Picture of the day

Water cooling. V twins had a similar problem with their rear cylinders. Some manufacturers ran the rear cyl slightly richer to help keep it cool. I know my vtr1000 is like that

Yamahas offset the rear cylinder to allow it to catch the wind stream. Looks like this is turning into an "also" motorcycle forum. Love guns and bikes.
 
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this post seems to have been overlooked, are those full auto broomhandles?

and the middle pic? some kind of experimental browning?
 
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You don't often see that .50 optical sight. They turn up on eBay sometimes. Don't seem to have got much use in WWII. I can't remember ever seeing one in a combat photo. Copied from the German ZF12 I assume.

What's the attribution on the photo? Sniping that Chinese island off Taiwan in the 1950s?
 
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You don't often see that .50 optical sight. They turn up on eBay sometimes. Don't seem to have got much use in WWII. I can't remember ever seeing one in a combat photo. Copied from the German ZF12 I assume.

What's the attribution on the photo? Sniping that Chinese island off Taiwan in the 1950s?

I once read somewhere that the longest sniper kill at one point was taken from a scoped browning .50cal during vietnam.
 
Weren't the islands concerned Quemoy and Matsu? I think they were hotly contested by the then Formosa and Red China. It was a 'game' to snipe at bathing Chinese soldiers with the .50 BMG or some derivative thereof.

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What's the attribution on the photo? Sniping that Chinese island off Taiwan in the 1950s?
 
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German SdKfz 251 “Falke” with an MG42 machine gun and IR scope and spotligh

Is this one WWII or post war? Those Germans were into some wild #### for around the last year or so of the war. Just watched a documentary on their rocket program (last fall maybe.), I can't believe the fly by wire missiles they were using to try and take out British radar installations.
 
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Is this one WWII or post war? Those Germans were into some wild #### for around the last year or so of the war. Just watched a documentary on their rocket program (last fall maybe.), I can't believe the fly by wire missiles they were using to try and take out British radar installations.

WWII, they had these and something similar added to some Panther tanks for night work, very very limited production and success but the scientists working on it were scooped up by the allies just like the rocketeers to develop stuff after the war.
Check out the STG 44 with a "night scope" above. Stephen Hunter wrote a pretty good book called "The Master Sniper" and then later "Black Light" about early night scope technology/applications.
 

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I once read somewhere that the longest sniper kill at one point was taken from a scoped browning .50cal during vietnam.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Hathcock

Hathcock needed Cat D9 to haul his giant balls around with.

He's also the guy who pulled the "bullet through the scope of the enemy sniper trying to shoot him" shot during a 2 or three day sniping duel between himself and an NVA sniper. The possibility of making that shot was in doubt for a lot of years, was once "busted" by the Mythbusters, but then they revisited it using all the right gear (same rifle and ammo Hathcock would have use vs. a PU scope - which has fewer and thinner lenses than a modern scope) and discovered that the shot was, in fact, quite possible.

Hathcock never claimed to be intending to shoot at the other fellow's scope. The two had been circling each other for a couple of days in a valley trying to get the upper hand. Hathcock claims he basically got lucky - he caught a glimpse of lens flare from the setting sun and took a snap shot, essentially to keep the other guy's head down while he re-positioned.

The .50 cal shot was with a browning he'd had an armourer customize into a straight pull bolt action... Wikipedia is light on the details, but it was a pretty legendary shot. American military snipers pretty much all worship at the altar of Hathcock. Pretty amazing dude.

In 1967 Hathcock set the record for the longest sniper kill. He used a M2 .50 Cal Browning machine gun mounting a telescopic sight at a range of 2,500 yd (2,286 m), taking down a single Vietcong guerrilla. This record was broken in 2002, by Canadian snipers (Rob Furlong and Arron Perry) from the 3rd Bn. PPCLI during the War in Afghanistan.
 
In the 60s, I had quite a few ww2 and Korean war vets as my NCOs. They told me stories of how 50cal Brownings were used as sniper rifles in Korea. So the stories have been around for quite some time. The co-ax spotting 50 on the 106 recoiless rile was fricken deadly accurate well over 1,000 yards. I was more impressed with that than the main gun.
 
Weren't the islands concerned Quemoy and Matsu? I think they were hotly contested by the then Formosa and Red China. It was a 'game' to snipe at bathing Chinese soldiers with the .50 BMG or some derivative thereof.

I think you're right. I seem to remember an article from Something On Formosa ;) which mentioned German Pzb.38s being fitted with .50 barrels and scopes. There was definitely some experimentation in Korea mentioned too. There was probably quite a bit in WWII as well, after all the .50 BMG was middle aged even then, but of course if you wanted to play in WWII there were still anti-tank rifles a plenty around.
 
Is this one WWII or post war? Those Germans were into some wild #### for around the last year or so of the war. Just watched a documentary on their rocket program (last fall maybe.), I can't believe the fly by wire missiles they were using to try and take out British radar installations.

If I remember it correctly, the halftrack would illuminate targets for IR equipped Panthers - the system needed coordination to work properly.
 
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