There are Jewish engineers. And Jewish mechanics (I think the guy on Fast N Loud is a member of the tribes). But I have about as much mechano-technical prowess as a miniature Schnauzer. My primary skill: using prepositions in a snarky, grammatically correct way. But I’m always game to lose parts and render devices inoperable in an attempt to understand or correct their function. Just ask Nick who recently showed me how to properly clean my Wilson Combat XTAC. (“No. That’s a wet patch. You’re making sludge.”) Anyway, I’m a lot wiser about three-round burst devices for rifles. Which I can’t have unless the rifle in question is pre-1968 and the government gives me the OK. Which is just as well, really.
Oh, how I miss my A2… Rifle was older than I am, but the giggle switch was possibly the most fun I’ve ever had on Uncle Sam’s dime. The 1986 ban is one of my biggest pet peeves with US gun laws. It was passed in the middle of the night with only a voice vote and “fixed” a problem that did not exist.
Heck, 99.999% of gun laws are meant to “fix” a “problem” that does not exist. To the Big Brother types, the REAL problem is an armed citizenry that might be able to forcibly object to their idiocy if they take a step too far…
Yeah… But this one was particularly egregious. Exactly two homicides were committed since 1934 with a registered machine gun (one of which was a police officer shooting his spouse with his duty weapon). In all honesty, while the NFA annoys me, I would have only minor problems with it if it was administered efficiently and wasn’t subject to further state restrictions.
If it were to be kept, I’d want the licensing process to be roughly equivalent to getting a fishing license or a day pass to a USFS park, procedural violations minimized or eliminated, and the maximum penalty for any surviving procedural violations (i.e. “constructive possession”, or crossing a state line with an SBR, etc) of any portion of the law be an infraction with a maximum penalty of $20, and specific language forbidding the confiscation of property for procedural violations alone. No more of this bullcrap of being bankrupted trying to defend yourself for a trivial mistake that caused no injury to anything other than some petty bureaucrat’s whimsy, and subsequent jail sentence and loss of civil liberties.
Negligence or criminal misuse is already pretty well covered, so if you do something stupid with it, or use it in a crime, prepare to get the book thrown at you.
The irony of a “tax” you have to beg for permission to pay.
I wish I had as much trouble being permitted to pay my income tax.
“…I would have only minor problems with it if it was administered efficiently and wasn’t subject to further state restrictions….”
Not a trick question – What portion of the above comment does NOT conflict with the statement “…shall not be infringed.”?
+1
Hughes put the amendment in there to cause FOPA to fail. He didn’t think it would pass with it or their and that if it did, Reagan would veto it. With Tip ONeil and Dems controlling the house and the Senate as well, a veto over ride wouldn’t happen. The irony is I think Hugh’s looked at FOPA passing worse than we do regarding the Hughs Amendment passing.
You’re wrong— the law was passed by folks who see private gun ownership as the problem needing fixing.
They may cite other ‘problems’ as justification to the peasants but that’s a ruse. They see the peasants being armed as a very real problem.
I wasn’t overly fond of the burst device on the A2 when I was in the army. The trigger pull kept changing every shot – got heavier-heavier-heavier-lighter-heavier-heavier-heavier-lighter on semi mode. Rather annoying, IMO, but everyone is entitled to an opinion…
Which is part of the reason why the Army is ditching the burst for auto in the M4a1. More consistent trigger pull in semi-auto fire, instead of the varying trigger pull at times. I never knew this when I had to fire a M16a2, but I always felt the trigger wasn’t consistent.
One thing I like about AKs is that any semi AK can be made into a full auto one with very minimal gunsmithing and a pencil eraser….
Uh… I mean, that’s what a guy told me once…
Looking at the full-auto version, it seems to be fairly simple to whip up in a TAC-CON style drop in trigger pack. All you need is a different style hammer and a frame to keep the auto sear pin in place. If the Hughes amendment ever gets struck down, somebody is going to do a booming business.
Or unless you are willing to become a criminal to be charged with a victimless crime. In fact, all you need to do is have the parts (full auto/burst parts) in your possession and you are a criminal. But – the US likes criminals. One look at our prison system and that should tell you how much the US loves criminals.
As “three round burst” is as silly/useless as a facebook/twitter account does it matter at all?
The purpose of the three round burst is increased lethality of a weakass round in a basically semiautomatic fire mode. That reduces you to 10 trigger pulls. I would rather have 8 rounds of 30-06 out of an M-1.
Actually, it was designed to keep a boot under fire for the first time from clamping on to his trigger and emptying a good chunk of his ammunition load in blind panic.
There is a grain of truth in what you say but the three round burst was product of the analysis of Vietnam combat by the Center for Army Analysis that found that semi-automatic fire was more effective than fully automatic fire. However, there are problems with the lethality of the standard 5.56 round. Since the the rounds are going to approximately the same aim point lethality will be higher. However, the three round burst eliminates the capacity advantage of the M-16 platform. You are better off with 20 trigger pulls from M-14 or AR-10 than the 10 you get with 5.56.
Meh… You don’t use burst to engage individual targets. If you were trained to do so, your instructor is an idiot. Burst is designed to provide suppression capability to the individual rifleman. In burst, you can provide suppressive fire far longer than you would with a full-auto mode.
The cyclic rate of an M-16 is 700rpm or about 12 rounds a second. A three second burst is going to approximately the same aim point. That isn’t very effective as an area weapon. If all you are doing is reducing the rate fire for spray and pray then you are less effective than full auto since are getting less dispersion so if you are just pointing into space you are less likely to hit a target.
Always love hearing that the 5.56 is a weak round. Yes if you use a crap round, expect crappy results, use a good round, expect good, use a amazing round, expect amazing results.
The military used crappy to sort of ok rounds.
There is no such thing as crappy 7.62 NATO or 30-06 round.
Really, the military only uses crappy to ok 5.56 rounds? There is no bad 30-06 or 7.62 Nato rounds? You sure about that? Lets see, one of the major selling points of the 5.56 in Vietnam was it caused far greater wounds than the 7.62 it replaced. I have personally witnessed multiple individuals not only get up from being hit center mass from a 7.62 NATO but keep fighting. I have never seen a person survive, much less be combat effective from a MK255 round to the chest. Here is a funny little thing for you, the US military actually has a lot of really good 5.56 rounds, unfortunately the majority of people just don’t get to use them.
A Facebook or Twitter account is basically the same thing as posting in a forum and/or responding to a blog…
i also think this kind of burst fire mode is pretty dumb, but especially the way it works in an m16.
No one has EVER been able to explain the difference between the police and me, and why they can use full auto m16’s, and I can not. In most cases I am better trained than the police. (non military or police, but still better trained). I am not in favor of the government who “enforce” the law being better armed then those they are enforcing them on. And on top of it, the same government official’s being less trained then I am, and, having no personal or financial responsibility for said firearms.
Let me explain the difference to you. The police are a force with a chain of command the is under civilian authority and wears a distintive uniform or markings. Under the law of armed conflict they are lawful combatants. You on tbe otherhand would be considered a terrorist subject to summary execution. On the domestic side they are authorized to take offensive action against lawbreakers. That is also something that with a few exceptions you cannot do. None of these distinctions has anything to do with being able to safely and lawfully use and automatic weapon. The real restriction for anybody short of a 1%-er is cash.
I’m pretty sure that the constitution clearly states that the militia can execute the laws of the land. (Article 1 section 8)So the police don’t even have that going for them as an excuse. The first machine gun the US army had ever used was I fact privately owned by a soldier who brought it with him to Cuba in the Spainish American War. And as for destructive devices, the articles of confederation say the militia should have acess to artillery too. It may not any longer be legally binding but the intention that the militia be well armed with military grade weapons is pretty obvious.
I am pretty sure that the militia is an arm of the government and when called to government service they have all those authorities vested in government. When a member of the militia is going about his daily business he doesn’t have and cannot exercise those authorities.
@tdiinva, The Constitution doesn’t say the militia is an arm of the government. It can be called up by the governor or POTUS. However, the reason for a militia in the first place is that the founders didn’t trust standing armies. That is why there is a 3rd Amendments. Municipal police were rare before the War of 1812.
You do realize that the States have governments right? When the governor calls out the National Guard under Title 32 they work for him and in most situations where they are called out by the governor they get deputized. So nothing you said refutes my comment.
The country is much bigger than it was 200 years ago and by the way the militia did not perform very well in the War of 1812 or the Revolution. The Founding Fathers may have distrusted a standing Army but after the debacle of the Napoleonic Wars they gave in to reality and realized you needed a force of professional soldiers to do the nation’s business.
Very informative video. Many thanks for posting it, I learned something!
Hey RF, I think you mean 1986 instead of 1968.
Beat me to it. Though both dates are dark days for gun rights history. (1986 is at least mixed, because even though they hung the Hughes Amendment on it at the last second, FOPA had some beneficial stuff in it too; in fact it may have helped more people than it hurt.)
That is the first thing I thought. The Hughes Amendment was added to derail the FOPA but it passed on voice vote in the middle of the night via Charlie Rangel.
Cool video, too bad it got interrupted every 10 seconds with ads I couldn’t turn off or keep from repeating even after listening to them.
I know you have to pay the bills but when the ads make the content un-watchable the annoyance outweighs the benefit for me.
Your device is infected with ad pushing malware.
I agree 1000% about the voice ads. Stop the voice ads!!!!!!
Yell and scream. You MIGHT get a “we’re on it!” from RF, but nothing will actually happen.
Cool and informative. I’m impressed by his modeling skills as well.
OK tech questions here.
How does the new disconnector and cam (for burst) just magically appear without messing stuff up?
I have heard that there is a difference between some firearms on burst setting. Some you have to hold the trigger down and some you do not. Is that true? If so can someone explain how they function differently?
I knew the gun fairies that handled semi-auto to full-auto were more complex but now I see how much more so. I can definitely see why some designers would want to go semi-auto only or full-auto only.
The second disconnector is added by being half the thickness of a regular disconnector, and the semi disconnector is half thickness as well. As for guns that fire all predetermined rounds when in burst mode whether the trigger is held or not, I have not heard of any that do so. If you need to stop firing, releasing the trigger should be all that is required. Any mechanism that keeps the weapon firing if the trigger were released poses a liability issue. If it jams, you have a runaway machine gun in full-auto. In burst, it means that you only get those rounds out, and it’s useless from there.
Never would have though my video would wind up here. Thanks for sharing it here, TTAG!
I’m more excited about that program he’s using than the information he’s presenting. Looks like a fun little toy. Free too.
Great video, buddy. Well put together, concise, and broken down “Barney style.” Kudos to you. That looks like a neat computer program. Man, I wish I knew more about all of those computer aided engineering design programs. Looks like I need to get into some books about that and learn something new.
I hope I’m the millionth comment!
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