Happy Holidays everyone!

December 30th, 2009

Another year down.   Another decade down.  Hard to imagine, eh?  Time’s not going by any slower, that’s for sure.  Anyhoo, it’s been a great year here.  Had a lot of fun running Southern Michigan Arms.  Met a lot of cool folks this year and had a lot of neat guns through the shop.  Looking forward to another happy, productive year of collecting and enjoying old guns.

Anyway, just wanted to post a quick note wishing you all a Merry Christmas (belatedly, of course) and a safe and happy New Year.  Best wishes, all!

This is why we can’t have nice things.

December 16th, 2009

Well, guys, I found out recently that a moderator (the admin staff, and thereby a representative of the site itself) on a prominent gun forum has been stealing photos and posting them where ever he pleases without even so much as asking permission if he could do so. In fact, when he’s politely asked to remove the pictures, he blows up and starts berating the owner of the photos; making up all sorts of wild (and false) claims in the process.

I wish I was writing this from the third person, but in fact I’m not. I am one (of several) of those from whom this moderator has been stealing photos. When I politely asked him to either remove it or simply give credit where it was due, he took it personally and began making any number of false accusations against me. He then threatened me five separate times to delete any of my posts that he deemed in appropriate while in the same breath saying that he is 100% against censorship of any kind. The term oxymoron comes to mind… well, at least the moron part.

So, it is with great sadness that I had to remove the link to that website from my links list.

Additionally, that’s why you’ll notice a big, annoying watermark on most of my photos. This is temporary, I promise. The watermark will be replaced shortly with a smaller, less-annoying watermark. That way, when that moderator decides to steal my photographs again, at least I’ll get some credit for them.

New MG34 video

December 6th, 2009

Hi, everyone.  Took the MG34 to the range yesterday.  Went well.  Had a few issues and I broke a firing pin, but otherwise it ran pretty well.  Cleaning that thing is a cast-iron bitch though.  A half hour of shooting and 4 hours of cleaning.  Oi!

Anyway, it was a great time with that, a byf43 K98k, and an MP5/40.  Hope you enjoy the video!

Random late-night musings. Also, guns.

November 28th, 2009

Hi, everyone.  This is just a quick update to keep all three or four of you GotR faithful up to speed.  I have decided to feature the G98/40 bolt-action rifle for part VI of the series German Small Arms of WWII.  If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a really neat, somewhat hard-to-find German bolt gun built in Hungary adapted from an earlier Hungarian design.  Not sure how long this installment will be because there’s just not much info out there about that particular rifle.  I hope to have it posted within a few weeks.  People keep suggesting I just put this all together and publish it in book format.  I’m exploring that option, but it’s up in the air right now.

Some other, semi-related stuff:  I will be receiving my freshly-overhauled MG34 back from Ohio Ordnance Works in a couple weeks.  The bill is a little more than I’d hoped, but I know when I get it it’ll be running 100%, so it’s worth it for the peace of mind alone.  I’ve also got an MG42 inbound, but there’s no telling when the NFA will process that one.  Hopefully it’ll be fairly quick, of course.  In the meantime, I’m just stocking up on ammo and spare 8mm parts.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.  Happy Holidays!

True to my word…

November 1st, 2009

I just uploaded another essay on German small arms of WWII.  This one examines the MP43/1 in detail.  Click here, or follow the links on the right.  Hope you enjoy.

Just a quick update…

October 31st, 2009

Hi, everyone. It’s been a long time with no updates. Sorry about that. It’s been one hell of a busy summer and I haven’t had much chance to get around to writing gun essays. Now that the summer has wound down, I’m going to try to bang out a few in rapid succession.

In other news, I got the chance recently to shoot a full-auto PPSh-41 submachine gun. It is hands down the fastest-firing machine gun I’ve ever handled and it rips through a 71-round drum mag like nothing. We brought a video camera to the range, so here are a few videos. (They’re also up on the videos page as well.)

Another new article has been posted.

April 19th, 2009

Hi everyone.  I hope you’re enjoying the series of articles I’m posting about German small arms of WWII.  I’ve just added Part IV of the series detailing the Gewehr 41 rifle.  Check it out by clicking the link on the left.  You can also see that rifle in action at the videos page.  Thanks for stopping by!

New article is up. Check it out!

January 31st, 2009

I just posted another article in the when-I-get-around-to-it series of WWII German small arms.  This one examines the Pistole 08 or P.08 Luger in detail.  Check it out here, or by clicking on the link to the left.

Check out the new MP40 article

November 22nd, 2008

On the left menu, click “German Small Arms, Part II: The Maschinen Pistole 40″ to be taken to the article I just published on the breakdown and operation of the MP40 submachine gun.  Enjoy!