A Monday Round-Up of...Stuff

Mondays after a long holiday weekend are tough, to be sure. Stumbling around the Internet this morning, the first thing that caught my eye was from Wyn Boniface that the Fed, in the acronym of the FBI, has decided that they need some really big iron, a couple of Anzio Ironworks mag-fed 20mm rifles, with suppressors, of course. From The Firearms Blog:

Anzio's rifles are chambered for the 20x102mm Vulcan cartridge. When loaded with a non-explosize 1543 grain projectile the round can achieve 3395 fps, generating 39500 ft/lbs of muzzle energy (compared to 14,000 ft/lbs of the .50 BMG).

At longer ranges the relatively poor ballistic coefficient of these large rounds will cause a significant decrease in energy but when used with high explosive ammunition this is not a problem as the on-target kinetic energy is less important than the chemical energy contained in the warhead.

You've seen these bad boys on SHOOTING GALLERY, of course. I figure the Fed is getting ready for either the rising militia menace and/or determining the last word on the difference between cover and concealment.

My friend Jeff Quinn over at GunBlast has an excellent review of the civilian SCAR 16, with this conclusion:

This SCAR 16s is a target rifle, disguised as a fighting rifle. Accuracy was amazing, using Wolf Gold Match and Buffalo Bore match ammo, and was also very, very good using Lake City 1990 manufacture military ball ammo. This is a half-minute-of-angle rifle. I only have experience with this one sample, but if they all shoot like this, it is an extremely accurate design. I realize that most soldiers and Marines do not need a rifle that is match-accurate, but it certainly does no harm, and makes the rifle viable as a dedicated marksman’s rifle as well. With the SCAR now being in service with U.S. troops, it should qualify the rifle for use in NRA sanctioned service rifle matches as well.

With the MSRP drifting down to a relatively sane $2500 or so, the SCARS should be moving into the retail pipeline pretty quickly.

Sig Sauer is ratcheting up promotion on their lagging 250 platform with a pretty neat 2-for-1 deal:

You can now get complete out-of-the-box versatility with the SIG SAUER P250 2SUM. This offer provides you with a full-size P250, ideal for duty, home defense or sport, and all the components to rapidly convert it to the P250 Subcompact, a perfect conceal carry gun.

The P250 is a technological tour-de-force — the "gun" part of the gun is a stainless steel cradle riding in the polymer frame, allowing a person to move the cradle from frame to frame to create a mission-specific complete firearm. I shot the gun a lot in the early stages and it was easily one of the most ergonomic, easy-to-shoot service pistols I'd ever handled. The changeover from grip module to grip module was so simple and bulletproof that even I could do it. The drawback to the system is that after you bought a full-sized 250 and a second grip module and a shorter barrel and slide to convert from a full-size service pistol to a concealed carry gun, you'd ponied up enough cash to buy a couple of Glocks. The new 2SUM package addresses that issue with a price break.

Over the holiday I've been reading a totally fascinating book, Inside of a Dog — What Dogs See, Smell and Know, by Alexanda Horowitz. When you live in a house with a strange tailless cat who's convinced he's a dog, 2 conniving macaws, a gray parrot who's pretty sure he's the King of the World and Alf the Wonder Beagle, you need all the inside information you can get.