Waifus with Raifus: The SIG Sauer MCX-Rattler

Source: @rukalee on X™.

     It is probably a bad idea to leave a poor tip at the local maid café when the wait staff have access to firearms. This “meido” (メイド) is sighting in on a cheap customer with a 6mm airsoft version of the SIG Sauer MCX-Rattler chambered for the .300 AAC Blackout (300 BLK) cartridge. There are several airsoft manufacturers of the MCX-Rattler to include Cybergun, PROW, and Salvo Precision. This particular airsoft is a custom build as it is using a SIG Air low-profile retractable stock along with a dummy suppressor styled after SIG Sauer's SRD762 series suppressor. The frame hardware is also custom as it features a foregrip which the real MCX-Rattler doesn't come with as standard. Her weapon is using a Unity high-profile, fast micro-mount upon which is an Aimpoint T2 micro red dot sight.

     As for the actual MCX-Rattler, the model shown is the pistol version that uses a 5.5” barrel. The barrel is made of cold hammer forged steel while the forend uses metal alloy to keep weight down. Empty, the weapon has a weight of 5.1 pounds and a overall length of 1.9 feet (without the suppressor). The civilian version is semi-automatic and uses a gas-operated, short-stroke piston action. The gas system is adjustable. The trigger is a flat, SIG blade match style while a top Picatinny rail is standard. The weapon is fed using a 30-round box magazine.

     The .300 AAC Blackout round, produced by the Advanced Armament Corporation (AAC), has a caliber of 7.62x35mm and can be used in any 5.56mm NATO compatible box magazine. The cartridge is designed as a intermediate round that falls between the standard 5.56x45mm round and the 9x19mm Parabellum pistol round. Its primary use is in shorter barreled weapons (such as the M4 Carbine) where it delivers improved muzzle velocity similar to the Russian 7.62x39mm round and while the 300 BLK round's accuracy drops off faster than the 5.56mm cartridge, the 300 BLK has the same energy at 700 meters as the 5.56mm round does at 500 meters. The 300 BLK subsonic round variant permits usage of silencers and suppressors. Out of a 9 inch barrel, the effective range of the 300 BLK cartridge is 440 meters with a muzzle velocity of 2,050 feet per second.

     Since 2022, the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has utilized the SIG Sauer MCX Rattler chambered for both 5.56mm and 300 BLK as PDWs (Personal Defense Weapons). Other countries that utilize the 300 BLK cartridge include the Netherlands (used by the Dutch Maritime Special Operations Force), Germany (by the Schleswig-Holstein state police and the Kommando Spezialkräfte [Special Forces Command]), and the United Kingdom.

Big Screen Weapons: The Smith & Wesson Performance Center® Model 945

© New Regency Productions, Strike Entertainment, 20th. Century Fox

     In the late 1990s, Smith & Wesson's Dick Mochak decided to combine the Smith & Wesson SW1911 and the Model 4006. The result, when it debuted in 1996, was the Performance Center® Model 945. The following year, it was made available for purchase and today, examples of the Model 945 command a fairly high price tag. Condition depending, the Model 945 can sell for as little as $1,250 to a bit over $2,000.

     The Model 945 is a single action, semi-automatic pistol which is chambered for the .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) cartridge. The round, appearing in 1905, is typically a 230 grain with a round-nose bullet. Average muzzle velocity is 830 feet per second. The frame mounted, thumb activated safety is ambidextrous and thus can be operated by a left handed shooter as well as a right handed shooter. This is backed up by a beavertail grip safety. To fire the pistol when the frame mounted safety is set to “fire”, the grip must be held tightly to fully depress the safety. The “beavertail” is a curved portion of the safety which protects the hand from the rearward motion of the slide and hammer.

     Two versions were offered, one in a bead blasted stainless steel finish while the other featured a polished blackened finish. It also features a hand polished barrel ramp and a hand-fitted titanium-coated barrel bushing. While the Model 945 looks like the SW1911, the Model 945 cannot utilize magazines from the SW1911 (or any Colt built M1911). As such, the Model 945 is only compatible with its own 8-round magazines. Trigger weight is between 2.75 to 3 pounds. 

     With the 5” barrel, the overall length of the Model 945 is 8.75 inches with a weight of 2.7 pounds. Out of the box, the pistol uses post front sight and a BoMar rear sight that permits micro adjustments for elevation and windage.

     The stainless steel, 5” barrel Model 945 is shown here in the hands of Sylvia Weis (played by actress Amanda Seyfried) in the 2011 science-fiction movie “In Time” which also starred Justin Timberlake as Will Salas.

     Given the Model 945s relative rarity, it has not seen much use as a weapon in movies. In fact, “In Time” is the only U.S. produced film that used it. The two other appearances of the Model 945 is in the German movie “Jerry Cotton” (2010) and the Taiwanese action flick “Black & White Episode 1: The Dawn of Assault” (2012).

Russo-Ukrainian War: The Tokarev TT-33 Pistol

Source: The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

     Some small arms simply refuse to disappear into history and the Russo-Ukrainian War has seen a multitude of old infantry weapons being used by both sides. From pre-WW2 PM1910 Maxim machine-guns to WW2 Soviet PTRD-41 anti-tank rifles, both the Ukrainian forces as well as Russian Federation forces are using vintage weapons that have seen conflict for decades. In part, this is simply due to the vast quantities these weapons were made in which has seen them remain in use. For example, the Mosin-Nagant M1891 bolt-action rifle seen in use by pro-Russian separatists had been produced from 1891 to 1973 with over 37 million rifles having left Soviet factories. Another venerable small arm which was built in very large numbers and remains in service around the world is shown here in the hands of soldiers belonging to the 118th. Mechanized Brigade: the Tokarev TT-33.

     The TT-33 was accepted for service by the Soviet Army in 1933 and it was a modernization of the earlier TT-30 pistol. The primary changes were to simplify manufacture (for example, using a one-piece frame) and reduce the production cost. However, the hammer/sear firing mechanism was updated to be easier to both construct and maintain. All told, some 1.6 million pistols (TT-30 and TT-33 combined) were built by Soviet manufacturers from 1930 to 1955.

     Empty, the TT-33 weighs 1.9 pounds and it is chambered for the 7.62x25mm Tokarev round. However, there is a Russian civilian variant of the TT-33 chambered for the non-lethal 10x33mm self-defense cartridge. The TT-33 is a single-action pistol and uses a short recoil operated, locked breech action. There is no external safety on the TT-33 which makes keeping a round in the chamber a risky proposition. Thus, the TT-33 requires the firer to pull the slide back to chamber a round though this is not easy thanks to a stiff recoil spring. The muzzle velocity is 1,378 feet per second and the effective range is 50 yards. The TT-33 is fed from a 8-round detachable box magazine. Standard sights is a front blade and a rear notch.

     The TT-33 was replaced by the 9x18mm Makarov pistol (PM) in 1951 as the Soviet military's standard pistol.

The Walther Pistole 1: Stalwart of the Bundeswehr

      A Bundeswehr soldier, laying in the prone firing position on the pistol range, takes aim with a Walther P1 pistol. The P1 was, until 1975, the exact same as the World War Two constructed Pistole '38, or P38 which was accepted into Wehrmacht service in 1939. 

     The P38 replaced the much older and more expensive Luger P08 and featured a locked-breech, short recoil action. The P38 was both a double-action and a single-action pistol. This meant that the user could chamber a round and using the pistol's safety lever, the user could lower the hammer without discharging the weapon. The benefit was that a ready round was loaded and upon pulling the trigger to fire, the hammer was brought back then released to fire the round (double-action). After firing the first round, the pistol reverted to single-action as each subsequent firing ejected the round, cocked the hammer, and chambered a new round. The P38 was chambered for the 9x19mm Parabellum round with the magazine holding eight bullets. The barrel was 5 inches long with six right-handed grooves. The overall length of the P38 was 8.4 inches long with a unloaded weight of 2.1 pounds. The P38 had a muzzle velocity of 1,150 feet per second and with the rear notch/front blade post sights, the effective range was 50 meters. The P38 was in production from 1939 to 1945 with over one million examples constructed between three manufacturers: Walther, Mauser, and Spreewerk.

     Following World War Two, the German Bundeswehr (formed in 1955) desired to have the P38 as its main pistol sidearm. Walther, eager to provide the German military with the weapon, spent almost two years retooling their production line to build it (and other firearms). Walther basically had to start from scratch, using wartime built P38 pistols as examples, reconstructing the design plans for the pistol, and also recreating the needed machine tools. Deliveries commenced to the Bundeswehr starting in June 1957. At this time, the weapon was still designated as the P38 but only differed from the wartime production models by using aluminum frames and plastic grips. In 1963, the designation was changed to Pistole 1, or P1. The only real change came in 1975 when the frame was reinforced with a hex bolt and the slide was enlarged to improve strength. This bigger slide has been nicknamed the “dicker rutsche”, or “fat slide”.

     The P1 remained in service with the Bundeswehr until 2004 when the last of the P1 pistols was replaced with the Universelle Selbstladepistole 8 (Universal Self-Loading Pistol 8; USP8). Although phased out, both P38 and P1 pistols continue to see service around the world with military, police, or private contractors, the last major combat seeing P1 pistols in use during the Iraqi Civil War from 2014 to 2017.

Primary Source:

Hogg, Ian V., Weeks, John Military Small Arms of the 20th. Century (Northbrook: DBI Books, 1991)