gun, or the shooter?

rickn8or said...

@Divemedic: Whichever he figures is less dangerous.

og said...

Before I shot a BAR I had shot a thompson in full auto. I grabbed the forend on that BAR like it was the last handhold on earth before being flung out into space, expecting the same sort of muzzle climb, and I was amazed at how smoothly it shot, and how little climb- comparatively- there was.

Tam said...

Og,

Via JPG I found out the secret to the Tommy Gun:

The muzzle climb is offset by the weight of the gun. If you hold the forearm tightly and try to fight the climb, it just tugs your hand up between shots, whereas if you just let the forestock rest in your weak hand, the muzzle drops back down between shots.

When I tried this in the range behind Art Eatman's place in Terlingua, it was like a light bulb coming on...

Anonymous said...

Fun facts: The BAR is still with us today and slaying bad guys in it's reintarnation (sorry, Southron here) as the M240.

NJT, as you have defiled the 1911 by mounting XS sights ("excess" for a reason), you need to make amends by purchasing a Novack buckhorn rear sight to make that puppy work right. A shooting class wouldn't hurt either.

45er - take a ticket and get in line with the rest of us.

wv - extrine - Super Marine I ain't.

Robert McDonald said...

I wish I had a picture of myself shooting the BAR. That was the best part of Saturday for me. Sadly, the only full auto I have photographic proof of shooting was the G3, and I hated that thing!

James family outpost, Iowa. said...

Oooh, a real BAR, not that sporterized thingy down at the gun shop that lacks iron sights...
Tasty. Ask to borrow it and do an "arms room" article on it. Yeah, that's the ticket!

Firehand said...

Tam, that's what Dad told me about the Tommy gun; sadly, I've had no chance to try it out.

And as to the deep, dark secret: Yes.

Sport Pilot said...

JMB did some of his best work with the BAR, other than being built like a tank and about as heavy it is a fine weapon. Oddly it seems to just push back into you w/o any discomfort. I agree on the bit about controlling the Thompson, nicest shooting SMG I've ever handled and shot. Made me sneer at MP5's later when I got to run them.

og said...

The tommy I shot had no stock, we shot from the hip. A weekend and several thousasnd rounds of ammo, cutting down trees. Dang, I wish I had the BRASS from that weekend, now.

Joseph said...

Is that a Soviet MG at the bottom of the pic? Not that I could move my eyes off Tam and the BAR, of course....:)

Jay G said...

Holy crap. I glanced at the picture-link a little too quickly and mistook the box in the background for some sort of optic on the BAR.

For a brief, shining moment, even I - the creator of the Snub-a-rooney, was offended...

Glad to see it was just an optical delusion...

Rabbit said...

You're not the only one, Jay. I just glanced at it initially and thought "Huh. A BAR with a big honkin' ACOG on it...no..wait".

BARs are wonderful until you have to hump one a long way. Knew a guy here who would bring his to the Sunday group days. It was pure bliss to shoot.

Weer'd Beard said...

What's the wheelie on your hip.

Also how crazy was the BAR Full-auto?

Matt said...

I'm pretty sure the MG in the foreground is a soviet RPD. But damn, a BAR! Brings back memories of watching Combat! when i was a little kid.

DaddyBear said...

I loved shooting the BAR. I was amazed by how easily it managed auto fire both in muzzle climb and recoil.

The only things I enjoyed more were the M1919 and M2, but that goes without saying.

Kevin said...

I've noted previously that one of the infamous "ammobunnies" - the physically smallest of them - sat down behind the BAR and proceeded to rip off a full magazine. Then she got up with a smile that wrapped all the way around her head.

Yeah, it's that much fun to shoot.

But I wouldn't want to have to carry it (and a bunch of magazines) very far.

Anonymous said...

+1 on Cajun and Combat!

I loved the BAR until I was sighting in my rifle for a hunting trip. A gentleman set up two bench away and still ended up bounce brass off my head in short controled bursts and pepperd my target at 300 yards.

He was sorry about the screw up and offered me a chance to shoot the BAR but I was less then a happy camper.

Gerry

BobG said...

The BAR was Bonnie Parker's favorite gun.
A guy I knew used to use the BAR to hunt sharks when he was in a small boat while in the navy; they would dump some garbage over the side and wait for chum, and then try to bag them when they came up.

Lewis said...

Glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought that was an ACOG-ed BAR. Talk about cognitive dissonance!

Angus McThag said...

Bonnie Parker, Tam...

Girl gun.

Browning really should have been tapping into this market in their advertising.

JPG said...

Re: "Tamara and the Thompson" --
One of the "secrets" is probably that Tam listened to the short briefing before she shot it. She had it figured out before she finished the first magazine. Then she was doing it as well as Sgt. Saunders ever did - - Short, accurate bursts from the shoulder. I had to urge her to give it a nice long one from the hip. ;)

One of the pleasures of having an unusual piece is watching your friends GRIN!
JPG

PA State Cop said...

Color me Green.

Anonymous said...

My memory of "Combat!" was the BAR was carried by the smallest guy in the squad.

A buddy who carried a Thompson in Nam told me his instructor demonstrated it by placing the buttstock against his chin. He said to just let the fore end float on your hand, that it was there just to steer it to new targets. Figures I would not encounter any since hearing this advice. I was doing the "point at the left foot and let the muzzle arc bisect him to the right shoulder" routine (for a lefty, right-hander arc is reversed).
If he couldn't get a Thompson for patrols, he took a 12ga.

Joe in PNG said...

Does anyone else here have a strange desire for a "Barrow Special" as a ccw piece? And is it blasphemy to cut down a BAR into said Barrow special?

WV: demonite- what sorcerers use for blasting.