1gewehr

I wouldn't worry about it unless the PTAC is a polymer. Newer polymer lowers seem to be holding up pretty well. But time will tell. There are cheap Essential Arms lowers that are legally transferable machine guns. I have yet to hear of one breaking. And some have hundreds of thousands of rounds through them.

Late 1960's. Colt was busy making m-16a1 as fast as possible. The 703 was just insurance.

Very similar to the venerable 1911.  No grip safety, and the trigger rotates on a pin instead of sliding.  The Super also has other improvements.  The Star B and Super were standard issue in many armies for nearly 50 years.  Many were used by the Germans in WWII as well as South American and Asian armies until the '90's.   Star made quality firearms, unlike the reputation of many other Spanish firearms manufacturers.  Magazines are scarce and expensive.  If AIM has extras, grab them as the aftermarket ones are not as reliable.

Con: They. are priced closer to their worth than 10 years ago. I have one I bought new that now has over 40k rounds. I still like it.

IMA are good folks. Keep in mind that their stash of Martinis was found in a storeroom in Nepal where they had been piled on the floor 100 years ago.

No clear markings, lots of bubba work.  No real collector value.   The '93 Mauser makes a nice, light rifle.  A Rhineland .45 conversion would be a good use of this one.  The cocking on closing action makes less noise, so it's a good candidate for a suppressor!  With a  16" barrel, it would be quick-handling, too.  Or, you could SBR it to 10 or 12" and with a red-dot scope it would be great for short-range pests.

Generally, rifles are designed to either use a Minie ball (hollow base bullet) or a patch around a round ball.  In both cases, the actual projectile is very slightly smaller than the bore.  Forcing an oversize round ball down a rifle barrel sounds like a project in itself.  I doubt that you would be able to over-pressure a modern steel barrel, but the leading might build up pretty rapidly.   I'd stick with whatever bullet the rifle was designed for.  Casting bullets is really easy, and Dixie has inexpensive molds for any kind of bullet you can think of.  The old round ball and patch guys use a bullet starter to get it started without breaking ramrods.  It's usually just a wooden ball with a short stub of rod that let's you get the ball far enough to cut the patch.  Then it has a slightly longer section of rod to let you get the ball down the barrel far enough to use the ramrod without breaking it.   I started using round balls in my revolvers, too.  I now use a Dixie mold to cast real bullets.  Much more accurate and powerful.

I have a couple. The 9mm compact has been shot the most. Accurate, reliable, and durable. I also have a 10mm with the .45 conversion. Mostly shot in .45 because that ammo is a lot cheaper. Both are steel frames. I have no experience with the plastic frames.

Brown Bess Flintlock musket with bayonet.  If they can see that .75 bore, it'll scare the pants off of them.  If they can't see that huge hole, then that .736 lead ball will make an entry wound as big as a shotgun slug.  Secondly, the smoke from that shot creates a screen that makes it impossible for them to see down the hall.  Lastly, if seeing my overweight, mostly-naked body come screaming out of that smoke behind 5 1/5 feet of bayoneted musket doesn't send them into paroxysms of terror, nothing will!  The 17" of triangular-bladed bayonet is long enough to search out intruders gibbering with fear behind interior doors and walls, but not long enough to endanger the neighbors with over-penetration.   Besides, the cops always get a thrill at the sight of me in my boxers standing over the surviving idiot prisoner while he lies face-down on the ground with my bayonet touching on his spine.

I have an older Pedersoli Bess with MANY ball and blank loads through it!  Use a .715 ball patched with the cartridge paper in front of 100gr of FFg for a reasonable facsimile of the original British load.  British cartridges were 120gr, but the first 20gr was used to prime the pan. Modern muskets are reasonably accurate with that load.  Hitting a man-size silhouette is pretty easy with practice.   I would imagine that a reduced load was used for the 'carbine'.   Buck & Ball is definitely a short-range load.  I've never gotten a load that was worth shooting past about 30 yards.  The original British load works well on deer out to 100 yards, BTW.  Past 100 yards, accuracy and velocity decrease rapidly.

WOW!!! :stunned:   I have to admit that this is a new one for me!!!  I've never seen that before and I thought I'd seen about every form of abuse ever meted out to a HP!!!

Try using decent ammo.  That UMC 115gr is the weakest 9mm on the market.  Also use a new magazine with a strong spring.  If it's still causing problems, then it's probably the extractor.   Extractors for those older HPs are getting hard to find.  You might want to remove it and give it and the channel it fits into a really good cleaning.  75 years of gunk can cause problems.  A new set of springs is always a good idea for these older pistols.   Clean it up, but do not reblue it or replace the original grips if you want to keep it's collector value.   It's rare to find a HP that doesn't function well with decent ammo if it's clean.  Enjoy!

The PPS43 pistol is easily turned into a folding stock Short-Barreled Rifle with a mere filling out of an ATF Form 1, $200 one-time tax, some spare parts, and a little Dremel work.  Guaranteed to get attention at the range.  From a 10" PPS-43 barrel, surplus ammo will turn in almost 2000fps.  The S&B or PPU ammo currently available is a bit lighter load.  You will be lucky to get 1800fps from the PPS-43C.   Some folks have made AR-15s that will shoot the 7.62x25mm.  That sounds like an interesting project.  When the surplus ammo was really cheap and plentiful, I almost went that route.  Now, with the surplus pretty much gone, it would be an expensive toy.  The 7.62x25 doesn't really gain much going from a 10" to 16" barrel.    If you handload, you could probably make it really scream.   For a while, InterOrdnance sold some of the PPSh-41 semi-autos with a 16" barrel called the SR-41.  I imagine that there are some out there for sale.  If you found one at a reasonable price, it would be a fun shooter.

I rented both the G36 and the XDs to compare the two.  I went with the XDs.  The G36 is OK, but it is noticeably larger than the XDs and seems positively fat in comparison.  The G36 is just a single-stack Glock.  The XDs seems to have been designed from scratch as a small .45 concealed carry pistol.

I have yet to see any safety or lock that I would trust on my firearms.  The only safety worth a d@mn is the one between your ears.

Looks like a good way to damage your shotgun.

You need some good Belgian guns!  FN-FAL, Browning Hi-power, etc.

  And upon investigation, the policy didn't even exist either!

If the TEOTWAWKI (The end of the world as we know it) is a serious concern, then a manually-operated .22 is the logical choice.  No worrying about whether it will fit or feed.  And I would recommend a high-quality .22.   Actually, I can't think of many reasons not to recommend that all firearms purchases be of a quality that you can pass down to grandchildren or further.  Don't pass up used rifles if you have the ability to reassure yourself of it's condition.  Older Marlins, Winchesters, and Remingtons are some of the finest examples of American gunmaking.

Actually, it is.  The original was an all-steel .380 (or .32).  The new one uses modern materials and is 9mm.  Even though the principles of operation are the same, the actual design would have to be done from scratch.  It's not just a matter of scaling up a bit.

So much bad information! 1)  Full auto has it's purposes.  To be effective, it takes a lot more training that simply knowing where the 'go-fast' switch is.  Full-auto in the hands of a trained pro can be a wonder to behold.  Whether engaging a squad at 800 meters with a belt-fed or taking on several targets at 100 meters or less with a subgun or carbine, it is impossible to score multiple hits on multiple targets faster with any other weapon. 2) Training is everything.  Trigger control lets the user send the exact number of rounds needed downrange.  How long a magazine or belt lasts depends upon trigger control. 3)  Full-auto is extremely effective at area denial, intimidation, and suppression of multiple targets. 4)  Shotguns are useless past 100 meters.  The Saiga is not renowned for reliability.  The drums and large magazines are fragile and really only suited for range use.   If you really want to see examples of expert full-auto use, watch the top scorers at a submachine gun match.  Effective full-auto fire is not just hosing down an area.  Name another method of taking down three or four opponents in half a second at 100-800 meters (depending upon the weapon) without explosives?  Think Jerry Miculek fast, but at longer ranges. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTHc4H_i8DY   In WWI, machine gunning was developed into a science.  By WW2, squad automatic weapons had developed into a highly-trained infantry specialization.  Read accounts of infantry action from WW2 and Korea.  Notice how often the BAR gunners and machine gun team were who the others depended upon to hold a line or keep momentum in the assault.

Add in 'project improvements' added at the last minute (generally just changes designed to lower production costs).  Without some strict management control, it's really easy for new products to end up as total lemons when the pre-production models were wonderful.  Usually, though, the first run off the production line goes through some very tough quality checks.  Obviously, Remington screwed that up, too.

I'm a serious fan of the original Model 51.  I got to handle one of the new R51's, and it does not compare favorably with the older model in my esteemed opinion. Even if it were a perfectly-functioning model, it is too large and thick for a compact carry gun.  It seems bigger than my XDs .45, in fact.  And it just feels cheap.  And the ergonomics don't feel as good as the original 51. Sorry Remington, I really did want to like it. 

I generally avoid those dealers.  The way I look at it, they are the losers, not me.  If they worked with C&R licensees, then some auctions would most likely end rather higher.  C&Rs are adding to collections, not buying for resale.  So they are generally willing to pay a little more than another dealer.  if the average increase is just 10% for a C&R item, then that translates to a LOT of money for a dealer active on GunBroker!

The .32 Magnums have never caught on like manufacturers hoped.  The .32 H&R mag introduced in 1984 was expected to kill .38 Special sales.  It offered .38Spl performance in a smaller, lighter revolver as well as 6-shots for the size of a 5-shot revolver.  But sales have never been particularly brisk.   The new .327 Magnum promises .357 magnum performance with the other same promises as the .32 HR.  Sales proved to be equally disappointing.  I might buy in if someone would offer a quality lightweight pump or lever-action rifle in this caliber.  It would be ballistically similar to the .30 carbine in a 16" barrel and would be a really great woods carbine for small game.  The ability to shoot light, quiet .32 S&W loads would add to the versatility.   I once had a little .32 rolling block carbine that was a great lightweight bunny gun.  With .32 shorts it was as quiet as a BB gun.