The Hawken Rifle Turns 200 Just as the Colt revolver and the Winchester rifle are icons of the post-Civil War West, one gun symbolizes the era of the fur trade. The rifle was the primary weapon for sustenance and defense with the early trappers and explorers in the American West. Although specific firearms makers…
Category: History of Weapons
Firearm Conundrums
Firearm Conundrums A few questions puzzle nimrods and veteran shooters alike: Single Action, Double Action? One of the many enigmas to newcomers in the Western gun world is the description of operating a “single action” (SA) versus a “double action” (DA). Why are two actions required of the shooter to fire a single-action…
Last of the Cold War Gunfighters: Vought F-8 Crusader
Vought F-8 Crusader: Last of the Gunfighters The Vought F-8 Crusader was a single-engine, supersonic, carrier-based, high-performance jet fighter that first flew in 1955, a mere decade after the end of World War II. The Crusader was the first American fighter to break 1,000 miles per hour. The F-8 earned its testosterone-besotted moniker because…
Guerilla Warfare History: Commercial and Artisanal Hand Grenades of the Spanish Civil War
Commercial and Artisanal Hand Grenades of the Spanish Civil War Hermit Notes: There are only a handful of Substack Subscriptions I would recommend and Karl Dahl’s is at the top of the list. I also Highly recommend his Fiction. WARNING! Don’t get any silly ideas – the information contained herein is for historic…
Know Your WW2 Weapons: Japanese Model 89 Knee Mortar
Japanese Model 89 Knee Mortar For more than a century, American troops have given a wide variety of nicknames to their own weapons, and also those of their enemies. During World War II, American troops in the Pacific Theatre created a nickname for a highly effective Japanese weapon that was a bit misleading. The…
Interview with MACV-SOG Major John L. Plaster
MACV-SOG Major John L. Plaster I have two books from Plaster in my Library that are dog eared, highlighted and just about worn out. The first is The Ultimate Sniper which I got many moons ago as a gift from a now departed friend (who was a better shot than me by a country…
Know Your Firearms History: The ‘Tiffany Guns’ of the Spanish-American War
The ‘Tiffany Guns’ of the Spanish-American War President Joe Biden has repeatedly suggested when it was first drafted there were restrictions to the Second Amendment. He pressed the point by stating that “you couldn’t own a cannon,” while more recently he’s made the argument that the Second Amendment isn’t absolute in that Americans today…
Be Proud of your White History: The Elite Special Forces Of Ancient Celts
The Elite Special Forces Of Ancient Celts The Celts of Ancient Europe were a people group that spanned across most of Central and Western Europe between 500 BC – 100 AD. The term Celt is an admittedly messy and often inaccurate generalization of a diverse people group that lived across many different areas of Ancient Europe…
Fast and Furious: The Philosophy and Mechanics of the Blitzkrieg Tactic
Fast and Furious: The Philosophy and Mechanics of the Blitzkrieg Tactic It’s the dawn of World War II, and the old ways of fighting aren’t cutting it anymore. Soldiers huddled in trenches, days turning into weeks with little progress—it’s a stalemate that no one wants to repeat. Enter the Blitzkrieg tactic, a plan that’s…
The Way of the Warrior
H/T WRSA The Way of the Warrior in Anglo-Saxon England involved far more than merely being trained in the use of weapons as I put it simply in my thread of yesterday. Of equal, or greater, importance was learning both the rituals associated with warfare and the right form of battle. 1/19 The…