Saturday, January 10, 2009

Manly II

The same guy came out with more Manly Guns.

Let's see how he did this time:

#10 1895 Nagant Revolver
#9 1893 Turkish Mauser
#8 Colt Python
#7 98K Mauser
#6 FAL
#5 CZ550 in .600 Overkill
#4 Martini-Henry
#2 M1 Garand
#1 Browning 1919A4

A bit better, if esoteric. The CZ550 is eye-popping. The #1 Browning 1919 is good and only could be beaten by the Browning M2 .50 BMG. I like the Python. The Mausers are lesser shadows to the utlimate development and improvement of the Mauser action, and the gun I mentioned before and have, the Springfield '03. I also like Indian Jones' Webley revolver and Martini-Henry. FAL? Yes! Good guns, all, for the most part.

But he sorta contradicts his manliness quotient and demeans his 'manliness' authority by weaselling on the Garand with the snivelling unmanly way he put conditionals all over it's inclusion.. It was good he included it, yes, but... Bad form, sir! Read his excerpt:

"It has a legion of flaws and few useful traits. However, for its time, it was state of the art, and that time did coincide with WWII. A great many Nazi and Jap bastards learned to fear the Garand, with good reason. The WWII American forces were definitely manly, so their rifles were manly by definition. It fires a slightly downloaded .30-06, and was the arm of a great many MoH winners and millions of unsung heroes."


Flaws? What flaws? That it's unfair to the other side, carrying lesser rifles? That's a feature. Not a bug.

And... He forgot the hordes of commies the fine product dropped with an excess of kinetic energy in the Korean theater and elsewhere.

It was this theater that led to the development of the ultimate battle rifle, and the LAST battle rifle fielded by US soldiers on the pointy end of the spear, the M-14. The M-14's only ill-conceived compromise was adding the bullet wasting full-auto capability. Really. Do you have to hit a man TWICE with a .308 to solve the immediate problem? But full auto was the fashion of the time. The 20 round magazine on a Garand, essentially, just made dealing with Pinko wave assault tactics a little more liesurely.

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