Friday, December 14, 2012

The M1 Garand

Shooting guns is fun. But, just shooting any ordinary gun is just ordinary. To really live, in the firearm world at least, you need to shoot guns with character, guns with history. One of these guns is the famous or infamous M1 Garand.
 

The M1 Garand was an 8 shot clip fed semi-automatic assault rifle. 
It was issued to troops during WWII and was instantly favored by the users. They weren't just favored by the U.S troops, but were also envied by German soldiers as well. They would pick up dropped Garands whenever they had the chance to replace their outdated Kar98k. 
The M1 Garand shoots a 30.06 bullet.


Although ahead of its time, there was one minor setback in it. During combat, when a soldier ran out of ammo, the clip would be ejected and distinctive "ping" would be heard. The Germans learned from this and as soon as they heard that "ping", they would pop out and shoot. While this was a disadvantage for the U.S. Soldiers, they also used it to their advantage. While a fellow soldier was shooting, another soldier would throw an empty clip onto a rock to make that distinctive "ping", which indicated to a German soldier that it was safe to shoot. But indeed, it was not safe for the German soldiers.

The first time i shot this gun, i was still quite smaller than i am today and the recoil was quite horrendous. The most recent time i have shot this gun, i had some exciting fun. This gun is very loud, so loud in fact that you can feel the "boom" in your chest. It is also extremely accurate. For me, i was hitting a helmet at around 100 yards shooting every other second. When we went down range and looked at the metal helmet, it was completely shredded. If you never have shot a Garand, than you are really missing out because it is a load of fun (with expense to your wallet of course). Guns like these just aren't around anymore so find one while you can.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Schindler's List



If you have ever been interested in WWII, but especially the disasters of the Holocaust, then you will definitely love Schindler's List. This inspiring movie takes place in Nazi Germany during and before WWII. It display's the life of Oskar Schindler and what his purpose of life was. Basically he first started out as a businessman selling enamelware and needed workers for his business, so, being very resourceful, he recruited many Jewish people that were meant to be into concentration camps. At first, Schindler did not realize what was taking place, but when he did, he fought for all his workers and recruited as many as he could. Saving these Jews was not free however, Oskar Schindler was a very wealthy man but he spent his entire fortune to save these desperate people. In the movie, Liam Neeson played as Oskar Schindler, who i think did a phenomenal job. This movie was quite a long movie, but it was definitely worth watching it. If you have not seen this movie, it should definitely be on your watch list. This movie taught me some important information on how anyone can make a difference. 1,200. That is how many lives this man saved during the Holocaust. Now i know you are thinking "Well that's not a lot compared to the 6 million deaths", but, to have hid that many people in plain sight is extraordinary. Considering it was hard to hide just a few people, this man did the unthinkable. The man that directed this film was Steven Spielberg, a Jew himself was inspired to make this film and he truly did an awesome job.

Oskar Schindler:

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

The Hobbit

Now, a movie that I am looking forward to is The Hobbit. Even though this movie has not come out yet, I'm almost positive it will be a good one, mainly because it is related the LOTR series. For me, I have been waiting for this movie to come out for a long time, ever since I read the book in summer of 2010. This movie's premiere date is on December 15. I plan to see this movie sometime during my Christmas break (probably sometime between the 24th and the 28th). From what I can see from the trailer, Gandalf is the same actor from the LOTR, but Bilbo is not. This is reasonably understandable because The Hobbit took place some time before the LOTR and Bilbo probably looked considerably different because of the effect the Ring had on him. The actor playing Bilbo Baggins is Martin Freeman. As you can see the two actors of Bilbo look considerably different.
< This is Ian Holm from the LOTR.














^ This is Martin Freeman from upcoming movie The Hobbit.







A lot of people that are a fan of the book are probably thinking "Well, the movie is not going to be as good as the book." Although, in a lot cases this is very true, I still think it is worth it to see the movie because you can compare your imagination with that of the director's.