Home Again Home Again...

...and brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. It's already below zero here at the Secret Hidden Bunker, and by morning we anticipate hell actually freezing over. Break out the ice skates!

And speaking of hell freezing over, H-K has nabbed the squad automatic weapon contract for the Marines with a modified 416 piston gun. The Firearms Blog has the scoop:

The H&K entry was a modified version of their HK416 piston-operated AR-15 rifle. Unlike the Colt and FN entries, it is said to fire only from a closed bolt. Given the lack of an open-bolt fire mode I had presumed it was the least likely choice for an automatic rifle.

For those of you frothing at the mouth (hmmmmm...I might be one of those frothers) for a 7.62/.308 semi with magazines that don't require a home mortgage to purchase, I note that JD Machine now has 7.62 X 51 uppers that will work with the CMMG 7.62 lowers designed for the ultracheap H-K G3 magazines. The first time I saw the proto CMMG lowers earlier this year, a veritable light bulb went off in my head...the big drawback to so many of the 7.62 AR-based platforms has been proprietary magazines at a pretty penny. OTOH, I've seen G3 20-rounders for less than $3 apiece! One of my projects for 2010 is a nice .308 built on the CMMG G3 lower, and the JD upper looks like the bee's knees.