Pilot error led to strafing of SUV

Think you had a bad day?  It won’t seem so once you read this.

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah — An F-16 pilot misidentified a rented sport utility vehicle when he blasted it with a 20mm cannon during a late-night training exercise in April, according to an Air Force investigation.

Filed under: Guns, Military

A Testosterone Weekend

Real men like guns,

Tom likes guns…

Tom is a real man.

So, when he asked me to go shooting today, I had to say yes.  Believe it or not after 19 years, this is only the second time I’ve ever fired a weapon while not in uniform.  Tom’s got a great little assortment of testosterone raising devices, the photo below is what I believe he calls a P90 or PS90 (Civilian version) and the pistol is an FN Five-Seven.

The P90 is a compact submachine gun developed and manufactured by Fabrique Nationale de Herstal (FN Herstal). It has an unusual bullpup configuration and a 50-round magazine that sits on top of the firearm, parallel to the barrel which results in a short external barrel. It arguably started a new class of personal defense weapons (PDWs) intended to defeat body armor with small-caliber, high-velocity bullets. It was soon joined by the Heckler & Koch MP7 chambered for a similar cartridge. From Wikipedia.

Okay, aside from all that technical lingo, all I know is it was easy to fire and not very loud.  I wasn’t quite sure how to handle it after using an M-16A2 for the last 18 years.  The P90 has quite a distinctive look, but was pretty easy to handle.  Tom hasn’t gotten the sites worked out quite yet, so I was hitting high right, but still getting a very tight shot group. 

The HK was amazingly light at 760 grams (26.808 oz) loaded.  The only other sidearm I’ve fired is the standard Army issue 9mm Beretta, whose weight is 975.22 grams (34.4 oz) or almost a half-pound heavier.

The Five-seveN pistol was designed by FN company (Belgium) as a complimentary sidearm for the P90 submachine-gun. The P90 and Five-seveN share the same ammunition, the 5.7×28mm SS190 cartridge. The SS190 ammunition looks like scaled down 5.56mm NATO round and boosts the 2.02 gramm (31 grains) pointed steel and aluminum core bullet to the muzzle velocity of 650 meters per second (ca. 2130 fps) from the pistol barrel. The key idea behind that ammunition and weapons is to provide good penetration against personnel, protected by modern body armour, while keeping weapons’ weight, dimensions and recoil at the reasonable levels.

Once I got over the initial hesitation and got used to the incredibly light feel and kick, I was able to again nail down a good shot group.  Had a couple stray shots, but only at the beginning while I was trying to figure out which was my dominant eye.  No, I don’t close one eye when I shoot, but wasn’t sure where my focus was coming from.

Had lot’s of fun, put several hundred rounds down the range and now I’m ready to go drink beer and eat some red meat!

Filed under: Fun, Guns, Military, Thoughts