Go Ahead, Caption This Photo

The story from Yahoo.com (yes, they’re still apparently in business) is Putin shows off sniper skills firing Kalashnikov rifle. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday showed off his marksmanship by testing out a new Kalashnikov sniper rifle and hitting the target more than half the time. Russian state television showed Putin in goggles and earphones crouching … Read more

Gear Review: CMC AK Elite Trigger (Curved, Flat, and Traditional AK Shoes)

CMC’s AK Elite single stage drop-in trigger for the Kalashnikov family of arms has been on the market for a little while now. But I’m sure you know that because fellow Armed Intelligencia cohort Jon Wayne Taylor put out his review of the trigger with flat shoe last month. We were both unaware the other … Read more

Mikhail Kalashnikov Hospitalized Again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoAvreLzDRM#t=12

Mikhail Kalashnikov, designer of the eponymous Kalashnikov assault rifle, is in an Izhevsk hospital with undisclosed health problems. The 94-year-old engineer has been hospitalized at least three times in the last year and spent most of the brief Russian summer in a Moscow clinic before being released in August . . .

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Gun Review: Arsenal, Inc. SLR-106FR (Bulgarian AK)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9flyeCcIwQ

Let’s just come right out and say it:  Precision is to AK-47 as Rahm Emanuel is to bipartisanship.  Sure, Kalashnikov’s legendary avtomat holds many virtues – virtues that have rendered it the most common firearm in history; however, the reputation for tight tolerances and ultimate accuracy has always gone to other weapons.  Most other weapons, in fact.  In the realm of post-Assault Weapon Ban AKs, how well they operate is mainly a function of whichever domestically-produced parts are shoved into the imported rifles to make them 18 USC 922R compliant.  All too often, el cheapo parts (gas pistons, trigger groups, etc.) only promulgate the AK’s standing as a “somewhat accurate” assault rifle modern sporting rifle home defense gun.  But what would happen if one of these importers perceived a niche for quality over sheer affordability?

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Editorial: Pet Peeves: Gun Terminology

Anyone who has seen the pate of my head lately will know that I suffer from chronic frustrations that cause me to pull the hair from my head.  Take, for instance, the road near my sons’ high school, Hemmingway Ln. The street is in a subdivision known as Chaucer Estates. It intersects Longfellow Ln, Stevenson Ln., and Tennyson Dr, and it runs parallel to Frost Ln, and Twain Dr. These, of course, are all well known authors. Except Hemmingway. Ernest Hemingway I know and love, but I have no idea who this fellow with two ‘m’s in the middle of his name is. Papa must be rolling over in his grave. So it is that I fastidiously tie the remains of my once lustrous locks into a tight bun and tackle firearms pet peeves.

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Taliban Snipers Replace IEDs as Number One Threat in Marjah


The New York Times reports that enemy snipers have replaced Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) as threat number one for U.S. troops attempting to “sanitize” Marjah Afghanistan. “Five Marines and two Afghan soldiers have been struck here in recent days by bullets fired at long range. That includes one Marine fatally shot and two others wounded in the opening hour of a four-hour clash on Wednesday, when a platoon with Company K of the Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, was ambushed while moving on foot across a barren expanse of flat ground between the clusters of low-slung mud buildings.” I’m no military expert (I just play one on the Internet), but one wonders if the campaign’s very public announcement—designed to win hearts and minds by allowing “good” Afghans to leave the area before the offensive—gave enemy combatants too much time to plan ambushes and establish sniper redoubts. The Times doesn’t raise the point, but it does provide a picture of fear followed by overwhelming force. Tactical descriptions after the jump.

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