Q&A 20 – With Special Guest Bob Bigando

Time for another Q&A – today towards the end we have a special guest to answer a question about artillery, Bob Bigando from Hamilon Firearms. Thanks, Bob!

0:50 – Berthier type iron sights on military rifles
2:15 – Books covering all US military small arms
3:25 – 4.85mm British compared to its contemporaries
4:19 – Alternative history: PMC armament in the 20s and 30s
8:19 – What gun do I dislike the most?
8:40 – How to find rate or fire and bullet velocity pre-computer?
11:21 – Why is rimfire priming only used on weak cartridges?
13:28 – Infantry rifles as PDWs instead of primary arms
14:52 – Winchester 1917 Model D
17:21 – Underappreciated development of the 21st century?
18:20 – Who are the team behind Forgotten Weapons?
19:44 – How to calculate iron sight design on old rifles?
21:00 – What is the worst part of my job?
23:11 – What collection would I really like to visit?
24:06 – Would the Davis Gun be suitable for Forgotten Weapons?
25:19 – Plans to do Browning High Power videos?
26:50 – Clip logistics in WW1 and WW2
28:38 – Most beautiful and ugliest rifles?
29:35 – Do 3-round clips work in the RSC-1918?
31:55 – Thoughts on the .224 Valkyrie
33:01 – Is the belt-fed squad machine gun obsolete?
33:59 – Why were semiauto pistols around so much earlier than semiauto rifles?
36:24 – “Dream guns”
39:14 – How did US small arms rank in WW2 compared to other nations?
41:12 – Matching numbers and headspace in milsurp rifles
43:26 – Weapon that is not so great but is enjoyable anyway?
44:56 – Why did smokeless rounds all end up 7-8mm?
46:56 – Why did box magazines not predate tube magazines?
48:54 – Semiauto AA-12 shotguns
51:08 – What does Ian’s average day look like?

53:47 – How did artillery pieces get onto the US civilian market?
(Featuring guest answer from Bob Bigando)

58:10 – Library book list on the web site
59:02 – Would early adoption of better small arms have changed WW2?
59:53 – How long will modern guns last?
1:01:04 – Why did the .41 Action Express not become popular?
1:03:41 – Gun with magazines behind the action?

10 Comments

  1. “.224 Valkyrie”
    This cartridge dimension-wise looks close to 5,45×39. Was it intentionally made to make it easily confusable with said cartridge?

  2. Question asked at @20:50 regarding design an setup of sights in past. I believe one tool used were witness cards mounted at certain distances from muzzle and height in anticipation of vertical coordinate. This is not to say theoretical calculations were useless, but they alone would not be enough considering importance of the work. In my past experience I have seen use of witness cards to evaluate state of bore wear (by bullet yaw).

  3. [off-topic so ignore if you wish]
    Article about so-called AKMSU was published in Russian here: https://kalashnikov.media/news/4522523
    long story short: one smith from Pakistan get PRC made clone of Kalashnikov, added wooden furniture with grip which is supposed to look like Soviet made and added special muzzle device. Then sold it and after some changing of owners it finally ended where it is now – in collection in Great Britain. Thus so-called AKMSU was NOT developed or crafted in Soviet Union.

  4. “Alternative history: PMC armament in the 20s and 30s”
    Well, in fact usage of almost any production fire-arm, which do not break time-line (like weapon which production started in 1927 appearing in 1921 or so) could be explained, more or less logically.
    Things to consider are which country is backing (or at least ready to sell some weapons) and profile of mission. On other note if you want to have automatic pistol and sub-machine guns or rifle and machine gun it would be logical to have them use same cartridge (same chambering).

    • Also, for 1920s European setting, you can just use browning to denote automatic pistol, not necessarily designed by J.M.Browning (proprietary eponym).

  5. The Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, Florida has a Davis Gun if you are looking for one. Pretty neat. Jordan is a beautiful country. I hope you make it out there.

Leave a Reply to Daweo Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.


*