Miroslav

On 10/8/2022 at 4:01 PM, mr.T said:

Ukraine war is presented as a soccer game , it litteraly being live streamed on MSM that other wise has qualms and warning labels everytime someone says a cus word.

If you don't trust amerikanskiy televizor, then turn it off.

Regardless of amerikanskiy televizor, this war is an invasion by the Russian Federation of an independent country, who is trying to get on its feet after centuries of bullying by Russia. Countries such as Poland are putting their historical grudges with the Ukrainians aside and are assisting in an admirable way.

On 9/30/2022 at 12:33 PM, Toxn said:

This one might have been LoooSeR'd already:

 

It's strange - I'm a military gear nut in many ways, but seeing the gear in action is always chilling for me. It's way too easy to imagine the panic of those tank crewmen as they frantically looked this way and that through the tiny fields of view afforded by their optics. And then they died horribly to a vehicle that they probably only caught sight the moment before it fired at them.

That is not strange. This is not a soccer game.

It's one heck of a civil war that requires a neighbouring country to mobilize 300 000 troops after already committing 100 000- 200 000 people to the conflict.

5 hours ago, Alzoc said:

 

[...]

The main risk long term is to see an increased vassalization of Russia to China.

 

[...]

 

I agree with your entire post, but mainly this point. The Putin regime is completely sabotaging any future relationship with the west and replacing it with Russia having no option other than being China's little bitch. This whole war is unnecessary and stupid. Russia could have gone in a completely other direction. Russia will now be poor and backwards for another 50 years instead of becoming a normal grown-up country. The excuses you hear when talking to Russians are so pathetic. I'm so glad the baltic states and Poland got away from Russia when they had the opportunity.

I feel a lot of sympathy for the Russian population, but I have lost respect for all of these "neutral" Russians who think they are detached from the events in Ukraine. They choose to be serfs instead of citizens.

If it works, it works. No reason to have a whole camera development program and production line when you can get the job done with off the shelf components. This camera is produced in giant numbers and I don't think Canon could keep them out of Russia no matter how hard they would try.

This morning, Russia is reportedly assaulting Lysychansk and Severodonetsk. We'll see how that goes for them.

10 hours ago, Sturgeon said:

 

Yeah that solution seems like a bandaid, and I wonder if the AM series is poised to take over once that becomes obvious.

I must say that the rifle that eventually became the AK-12 has the same vibes to it. Lots of picatinny but not sturdy enough to hold zero for magnified optics or IR lasers for night fighting. Can't see the improvement over the nicer Ak74-variants. Then again, not every new batch of standard issue rifles has to be better than the last batch. The soldiers that the Russian MoD want to equip with magnified optics or night fighting equipment can probably get their hands on other kits to have the same capability.

On 4/19/2022 at 11:55 PM, LoooSeR said:

Probably not exactly a choice. I hear that dust cover on SVDM is not good and after some use becamoes unstable platform for sights.

I'd never trust an improved top cover for a precision optic. Red dots and magnifiers and 1-4x scopes is one thing, but putting a 1 kg high magnification optic on the top cover and expecting it to be reliably precise over the course of months of field use... no. Of course, I don't have any experience with SVDM, but the picatinny top cover looks like an idea somebody had for something cool to display in the booths at military industrial trade fairs. Very good for a sales pitch in a room full of suits and neckties.

The receiver is sturdy and is connected to the barrel only through sturdy components. The side rail works well with removable scope mounts.

On 4/14/2022 at 11:42 PM, LoooSeR said:

DMRs of VDV troopers that were going to Ukraine.

 

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Very interesting to see. That's an older variant of the Kahles K312 scope but it's still a very nice optic. Those scope caps look very pragmatically attached.

What is that scope that is fifth from the bottom in the group photo? On the gun with the black handguard and the folding stock.

1 hour ago, RobertV said:

How the fuck did Putin managed to fuck up  this badly?  

I think something has gone wrong in the leadership structure. That meeting where Putin had his security officials lined up like school children and he humiliated Naryshkin looked like a parody. When I first saw it I thought it was some kind of western fake propaganda, but it was actually real. Even the video editing that was shown in western media is the same as was published on official Russian channels. In that kind of a context, good decisions are not made.

6 hours ago, Sturgeon said:

I'm not even going to post photos of Ukrainian guys larping as Nazis, if you're too lazy to find that shit yourself, I don't really care to talk to you anyway.

To quote myself:

14 hours ago, Miroslav said:

[...]

 

The most damning evidence is that there are soldiers fighting in ukrainian uniforms that celebrate nazi iconography and even some pure german operation barbarossa nazi shit. But these guys are politically irrelevant idiots! They are fighting for a slavic nation with a jewish president. They are hooligans in uniform![...]

 

Your impoliteness is uncalled for and your accusation of laziness would be better aimed at yourself.

In a discussion on an ongoing war, in which parties to the discussion are citizens of the warring nations, it really would fit you as a moderator to have an ounce more respect and grace than Eric Cartman.

Even if Russia could get the manpower, it couldn't train it to become effective soldiers fast enough to make major offensive action in Ukraine possible. Neither is it possible to replace all the destroyed equipment at record speed without some economic war miracle.

The Ukrainian Nazi discussion is almost off-topic, but I am very confused by that narrative.

Yes, Ukraine has a nationalist patriotic movement spanning large parts of society. This much is clear. But this is normal for any society. The only thing that is provocating about this is that as Ukraine self defines itself as a separate independent entity, it says that Ukraine is not Russia. Well that's not nazism.

In addition, there undoubtedly seem to exist small nazi parties. But this is true for a lot of countries. Hungary is not a nazi country. Sweden is not a nazi country. Spain is not a nazi country.

The most damning evidence is that there are soldiers fighting in ukrainian uniforms that celebrate nazi iconography and even some pure german operation barbarossa nazi shit. But these guys are politically irrelevant idiots! They are fighting for a slavic nation with a jewish president. They are hooligans in uniform! Very useful back in 2014 when ukraines regular forces had no fighting morale and no morals. They primarily want to fight. Whatever political context is not so important. I read an interview of a western (neo nazi) azov guy who traveled to join the Donbass separatists, but he ended up defecting to the azov battalion instead because he didnt like his commander in the separatists forces... Political idiot, citizen of nowhere, he just wanted to fight.

I would never want that shithead watch over a POW. But Ukraine and the Kiev government is still not a nazi regime.

I live in a European "western" democracy. Because of family, I have a lot of love for Russia. But this special operation bullshit is a major mistake by Russian leaders. I wish peace and prosperity for the Russian people.

How do you guys think it will go from here? Assuming neither side is capable of a serious offensive, who has time on their side? Eventually I guess Zelensky will be pressured to make peace to reduce civilian casualties, but the Russian occupation force must be suffering heavy attrition.

Just now, Miroslav said:

Looking at the current maps on the facts on the ground, Russia looks like it is in a position of strength for negotiations. Does Ukraine have any credible capability for purely offensive action to retake the Donbass region, Mariupol or Kherson?

I just read a news report that the Czech Republic will be donating a bunch of T-72:s to Ukraine. Couldn't find any information on what level of upgrades and modernization they have received.

Looking at the current maps on the facts on the ground, Russia looks like it is in a position of strength for negotiations. Does Ukraine have any credible capability for purely offensive action to retake the Donbass region, Mariupol or Kherson?

On 4/3/2022 at 5:22 AM, RobertV said:

Yeah, anything that claims ghost of Kiev is real.  Loses me completely.  

The article just says "Yeah he's a real guy but there are a lot of exaggerations". Hardly bombastic propaganda.

What could they do about it? Are you suggesting it would be wise to publish information on retaliatory killings of Ukrainian POW:s?

I also must note that although I am sure that there is mistreatment of POW:s on both sides, the video where a guy is summarily shooting POWs in the leg and asking who is the officer in charge seemed really sketchy.

Yeah if that is mortar fire then it's managed by one skilled mortar crew.

Poor guy crawling away. Is that half of his old buddy landing on the road at the end of the video? Gruesome stuff. I hope the survivor actually made it.

The "Dramteatr" "Drama Theater" in central Mariupol has been hit by an airstrike. Moscow denies having carried out the attack. It was used to shelter hundreds of civilians. Lots of young children.

I must say I find it very far fetched to believe that the Ukrainians would have done it either by mistake (since the theater is in central Mariupol, where there are no reports of any hostile targets for the Ukrainians to have been aiming at) or on purpose( it makes no sense that the Azov battalion would have done it, since Mariupol is still held by Ukraine, albeit surrounded). Unfortunately, I also find it hard to believe that it was hit by accident by either side, since it is a very peculiar and visible building with open space around it. Civilians have been giving interviews from the theatre, so it was probably well known that it was being used as a shelter. There are also satellite pictures floating around where it is clearly seen that the word "дети" was written in giant letters on both side of the building.

Here is a video allegedly filmed some time this week. The Source is the western friendly Nexta, but it looks very legit to me. This would be a lot of people to gather up as crisis actors...

One must conclude that this is a Russian attempt at motivating Kiev to yield in the ongoing negotiations.

A picture from yesterday

A picture from today

Hey what kind of rifles do the Ukrainians use? Some variant of ak-74 or did they ever upgrade? Do they have red dots on side mounts or dust cover mounts?

You send your nerdiest engineer to go do some theoretical calculations while you stay in the workshop and mount the barrel in a press drill and put a small hole in the barrel. If you can't get the rifle to function properly, then you put the barrel back into the press drill and use a larger drill bit. Repeat until the rifle works properly. You'll be done before the nerdy engineer.

I too look forward to a theoretical answer, but in practice, fluid dynamics are very complex and I'm sure that most gas operated firearms developed during the 20th century had a lot of empirical iterative development to get the working right. Engineers are not scientists - everything is done within the scope of a development process were results are more important than a scientific lab report. It is often the case that it is more rational to find the answer by experimentation rather than theory. Of course it helps if you have some theory to start off with when you pick your first drill bit, or when you design the gas piston and cylinder that you intend to screw on to the barrel, but my bet would be that the engineer with the press drill finds the correct answer before the engineer with the calculator.

Just now, Miroslav said:

What the fuck? I thought I was pretty obscure who keeps checking this thread for content, and the obscure guns in it, but there is actually some guy out there who is making anime schoolgirl artwork with these weird prototypes. What the fuck? This world is so strange.

By the way, I mostly lurk in this thread, but I'm really grateful to you guys who keep filling it with content. Especially the русский stuff.

And also, I thought I was quite the wannabe who keeps diving deeping into knowledge about military equipment that I'll never work with, but the Japanese can hardly own a knife without asking permission for it first. They are so irrelevant to gun culture, and gun culture should be so irrelevant to them. Yet here we are. There is Japanese fan fiction about Obobob.

10 hours ago, LoooSeR said:

   And another day dedicated to one of most notorious weirdo gun designers/modifiers in current days in Russia - the infamous Obobob.

 

 

https://vk.com/@sofa_expert-ak-74mb

   And here is AK-74MB. Inside it is just stock 74, all changes are bolt on stuff:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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What the fuck? I thought I was pretty obscure who keeps checking this thread for content, and the obscure guns in it, but there is actually some guy out there who is making anime schoolgirl artwork with these weird prototypes. What the fuck? This world is so strange.

By the way, I mostly lurk in this thread, but I'm really grateful to you guys who keep filling it with content. Especially the русский stuff.

So my mind wandered off the other day and I started thinking about bolt carriers, recoil springs and caliber conversions. I feel kind of ignorant for not getting this completely straight, but I'm wondering if I'm missing something.

Let's say you'd have an AR-style rifle chambered in .308, and you'd convert it to .223 with a swap of the bolt head and the upper receiver. Let's ignore the magazine issue for this discussion. I'd imagine that the optimal bolt carrier velocity is the same regardless of cartridge (within some reasonable limit). Thus it should be perfectly possible to compensate for the new cartridge only by changing the gas port location or size, and leaving the same bolt carrier mass, the same bolt head mass, the same recoil spring and buffer in there. 
 

For some reason I've always had it in my head that a larger cartridge requires a heavier bolt carrier, but I just realized that that's not right. A larger cartridge requires more space on the bolt face, more space in the receiver, and a sturdier lockup. This tends to lead to a heavier bolt carrier group, but there is no need for a heavier bolt carrier per se. Is my understanding correct? Of course there is less volume to work with when running a gas system on a .223 versus having a larger cartridge, but it should be perfectly possible to fiddle with the gas port size and location to compensate. I could also imagine the larger surface area of the larger cartridges to increase friction during primary extraction, but the difference between different calibers should be negligible compared to the difference between dirty ammo and slightly oily ammo.

The Saiga rifles use the same bolt carrier and virtually the same bolt for all of the difference cartridges.

The Knights Armament SR-25 uses the same springs and buffer as the M16a2 (although they have a heavier carrier and had some issues)

The DPMS genII small frame .308 rifles use the same buffers and springs as the 5.56 rifles.

Bonus: Check out this thread from arfcom on bolt carrier velocity
https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/for_AR_fans_and_engineering_nerds__I_calculated_the_bolt_carrier_velocity_profile_for_an_AR_10/5-1150725/

If you look at the difference in manufacturing costs, I think Sturgeon does have a good point. The tubing or operating rods or whatever needed for the gas system are rarely very expensive parts. I'd guess that the difference in costs associated to the bolt head and barrel extension is larger than the entire cost of small parts for the gas system. I could be wrong.

Also, there's the development hurdle of designing a new rifle. If you're trying to invent a roller delayed blowback, as far as I understand, you'd have to experiment with different angles on pieces that are made from hardened steel. I might be overestimating the amount of work to do that, but my spontaneous estimation is that that would be way more time consuming than modifying an SVT-40 (AR-18) gas system by moving the gas port up and down the barrel and changing its size. All you really need to do that is a serious drill and a way to plug your old hole...