'Moby-Dick' and Muskets For Maori:

As a kid - did you read Melville's 'MOBY-DICK' book about whaling and the white whale .. or maybe watch one of the several movie versions? - It's a great old book and it's worth remembering that it was whalers who brought their ships and rough ways to "clean-green" New Zealand.

The Moby-Dick book's hero Ishmael becomes great friends with a tattooed South Seas warrior "Queequeg" ..  this character is said to be based on a historic Maori chief Te Pehi Kupe .. who I'd like to introduce:

Te Pehi Kupe is thought to have been born around 1795 at Kawhia - and grew-up as a warrior-chief involved in much inter-tribal warring.

Note: The first two whaling ships recorded to visit NZ were in 1791 - having carried convicts out from UK to Australia first.

- Jump forward around 30 years to 26 February 1824 when the sailing ship URANIA under a Captain Reynolds was becalmed in the Cook Straight. - Te Pehi Kupe had already rightly decided that he urgently needed more muskets to help with the family business of attacking and killing other tribe's men - and enslaving their whanau.

- When the British ship was spotted Te Pehi directed three war canoes to paddle him out and leaped naked aboard on a determined shopping expedition .. "muskets or die".

The Captain must have been a patient sort of joker and denied that he had any spare muskets .. so when TPK said "all right then I'll go to England with you and get some from King George" they tried to throw him over the side back to his wakas .. but he doggedly wouldn't let go .. then the wind returned so the ship moved off with him on board - eventually voyaging all the way to England where he indeed did meet George IV.

Link: To the captains report: http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-McN01Hist-t1-b10-d18.html

This is a well recorded story - Te Pehi stayed at Captain Reynolds home for months and became a well known "tamed savage" personality - learned horse riding and collected a lot of gifts but not many guns. -  On 6 October 1825 he left England on The THAMES - returning to New Zealand via Sydney. In Australia he traded most of his possessions for muskets, powder & ball and on arriving home again set about invading and attempted a "hostile take-over bid" of South Island tribes.

- Just a note to add some 'time scale' - around the same time TPK was in England trying to get his muskets - Stephenson's Rocket was built (1829) and demonstrated there as the worlds first passenger railway.

 Now .. not every story has a happy ending ..

Back in New Zealand the South Island Maori tribe Ngai Tahu proved to be stronger & more devious than these Northern invaders .. so sad to report Te Pehi Kupe came to a bad ending in 1828 .. jointed & cooked with potatoes to provide a high calorie dinner for the Kaiapoi* pa locals - and his bones were used to make fishing hooks.

* The name of the Canterbury fortified village (pa) 'Kaiapoi' comes from the need for kai (food) to be brought-in - poi.

There is a moral here for those who seek fame, wealth, and power by use of arms - his last words are recorded as  'Don't give it to the god, but to the Kaka-kura'. - but sadly no-one seems to know what that means.

Link to Te Pehi Kupe's full story (- Melville would have known of this warrior and later added him into Moby-Dick as "Queequeg" ):

 https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1t55/te-pehi-kupe/print

- One other Maori leader was much more successful in getting muskets from George IV - Hongi Hika of Ngapui did much better four years earlier in 1820 .. but he also came to a premature and permanent ending  .. Link:

https://flicense.blogspot.com/2014/04/some-early-new-zealand-firearms.html

Marty K.

Slimy Anti-Gun Politics - A Waste Of Money:

When our nice young New Zealand Leader Jacinda announced a hurried BAN on semi-auto 'weapons' - very few people would have opposed her move. We all were so horrified and shocked by the vicious murders in Christchurch .. and even those of the 250,000 licensed shooters who lawfully owned semi-autos hesitated to argue against this decisive political move.

This was perceived by the grieving 'kiwis' as 'slamming the door' on such killings. - A simple change to the law supposed to fix a problem for good ..

But then the facts begin to diverge from that emotional FIX.

- The 'Buy-Back' scheme that developed only offers part payment of prohibited item's value.
- Imposed magazine capacity limitations involve also confiscating traditional "cowboy" lever-action guns.
- A Ban or prohibition of many cartridge types,
- Cancelling the whole 'E' category of gun licence,
- Licensed Collectors will have to lock their valuables at their home address .. with action parts now removed to another separately licensed address.
- Licence duration halved to only five years
- Overseas visitors now to be refused firearm licenses
- But NZ Police have issued 639 Firearms Licences to convicted criminals in one decade.
- more shooting related items such as optical sights also now subject to Import Permit.
- All firearms to be REGISTERED individually .. a system previously abandoned by Police as unworkable & inaccurate.

A simple "Semi-Auto Ban" has turned into an extended list of new costly prohibitions, restrictions and impositions on law abiding licence holders - as some sort of reaction to a terrible crime .. which licensed NZ firearms owners did not commit.

Police spokespersons claim that they have no idea how many semi-autos have been imported or where they are .. despite EVERY such IMPORT requiring a police import permit for decades .. That doesn't sound very hopeful for the accuracy of the new register does it?

Plus it hardly needs to be repeated .. but the violent criminals of New Zealand - won't be queuing-up to surrender their guns .. and don't have firearms licences anyway.

Guns had to be registered since the 1860 Arms Act - BUT in 1967 police found that 66% of the register entries were inaccurate and out of date.  Police thought that the register was largely useless. 

- The 1983 Arms Act abandoned registration for most long guns, as Parliament felt it was prohibitively expensive and not particularly useful.

Honest fact-based laws are how every nation should be controlled .. but punitive & useless restrictions based on lies and nonsense will risk non-compliance - while giving the criminal gang members something else to laugh at.

Our modern life increasingly seems to be directed by marketing and 'public relations' techniques - where policies and products are presented in a way to seem attractive to as many folk as possible .. while the bits that don't taste nice or that may hurt you are not mentioned & are kept out of sight until later.
Reading "the small print" has become very important lately - with the cheats and confidence tricksters joining other scammers & thieves circling like sharks around a dying whale. - "The Devil is in the detail."

- Just how we ordinary people can oppose such attacks on our freedoms, rights (& earnings) is hard to say .. but a first move is to group together and organize - as there is always strength in numbers.
Marty K.

https://www.colfo.org.nz/join-colfo/9-latest-news/185-fair-and-reasonable.html

BLUE DANUBE, RED BEARD & WE-177 - Britains First NUKES & How To Toss Them::

.. And YES - 'bomb tossing' IS something like "dwarf tossing" - would you believe?

I totally 'accidentally' came across a long video of three hardy souls taking a look at RAF BARNHAM in Suffolk - where nuclear weapons used to be worked-on & stored back in the fifties & sixties ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W9kW7yKKbI

Blue Danube - Britain's First Nuclear Bomb;

(This old redundant military site looks like a Soviet internment camp complete with watch towers & patrol dog kennels).

This video lead me on to finding-out more about:

Blue Danube: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Danube_%28nuclear_weapon%29

Red Beard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Beard_%28nuclear_weapon%29

Red Beard Nuclear Bomb (Mk 2 ?)

and WE-177:  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WE.177

- These three designs of nukes were dropped from fixed wing aircraft & served as Britain's 'Nuclear Deterrent' from the 1950s right-up to 1998.

Looking back at them - these Weapons Of Mass Destruction were scarily crude but ingenious devices and we are lucky that the accidents that have occurred were survived.

It surely is re-assuring that Governments worldwide have in mind the best interests of their populations at all times .. such as when they BAN civilian firearms and deny the right of self-defense.

.. One thing leads to another and if you've got spare time you might follow on by reading about "TOSS BOMBING" or "LOFT BOMBING" techniques & even into "Retarded" toss bombing 😈😈

Over The Shoulder Bomb Release:

These government ideas & techniques were TOP SECRET in their day .. but you might be forgiven for sneering at them .. IF they weren't so deadly. - I was once quietly told about a then new UK project making anti-personnel (anti-children) mines that were specifically made to look like kids colorful balls
 - but the really evil trick was that after these had done their damage to the peasant's future - you then scattered millions of empty plastic balls with a few live ones all over the area to really fuck-up the country on the cheap.
Marty K.

Two Barrel 'THUNDERSTRUCK' Revolver Delivering?

- Soon?
Standard Manufacturing showed their double-barreled revolver in .22" Magnum at the last Shot Show .. a very successful TEASE for sure, considering that they only now have announced that they have started deliveries on July 11.

Have you or anyone else actually squeezed one of these in their hand yet?

- Surely with all the gun writers excitedly holding cartons of WMR ammo in their hot'n'sweaty soft little hands - the "THUNDERSTRUCK" sales team will have rushed prime examples by courier for firing assessments?

- Maybe not .. It's more than two weeks now - and I've just noticed an 'opening statement' on their Standard Manufacturing web site:

"ATTENTION: S333 Thunderstruck™ orders will take 4-6 weeks to ship due to overwhelming demand!" 

Hmm - the S333 is being offered at $369 rrp  - surely it would be a good marketing effort if they presented these late starters at $333 to match the designated number?

I'm getting a horrible empty feeling anticipating that this rare specimen of original thinking is going to be an unreliable poorly made Dud .. and I've been so hoping for months that a wee something new is going to light-up the US gun scene ..

There's still a small chance.

Marty K.
Hi Marty

I cannot imagine a more unpleasant revolver.  I once owned a 4” S&W Model 18 in .22 MRF and it was very very loud with a large muzzle blast.  I put less than 50 rounds through it and sold it 6 hours after I bought it!  The Thunderstruck would just be plain nasty!

Cheers

Rod

- yeah .. my guess is all flash & roar without much velocity - it should scare the horses eh.. probably it could work better in .22" LR .. maybe. 

Time will tell,

Cheers,

martyk

'Cap and Ball' Percussion Pistols:

Before I start this piece .. Here's a quote from a guy John Farnam (via Greg Ellifritz from a post about 'Criminal Motivation' .. linked below):

RULES OF STUPID.

“Don’t go stupid places. Don’t hang out with stupid people. Don’t do stupid things.”

I like it - Link (to read later):
https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/criminal-motivation?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ActiveResponseTraining+%28Active+Response+Training%29

__________________________

Original "cap'n'ball" percussion pistols will likely cost good money to buy .. but you should be able to find reproductions of some types -  that may be legal to have in your locality.

The 'Percussion System' - using copper percussion caps to reliably fire a charge of gun powder - dates from around 1820 and was developed using freshly discovered chemicals that explode by impact .. There were various other mechanical cap systems tried including "discs", "pills" - and "tapes" (these were very much like my childhood toy 'Cap Guns'.)

Modern Percussion Caps.

Prior to the percussion cap - the flintlocks ruled for centuries and technically were also a 'percussion' technique - as they used hard flint stone to strike off a shower of white hot steel onto the gunpowder. - Before that - burning or smoldering fuses or red-hot iron pokers managed to mostly set-off the  BANG  and scare the horses.

A Belgian Two Barrel Percussion Pistol.

One impediment to shooting cap & ball may be that most original guns will be in poor condition from corrosion and wear - while those remaining in good working order may be too valuable to risk by shooting.

The percussion cap system had a clear run of around 46 years - until clever men modified it for use in self contained metallic cartridges & of-course it continues to be the way that all modern rifles, shotguns and pistols using 'cartridges' are fired today ..

A "MORMON AVENGER" .36" Caliber Cap'n'Ball Revolver (1861 Colt Navy).

- Pepper-Box Percussion Pistols were very popular and saw much use in early America ..

Cogswell Bar Hammer Double-Action Pepper Box "Revolver'.
(Earlier 'Pepperboxes' In The 1790s Were Flintlocks)

Development of self-contained metallic cartridges - one neat package containing bullet, powder and primer ended the "percussion era" - by making another giant step forward .. but this didn't change the effectiveness and utility of these earlier pattern firearms - & pioneers and hunters tend to be a cautious lot, slow to change:

Liegoise Dueling Pistols - Often Deadly.

The Berdan Primer for metal cartridges was patented March 1866 - and The Boxer Primer in England just 7 months later in October 1866.

Berdan (twin hole) Versus Boxer (with single hole).
(Sectioned Cases)

But a modern cap & ball percussion gun can still make for hours of effective shooting ..

Plenty of Different Forms of "Front-Stuffer - Cap'n'Balls"

My Ruger Old Army revolver demonstrates how 'black-powder' can be very forgiving and fun while offering gentle plinking load options - up to potent booming power levels.

Loading and firing 'Front Stuffers' can be very relaxing and entertaining - while the later stripping and scrubbing with boiling water and detergents and careful oiling can add to the experience by teaching discipline & good habits. 😍

Our New Zealand government has announced new ammunition restrictions Banning various types like sabot, duplex, tracer, exploding etc - but shooters using muzzle-loading guns will continue unaffected by these pointless limitations.

Marty K.

PATRIOT Pistol (Muzzle Loading 'Nitro' Powder):

When they "BANNED" handguns in Britain - there were a few "gaps" and exceptions left in place that did let the genuine enthusiast target pistol shooter pretend he was still active.

Now I'm not talking about how the BAN only affects us civilian law-abiding folk - while exempting various law-enforcement, military personnel and all the criminal nutters who carry guns & knives all the time.

- What I'm referring to is that even in UK they can still own & use low powered air pistols and may be certified for specially adapted and lengthened LONG HANDGUNS that have extended barrels and some kind of rearwards pointing 'stock' that seems to satisfy the law makers .. BUT they can still get permits for MUZZLE LOADING PISTOLS.

This indicates to me that various black-powder replicas from Uberti, Pedersoli will be usable there .. and that the Ruger Old Army 'modern' revolvers will be in demand in UK.
 - "Gawd" knows how they manage to import them.

Now I've also seen that there are current production revolvers being converted to use muzzle-loading primer ignited smokeless powder charges behind wad-cutter bullets. - Anyway I'm talking about a 'harmonica' design pistol called either the ZYLAB or Morovian PATRIOT pistol.

- Don't look now .. but later .. & you'll find a bit of youtube video showing how to load this strange "UK Friendly" Harmonica pistol ..
https://flicense.blogspot.com/2014/07/british-firearms-law-as-seen-from-new.html

- if you read the text of this post FROM FIVE YEARS AGO you'll find that I told you so back then that we were going to get hammered with a BAN (Prohibitions) as soon as another shooting 'incident' tragedy came to be.

The amusing thing I've found from my researching this "British" Patriot Pistol is that while I can't get much solid fact about it's status .. there seems to be a wide choice of other firearms that use the name "PATRIOT" to tickle the erotic zones of flag saluting yee-haws in various god-fearing states.

There is a Thompson Contender PATRIOT:

A Bond Arms PATRIOT

a Charter Arms PATRIOT

a Sota Arms PATRIOT

a Woodsman Arms PATRIOT

.. And doubtless many other special editions variously decorated with the 'Stars & Stripes'

But if any of you poms can send me current info about that harmonica muzzle-loading target pistol I'd be rapt.

One good article about it is here: http://westernshootingsupplies.com/page39.htm

Note: There are safety issues with using smokeless 'nitro' powder in muzzle loading firearms. Smokeless powder can be VERY dangerous when even slightly over-charged .. whereas "black-powder" is generally very forgiving. - A double charge of black-powder dropped into a chamber will often only result in a louder boom and a bit more recoil .. but do the same with modern smokeless propellant and you'll destroy the gun and risk serious injury.

Marty K.

Stop Press: Ruger announce 'FLAGGED RUGERS':

Shelf Life Of Military Bombs - Expired Stock Etc.:

The shelf life of modern ordnance BOMBS, MISSILES, & WARHEADS is obviously variable.

The nature of the materials - their storage conditions - and their 'redundancy' - following advances in technology is hard for a civilian to calculate .. BUT all munitions will deteriorate and the more complex their construction - surely the shorter their useful storage life.

HAROP Loitering Munition.

"Old time" ammunition such as rifle rounds in sealed metal containers - WWI .303" rounds for British Lee-Enfields dating from 1914(ish) - may well still be usable as they are made of brass and nickle permanent materials while the internal chemicals are in a dark sealed environment .. but you'd need to be wary of crystalline changes weakening their metallurgy.

The wise would no-way pull the pin on an old Mills Bomb and keep it while slowly counting to ten ..

But in my experience modern stuff such as cluster-bombs use many plastic components internally - and while I fully accept the strength of these engineering polymers is great .. chemical deterioration may be a factor over time.

I read opinions suggesting 10 years, 15 years, 20 & 25 years as the shelf life for various "smart bombs" -  "precision guided munitions" and AGMs, or Air-to-Ground Missiles.

An issue is in defining what might be active service life - as the regular maintenance - for example of nuclear warheads will extend this by replacement of tritium enhancer gases and renewal of lithium deuteride, and brittle neutron reflectors etc. - but inside the warhead casing there will be inevitable exposure to radioactive decay and heating.

I looked for any relationship to show a periodic disposal of use-by-dated munitions like: Gulf War / Desert Storm .. 1990 .. Iraq .. 2003 - but there are just so many interventions listed as to suggest that a more regular & routine "turnover of old stock" is happening continuously:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_military_operations

- There's been x23 "US Interventions" listed since 2010 .. & x19 between 2000-2009 alone.

Disposal of cut price old stock in the Black Friday Christmas Sales doesn't seem to be needed ...

Marty K.