GURPS Tactical Shooting: Extreme Conditions

My latest book is finally out! GURPS Tactical Shooting: Extreme Conditions is a supplement for GURPS Tactical Shooting and thus, the GURPS Basic Set. It provides rules, insights, and interesting tidbits for extreme environmental conditions that hamper combat and in particular combat with firearms. Whenever the shooting conditions are not ideal, really. In winter, in the jungle, in the desert, underground, by, under, or on water — even in space. Inspired by a shooting session one cold December afternoon at the Wannsee range in Berlin, coincidentally followed by a rewatching of Red Dawn, it was originally intended as a series of articles that eventually grew into a more complete offering.

The book is available via Warehouse23 and also on Amazon.

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Hugo Schmeisser’s Bergmann Submachine Guns: M.P.18,I to M.P.18,IV & the SIG Bergmann M.P.

My article on Hugo Schmeisser’s early submachine guns, that is the Bergmann M.P.18,I through M.P.18,IV and the SIG-Bergmann M.P., has now been published as the latest issue of ARMAX is shipping.

In this, I’m tracing the curious designation of the original pattern, the M.P.18,I, and follow the evolution of the design, debunking a number of other theories trying to explain it. I’m also tracking the production through serial numbers and try to establish that there were probably a few more of the weapons manufactured than often claimed. Check it out!

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American “Gangster Gats”: Illicit Automatic Conversions of the Winchester Model 07 Self-loading Rifle in the 1930s

My article on converted Winchester Model 07s used during the 1930s by the likes of the Dillinger Gang, Barker-Karpis Gang, Rettich Gang, etc, has now been published as the latest issue of ARMAX is shipping. You may remember ARMAX as the old journal published by the Winchester museum. The new ARMAX is still published by the Cody Firearms Museum, but it is a more international effort, with editors from ARES, the Royal Armouries, etc.

The converted Winchesters have interested me ever since I’ve seen two of them in the seized stash of the Dillinger Gang when they were arrested in 1934 in Tucson. Commonly called the “Lebman Carbines”, I think I have been able to establish in the article that they probably aren’t the work of Lebman. I’ve also found several more examples, and also found that criminals used a number of conversions to 9×19mm, complete with drum mags and suppressors!

ARMAX is currently also running a kickstarter to reissue the old ARMAX journals in a slightly new format (mainly colour photos).

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Gangster Gats: The Battle of Barrington

It was just like Jimmy Cagney. I never seen nothing like it. That fellow just kept a-coming right at them two lawmen, and they must have hit him plenty, but nothing was going to stop that fellow.

– Robert Hayford, eyewitness to the “Battle of Barrington” (1934)

In late 1934, former Dillinger-Nelson Gang member Lester “Baby Face Nelson” Gillis – “Public Enemy No. 1” at the time – was finally chased down by the Division of Investigation (the future FBI) north of Chicago, in what would become the “Battle of Barrington.”

The events that unfolded that day would put any action picture to shame – oddly, they have never been properly covered on film, despite several movie dramatizations. Neither Don Siegel’s Baby Face Nelson (1957), Mervyn Leroy’s The FBI Story (1959), Scott Levy’s Baby Face Nelson (1996), or Michael Mann’s Public Enemies (2009) make a credible attempt at depicting what actually happened – with only Leroy even trying to stick to the most basic facts.

Continue reading “Gangster Gats: The Battle of Barrington”

High-Tech: Converted Glock Machine Pistols

The Glock pistol design allows easy modification into “select fire” or “full auto only” modes. This modification can be achieved using a variety of “low tech” methods, but all rely on the disengagement of the trigger bar from the striker tail at the appropriate moment in the firing cycle.

– Steven Pavlovich, “Select Fire Device Found on Glock Firearms Seized by Western Australia Police” (2014)

 

Machine pistols – that is, selective-fire or full-automatic pistols, not submachine guns – have few real applications. Entry teams use them sometimes because they are more manoeuvrable or can be used one-handed, for example while holding an entry shield or forcing open a door. Bodyguards occasionally use them because they are easily concealed even wearing a business suit yet offer substantial firepower allowing them to disengage from an attack on their patron.

It is important to realise that machine pistol are real close-quarters weapons. Typical range is supposed to be 3 to 5 metres according to firearms instructor Timothy Mullin. For shots at longer distances, they are to be used on semiautomatic to ensure hits.

The pistol manufacturer Glock has offered a machine pistol variant based on its successful Glock 17 semiautomatic pistol since May 1987. However, the Glock 18 machine pistol (GURPS High-Tech, p. 101; Investigator Weapons 2: Modern Day, p. 63) is extremely rare, as it is only sold to government agencies, and even those have few applications for such a weapon, as outlined above.

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Continue reading “High-Tech: Converted Glock Machine Pistols”

Tactical Shooting: The Sopranos at 20

What the fuck? I got him, didn’t I? Maybe he’s stunned?

– Peter Paul “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri in The Sopranos #3.11 “Pine Barrens” (2001)

I love The Sopranos (1999-2007); it is simply one of the best telly series ever. I have already looked at a shootout in the first season. Here is another one from the third season, set 20 years ago, examined using GURPS Tactical Shooting.

Continue reading “Tactical Shooting: The Sopranos at 20”

Tactical Shooting: El Camino ‒ A Breaking Bad Movie

“Your .22, against my .45. Winner takes all.”

“Like the Wild West?”

“Yeah. Like the Wild West.”

‒ Neil Kandy and Jesse Pinkman in El Camino A Breaking Bad Movie

 

El Camino ‒ A Breaking Bad Movie (2019) is set immediately after the end of the last episode of the highly enjoyable series Breaking Bad. It features an interesting shootout which I examine here in GURPS terms, specifically using GURPS Tactical Shooting.

Shooting Dice_Tactical Shooting_Breaking Bad Continue reading “Tactical Shooting: El Camino ‒ A Breaking Bad Movie”

Investigator Weapons: The Reverend’s Guns

Although he had two bulletproof vests and two revolvers, the Rev. Martin Green, colored, pastor of a church at 4421 South State street, went to the offices of the Detective magazine yesterday and tried to purchase a Thompson machine gun [sic]. The police were notified and he was arrested. His only explanation was that he wanted to be sure he was able to protect himself and his congregation. Dr. William Hickson of the psychopathic laboratory is to examine the minister.

Chicago Daily Tribune, “Well Heeled Colored Pastor Tries to Buy Machine Gun” (20-AUG-1926)

 

The 36-year-old reverend had come to the right place – “Al” Dunlap, editor of the magazine The Detective at 1029 South Wabash Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, had a thriving side business selling steel-lined Dunrite “bullet-proof” vests (GURPS High-Tech, p. 66; Investigator Weapons 1: The 1920s and 1930s, p. 49) of his own design and make, and Thompson submachine guns in .45 ACP (GURPS High-Tech: Pulp Guns 1, pp. 28-30; Investigator Weapons 1, pp. 87-89). Dunlap distributed no less than 65 of the submachine guns during the 1920s, at least three of which ended up in the hands of gangsters like “Fred Burke” or the Touhy Gang ‒ he was not always as circumspect about his customers as in this instance. John Dillinger’s favourite Model 1921AC submachine gun had originally been supplied by Dunlap to a sheriff’s office before it was stolen by Dillinger.

Inv.Weap_.Vol_.1.Cover_.e23 Continue reading “Investigator Weapons: The Reverend’s Guns”

Tactical Shooting: Mission: Impossible ‒ Fallout

Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible ‒ Fallout (2018) is the latest instalment in the somewhat tired but still fun Mission: Impossible franchise. The highly cinematic films are prime examples for GURPS Action scenarios. Nevertheless much of the shooting is actually reasonably realistic. I take a look at a short scene in which IMF Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) shows off his gunfighting skills, and analyze how it would play out in GURPS terms, specifically using GURPS Tactical Shooting.

Shooting Dice_Tactical Shooting_Mission Impossible Fallout Continue reading “Tactical Shooting: Mission: Impossible ‒ Fallout”

Investigator Weapons: Armed at the Opera

Although by now rather old news, I’d like to mention that The Unspeakable Oath #25 contains my article “Armed at the Opera,” in which I examine props and procedures that would be useful for a successful “Night at the Opera” of your modern DELTA GREEN agents. Large parts would also be interesting reading for Armed Investigators of the Mythos in any period. And of course, there are loads of other cool articles by other fine chaps in there. Check it out!

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