As a former USN Gunners Mate (so qualified a bit more than most perhaps) I agree with most but not all or not all 100% of this, as noted. > > > a) You will never really know if you can pull the trigger when needed as needed until you must. Being mentaly prepared will help though. > b) Meanwhile, the other guy will be shooting at you > This should always be taken as a given. > c) A 50-caliber rifle is a piece of fine, complex machinery that > requires constant maintenance.
A bolt action .50 BMG sniper rifle is not nearly as complex as a .50 BMG what was it, the M-2 model machine gun? (been more than a few years). It is really fairly easy to take care of such a weapon as a .50 BMG chambered bolt action sniper rifle even for a novice. Maintenance is still critical, but it is not by any means onerous. Of course you wouldn't want to leave it out in the weather for any period of time, and anyway there is no need to have it 'deck mounted' in the sense of being mounted onto a permanently attached pedestal or such. Most if not all of them are light enough to be moved from below when needed. A couple of dedicated shooting rests would be enough, but truth be told this really big rifle would not be optimum on a small boat, something more in line might be a bolt action chambered for .300 Mag. or even something like the oft neglected 6.5 X 55 Swede, which is good out to around 1000 yds against light targets, then maybe a Mini 14 or the like with extended magazines for closer ranges backed up by the Tarus "Judge in .410 shotgun/45 for last resort. > > d) When I was actvely teaching pistol-based self-defense, we recommended > putting 1,000 rounds down the pipe *monthly* for anyone who wanted to > stay at the top of the game. For home defense you don't need to be at the 'top of your game'. Even after all these years I am sure my hand and eyes know how to use my 1911A1 sufficiently well. I don't think I would be facing more than one or at most a few intruders at a time and would not need the quick discrimination that Police for example must often use, and neither do I think this would be needed in defending against obvious pirates. And I would add none of us on any Security Force or Landing Party, Away Team, or even Special Ops burned through that much ammo monthly as a normal thing that "I" know about. When I was in a position to shoot as much .45 ACP ammo as I wanted I might have gone through 200 rounds a week. Of course I wasn't in competition, I know those who were might use the amount mentioned, but you don't need to go through that much to be throughly capable of defending yourself. It is better to be able to try to use the weapon properly as needed when needed in the real world you live in than to try to be the fastest or even necessarily the most accurate shot on paper or silhouettes. I might add, NEVER pull it into view until you are very sure it may well be needed in an instant or you believe an approaching threat that could remove your options is drawing near, even with this last while keeping it in hand try to keep it out of sight if you can do so. Telling your enemy what you might do or be capable of is not good practice. > e) In addition to using a firearm well, you would now _also_ need to > learn to use a deck-mounted weapon. One that fires a single round when > you squeeze the trigger, so you won't be able to walk your fire onto the > target. One that you'd be using in possibly rough seas - while your boat > is squirelling around, pitching, rolling, yawing, and heaving. > I would not use a "deck mounted" weapon, (although the USN 20MM "chain gun" would make you nearly invulnerable to small craft attacks if you could get one and mount it! <G> But talk about ammo costs!) A good bolt action rifle with a decent scope is great. Even iron sights will do the job if your eyes are not as old and terrible as mine are. An iron sighted rifle is good to 6-700 yds or so for many folks. (Saw a you tube video of a guy firing a Sharps 45-70 in Belgium I think it was, iron sights at over 1K yds, three shots three hits two ft dia, target, awesome.) One advantage of firing weapons at sea is that you can almost always track the fall of the last round fired if it doesn't strike the target, by watching and seeing where it impacts the water. (In case it does strike the target watch for possible flying debris or bullet fragments hitting the water.) So it is pretty easy to correct for range or 'lead'. Rough seas are not as much of a problem as you might think with good trigger control. I used to reliably sink 55 gallon barrels the ship threw over the side as targets, sometimes out to 700 yds or so, with an M-14 shooting from sandbags on deck even in rough weather with the ship rolling and pitching, and a big ship going slow can move around a lot more than most realize. I have also fired at targets towed by (long) cable attached to small boats with an M-14 from a ships deck, and once you get some practice to know how much 'lead' to allow for it is not hard to get hits. I felt pretty confident I could at least hit people and engines on an approaching small boat out to several hundred yards, maybe 5-700 in good conditions, with enough rounds to disable the boat and or kill many or all the crew. Of course if they starting buzzing rounds around my sandbags it would make things more dicey, but I have been in the situation of having been shot at more than once, and have found for me at least, the nervousness comes after the fact. No I'm not a Rambo, just that the training takes over, and you get too busy to be scared. One reason for the training I guess! I have done similar shots to the 55 Gal. barrels with my 6.5 X 55 Mauser from the deck of my sailboat so I know it can be done with a good rifle with no problem. > Upshot: forget it. Unless you *are* Rambo. > I would agree that some training and experience are necessary but it is eminently do-able to acquire the ability to use modern small arms in a proficient enough manner to be able to do serious harm to would be boarders. Whether or not that would be enough to stop them is another question. I think in most cases it would be if you had enough of a range advantage to begin with, not so hard if they have only AK-47's, but. Also another very critical question about opening up on targets with the use of long range rifles is whether or not they can be ID'd with enough assurance that one would feel confident that you were about to defend yourself against potential murders rather than murder some innocent people. > > > 1) Barely acceptable annoyance. This is where they get to say, "oh, > right - you're an *American*...", impound your weapon and ammunition > until the very last moment before you leave, and possibly "lose" it in > the process (to whom, exactly, are you going to complain, and why would > you expect anything resembling justice?) Oh, and PLEASE don't try to > hide it: if they catch you, you'll lose your boat *and* you'll go to > jail. _And_ the US consul will laugh at your relatives' attempts to get > you out, since you actually and knowingly broke the law. > Yep, and this is the part that gets almost insurmountable in my opinion. > 2) Illegal as hell. The fact that you even entered their waters with > firearms makes you a criminal, and the absolutely best case that you can > expect is confiscation and being told to leave their country NOW. The > worst, or even the average case, I'll leave to your imagination. > Again 100% right. > Last of all - at least last in my list here, although far from last in > the list of applicable problems - given that a modern 50-cal rifle costs > in the range of $10k or so (read "about 200 times the annual income of > the average customs official"), who here would bet on the rectitude of > every single official in every single country that you'll enter? Not > me. > Good point although you can get them used (read;needs new barrel) far cheaper than that 10K. > The US is not the rest of the world, and guns are one of the > largest distinctions in that difference. > For now. Maybe not much longer. But hey, I have sold all mine anyway [;-0] Upshot is, far better to stay away from places/areas where you might need to use such force if at all possible because no matter how you look at it it is a bad deal. -Ken > > _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
