top-quark.blog
Anything big starts small..
Sun, 02/29/2004, 23:03Now, I'm really, really confused. This morning, I'm reading a thread over on ar15.com, when I notice this little picture:
Originally from: http://www.optonline.net/media//image/XPA10802291525.jpg
I'm guessing it's a government soldier in the Haiti violence. People mockingly wanted to know how he was going to aim without a rear sight. I did a photoshop to show that it did actually have a rear sight. I thought initially that it was a back-up-iron sight, an pretty common accessory for flat topped rifles. Inside the discussion thread, though, someone mentioned it being a Taiwanese T68 rifle. I was under the impression that the T68 was pretty much a Steyr AUG, but it did set off a trigger in my head about other Taiwanese rifles; specifically the early T65s. As I understand it, the earlier T65s were rather close the the Armalite AR-18, and had a single integrated rear sight.
I fired up my browser, and tracked down a webpage I use a lot for Taiwanese arms.. one of those pages has at the top a large line drawing of generational T65s.. The T65 and T65K1 rifles are pretty similar, except the handguards; the original has the ribs spaced farther apart; a pretty good match for the pictured rifle. I opened the line drawing in Photoshop, inverted it, desaturated it, and eliminated whitespace, then rotated and scaled it to overlay the original picture, magnified a few times. The result is.. interesting:
Aside from the line drawing being of the other side of the rifle, the outline matches completely; the handguard ribs, the position of the rear sight, even the stock, which flares wider at the base, similar to the aftermarket "Sully Stock". This might also be a vestige of the rifle's AR-18 heritage. As an aside, it's interesting to note the lack of brass deflector and forward assist, as are found on the modern M16.
My dad had always mentioned that stealing arms and ammo from the Taiwan military was punishable by death, presumably to stem some sort of gang violence issue. Civilian ownership of arms isn't allowed in Taiwan, either. Together, these two bits somehow combined in my head to give the impression that Taiwan didn't really have much of an arms trade.. Apparently someone has a source, though.. Criminally obtained, or otherwise, it's interesting to see these rifles in service elsewhere..
It gets scary now, though. I remember a couple months ago an article I read.. a search of google yielded this gem. Note that in the article, Taiwan isn't noted once.. the weapons designations give it away, though. Somehow, an Islamic independance group in the Philippines is trying to purchase bulk quantities of Taiwanese T75 and T65-K2 arms from North Korea. Also included in the order are "M30 machineguns".. since Taiwan doesn't use the M designation (the T designation is actually a western convenience, as well), I guessed it was a western piece. The only M30 machinegun I can find is the Italian Breda M30, of WWII. At this point, I'm just trying my damn hardest to keep my geography straight... I'm sure more searching will get more info, but I'm not sure what to think right now.
If that article has any weight, and the North Koreans weren't pulling anything, then some questions have to be asked.. Taiwanese rifles are domestically produced, and stealing them in the ten thousands is quite the feat.
-Maybe a shipment to another organization was intercepted?
-Maybe another country's stash was stolen?
-...
There's a lot of funny business going on. The alternatives to my scenarios are just a little more interesting...
Hi, art of war.. if you could just link to the images, instead of [img] tagging them, it'd be much nicer.
Over the hill..
Thu, 02/26/2004, 04:05
...has something of a different meaning for cars. Mine hit that mark coming home from school last Friday. I've only had it since 60k miles, but I'm still overjoyed that my 1995 Ford Contour has made it through to the 100k mark. I've been a mean owner, and it's treated me right, for the most part. Despite my abuse, it's still in pretty fine condition, with a few notable exceptions.. One of my side mirrors is cracked, the passenger sun visor's gone, and the paint job's suffering. Not yet (Yet..) ghetto-fabulous, but getting there. There is one hope!... with my improving mechanical skills, I can even do such insanely hard maintainance as:
Filling Gas while picking my nose
Refilling the windshield fluid
Changing oil
Changing ATF (actually kinda hard)
Changing lightbulbs
The entire thing's a bit embarrassing, really. I'm the biggest gadget nut I know, but I didn't learn to change my oil until last year. Something about cars makes them very difficult to work on; large parts that require manhandling and forcing, carcinogenic fluids, complicated tools, something.
Or maybe it's the idea of working on something that costs several thousand dollars and could well kill me.. (c'mon, you had to have seen the negative quip coming!)
Rumors of my demise...
Thu, 02/12/2004, 23:12...have been more or less correct. The last few weeks have been obscenely busy for me, so I've not had much time to think, and not much time to think about my blog.
Well, as long as we're on the topic of rumors, a long standing small arms rumor was confirmed last night. Heckler & Koch, makers of such wonderful products as the MP5 and G36, publicly announced the introduction of a product long awaited; the HK M4.
Now it might seem odd that H&K would seek to enter into an arena with longstanding and established giants as FN, Colt, Bushmaster, but they do have something to offer besides the name.
Current manufacturers are still closely following the recipe for the M16 system, which has remained virtually the same for the better part of half a century. There's a good reason for this; the M16 design is pretty good. Though its flaws have pretty much been ironed out in combat, there is that one that everyone knows about. Talk to anyone, your grandma even, and you'll doubtlessly hear that the M16 system is less reliable than its foe, the AK-47.
It's been known that the M16 family's dirty secret lies in the fact that sooty combustion gasses are routed through the operating mechanism. In time, this forms deposits that can cause malfunctions.
The venerable AK-47 and G36 systems avoid this issue by making the gas piston external to the firearm's action, allowing for a much cleaner system. What HK has done is to integrate the G36's externalized short stroke gas piston design into the M16 rifle, so as to achieve a cleaner action.
From the details at the HKM4 website, the major modifications are present mostly in the upper receiver assembly. Buffer modifications are claimed, but that's a minor point. The lower receiver remains mostly mil-spec M16. What this indicates, then, is that this is not so much a full rifle system, as much as it is a retrofit to current rifles. This mirrors in a way the HK contract to improve to the maligned British SA80A1. It might be a new, but limited business model; HK designs retrofits to adopted systems, assuring lower R&D costs, and an eager customer.
Downside? HK's distinctly leftist European politics make them less than eager to sell to the citizen. Actually, this isn't definitely true; they're very eager to sell their "mitary" Mk23 pistol. One wonders if their reluctance to sell to the civilian sector is politics-based or sales based. Their SL8-1 (neutered g36) was a major flop, as was their USC (neutered UMP). Nobody even hears about their shotguns or bolt rifles.
Arguments can be made that the pricing on HK items is outrageous, but I think another aspect to consider is that the USC and SL8-1 were stripped of their military styling and ability to accept military magazines. Maybe they'll be smarter with the HKM4; there are probably millions of AR15s in civilian hands in the US; most of which belong to dedicated firearms enthusiasts willing to shell out the big bucks for something new and improved.
Keep it under $1k, and I might buy. (dreams on)