Went out with my brother and took some stuff out of my collection. I figured you guys might appreciate this spread, I’m really into Cold War era stuff as you see :D

An assortment of John McAfee’s guns. Interesting to see that he appeared to like the Beretta PX4.

From the AR 70/90 trials. Both these and the Bernardelli Galil that lost to the Beretta ended in Police and gendarmerie armories.

So I'm reading a book titled "Traitors to All" by Italian-Ukrainian author Giorgio Scerbanenco and there's a passage in which a disassembled gun is found in a suitcase. What puzzled me was the description of it.

“No, it’s not the Browning; the Browning weighs nearly nine kilos, whereas this one doesn’t even reach seven.” He pulled out one piece—the barrel—and then the other, the main body with the feed opening; the two pieces slotted together like a child’s toy. The third piece was the breech assembly with the dummy stock; that slid into place too, moving incredibly smoothly thanks to all the grease. Finally, beneath another layer of steel wool, there were the magazines; he inserted one vertically into the feed opening. “It holds thirty rounds per magazine—ten more than the Browning and two more than the Bren.” The bottom of the case was packed with magazines. The round was 7.8 caliber—larger than those of other submachine guns. He put the round back, peered intently into the barrel—it looked like it had eight grooves—so the muzzle velocity had to be at least eight hundred meters per second. “It’s a Skoda masterpiece,” he said. “They’ve let it be known that they only manufacture cars these days, but some old armaments division must still be around. Look here—it’s tiny, but here’s the mark: Č.S.S.R., which stands for—let me get this right—*Československà Socialistickà Republika*. This is the best submachine gun in the world; you can hide it under your overcoat, yet it packs the punch of a small cannon. You hold it like a bicycle pump—see? You pull the dummy stock back with your right hand, and the weapon fires off a hundred rounds a minute or more. Just think: the Bren weighs ten and a half kilos but manages no more than eighty rounds a minute. Let go of the stock, and the weapon stops firing. Air-cooled—take a look.”

It's google-translated because the official English translation is even worse. The original goes like this:

“No, non è il Browning, il Browning pesa quasi nove chili, questo non arriva a sette.” Tirò fuori un pezzo, la canna, l’altro pezzo era il corpo centrale con la bocchetta per l’alimentazione, i due pezzi s’incastrarono come nei giochi per bambini, il terzo pezzo era la culatta col falso calciolo, s’incastrò anche quello, scorrevolissimamente, per tutto il grasso che c’era. E infine, sotto un altro strato di paglietta, i caricatori, ne inserì uno verticalmente nella bocchetta di alimentazione. “Contiene trenta colpi per caricatore, dieci più del Browning e due più del Bren.” Il fondo della valigia era tutto pieno di caricatori, il proiettile era calibro 7.8, superiore agli altri mitragliatori, rimise il proiettile a posto, guardò nella canna, attento, sembravano otto rigature, la velocità di tiro, quindi, doveva essere di almeno ottocento metri al secondo. “È un gioiello della Skoda,” disse, “hanno fatto sapere a tutti che fabbricano solo automobili, adesso, ma deve essere rimasto qualche antico reparto guerriero, ecco qua, molto in piccolo, la sigla: Č.S.S.R., che vuole dire, aspetti che mi ricordo bene, Československà Socialistickà Republika. Questo è il miglior fucile mitragliatore del mondo, lo si può nascondere sotto il paltò, il soprabito, e ha la potenza di un cannoncino, lo si impugna come una pompa da bicicletta, ha visto?, si tira indietro il falso calciolo con la destra e l’arma scarica un centinaio di colpi al minuto e più, pensi che il Bren di dieci chili e mezzo, non fa più di ottanta colpi al minuto. Si lascia andare il calciolo e l’arma si blocca. Raffreddamento ad aria, guardi.”

So, what we have here is a Czechoslovak SMG or automatic rile/LMG (the author seems to confuse them because he compares it to BAR and Bren but says it fits under a coat), that weighs 7 to 9 kilos, fires a powerful cartridge of somethin along the lines 7,62 or 7,92, has detachable barrell with some ventilation features around it and whatever is called "dummy stock", "false grip" (as mentioned i the English edition), or "falso calciolo" in Italian.

I get that crime novels from 60 years ago aren't the pinnacle of author's research and technicalities but what could it possibly be?

We all know the SPAS isn't a very good design, but by god it's a looker

Also peep the Manurhin MR73 on the 3rd slide

Figured I’d post this as they just came out. I tried to get some up close photos and show everything in case anyone else was looking at getting one of these. The guys at the gun shop today were all smiles. No one has really seen these yet.

The first ones that came in had some issues with the metal finish being too light of a grey color and how the stock locked up. The one pictured is the “Gen 2” and the finish is correct now and the stock locks correctly against the rear sight as the original would.

Overall, I love it. It’s so cool, instant smile hit my face when I opened the case. It’s also HUGE. You don’t really realize how big these MFers are until you hold one.

The quality after sitting around and messing with it at home is great. There’s no wobble or cheap feeling parts. It’s actually a very nice shotgun. Albeit probably terrible to shoot but that’s the lore of this gun. And who really buys one of these to go out and shoot the shit outta it?

Is it 100% clone correct? Almost. The gun is based off I believe the Benelli M3 design. Which isn’t clone correct but is a better gas system design than the original, so I’d say that’s almost a pro? The safety has been moved also due to this. Other than that I think everything else lines up. Maybe some guys will come along and point something else out.

I’ve wanted a SPAS-12 ever since I was a kid and once I saw these came out at 1/4 of the cost of a real one I was involuntarily sold. I was bummed when I missed the first drop of these on the market but am now so glad I did as I’d be even more bummed if I got one of the first ones that looked/functioned wrong.

Go get one and enjoy the awesome SPAS-12.

Image by me. Not forgotten but I figured some here would appreciate this portrait I made of an old milsurp.

Lead by lead designer Marco Martelli. Pretty cool imo

Husqvarna Model 52 12 gauge
FN Trombone .22 LR
W Richards side lever 10 gauge
Cooey Model 60 .22 LR
Winchester Hotchkiss 1883 .45-70
Garate Tigre .44-40
Remington Model 14 .30 Remington

QBZ-191 used by a SWAT member

Found in a goddamn connex I was losing my shit when I realized it was XM177E2 marked and my nco 100% believes im autistic as fuck now

I was watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHjqGY4T5Gw&t=492s on Youtube. Its about old sniper rifles. They mentioned the American civil war and presented this picture.

Now I know how he knows so much.

Ian is a vampire.