In my never-ending quest to waste money or irrelevant firearms I recently procured a block of Clear Ballistics Gel, and proceeded to shoot the heck out of it with different, mostly obsolete guns in mostly obsolete calibers. You may have read the post about .30-200 and yes, you’ll see more about these tests later.

Because of limited financial means I bought a 4″x4″x20″ ‘slightly irregular’ block, meaning it had bubbles, but not enough to render it useless. Not very big, but I was able to make about a dozen test shots before I judged the block was just getting too torn-up. Time to re-cast it. That’s the beauty of Clear Ballistics products; they are re-usable. They are also nowhere near as temperature-sensitive as more traditional ballistic gel formulations, and therefore a little more consistent.

I looked up how to re-cast it (I watched a Youtube video. How else?) and set out to do the deed. OK, you need a mold for the finished block, and while CB sells molds that aren’t outrageously expensive they aren’t cheap, and I am. Casting about the internet I found an inexpensive Pullman Loaf bread-pan. Apparently there are people that want long, slender, perfectly square loaves of bread. In this case the pan is 4″x 4″x 16″. that’s on the short side, but for a fraction of the cost of the real deal it will do.

The first thing you need to do is to reduce the block to small pieces, like an inch square or less. OK, I set out a cutting board, grabbed my trusty hand-made chef’s knife and… nope. Not going to cut it. So to speak. Instead I grabbed the trusty Cutco bread knife, and that actually worked pretty well.

Eventually I realized I could cut inch-square strips and simply tear bits off, which made things much easier. As you go you want to remove any foreign material. One of the hollow-points I tested had shed some jacket so I was picking those bits out whenever I found them. There’s probably some lead left in there, but it will sink to the bottom during the melt, so it’s not a big deal.

Denim, OTOH, will not sink to the bottom, and bullets will pull a surprising amount of this material into the gel… and it will deposit it surprisingly deep. This isn’t really going to effect much, but it is unsightly.

Since I knew I had more material than the mold would hold I also used two 2-1/2″ deep bread pans, and filled those and the mold pretty full with the chunks of gel. Clear ballistics says not to exceed 280 degrees, as this can cause the gel to yellow and, in extremis, can affect the structural integrity of the gel. I set a rack over the heating element in the oven and covered it with foil so I would get indirect heat on the mold and pans. I put the oven rack in the middle and set the temperature to 250-260 degrees. It would be good to use an oven thermometer, but I know this oven pretty well.

Once all of the goodies are in the oven I set a timer for one hour. At that point it was… goopy. Seriously goopy. I stirred it with a big spoon, then added more cubes. Getting the 250-degree goop off the spoon was impossible, but no worries: after cooling a few minutes it peeled right off. I set the timer for another hour and waited.

After another hour all of the cubes were thoroughly dissolved, and I decided it was time to pour the bread pans into the mold and see where we were at. Goooooopy. Filling the mold to the brim emptied the two bread pans and left a thick coating of gel in the pans. I set them aside to cool and put the mold back in the oven for two hours. This is to let it mix thoroughly and give time for the bubbles to leave. After a few minutes of cooling the bread pans were as easy to peel as the spoon had been, so cleanup was not an ordeal. I set aside the remainder of the block and the peelings in a ziploc bag for later use.

After two hours I turned off the oven, opened the oven door and left the gel to cool in the mold overnight. In the morning a fully-cooled gel-block awaited me.

It wasn’t very hard to get the block out of the mold, and I discovered I was wrong. There was some darkening of the gel because I don’t know my oven as well as I thought, and the denim will indeed settle to the bottom.

So, I’m back in business with a… well, functional gel block. Yeah, it took all evening and then overnight to cool, but it worked. Tune in next time (or the time after that) for more How Obsolete Are They? tests.

Michael Tinker Pearce, 13 August 2020

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In the 1970’s West German police used a mish-mash of handguns. While some still used the Walther PP in .7.65/.32 ACP, others used 9mm Parabellum in the P1 (an alloy-framed P-38,) The P2, (the expensive but excellent Sig P210) or the P3 (Astra 600.) In 1976 a set of specifications was set out for a new police service pistol. It was to be a compact weapon chambered in 9mm with a magazine holding eight rounds, DA/SA operation and an external de-cocking lever.

At the end of testing three guns were identified as suitable and approved for purchase. The bulk of sales went to the Sig P225, which was given the designation the P-6. Unable to produce these guns in the quantities needed, Sig allied with, and later acquired, J.P. Sauer and Sohns, forming the Sig-Sauer company. Over the course of production some 40,000 P6s were produced, and the gun remained in service with German police agencies until 2000.

The P6 featured an alloy frame with a steel slide, and weighing in at around 29oz. it made for a pretty handy service weapon without being too large for concealed carry. For police use plastic grips replaced the wood grips of the P225. Ergonomics are good, and all of the controls are easily reached by a person with average-sized hands. The gun is very easy to field-strip; simply lock back the slide, rotate the lever above the trigger downward 90 degrees, release the slide and slip it off the front of the gun.

I have a sentimental attachment to the P6, so when the first police trade-ins entered the US I was quite disappointed that I could not afford one before they were all snapped up. Recently a friend, having forgotten that I wanted one, sold his off and I missed out again. Linda observed my disappointment and immediately went online and found one for me. We picked it up today and I did a little ‘getting acquainted’ shooting.

This particular gun was made in May of 1992, but you wouldn’t know to look at it. There is very little holster-wear, and everything is right and tight. The gun feels excellent in my hand and points naturally. The standard sights are good, a nice blocky front sight with a recessed white dot, and a deep, square rear aperture with a white post underneath. The trigger is very good for a service pistol; I have heard some characterize it as ‘heavy,’ and I can only assume they don’t regularly shoot double-action revolvers. More importantly to me the DA pull is smooth and doesn’t stack. There is some take-up in the single-action trigger, needed to deactivate the firing-pin safety, but the trigger breaks very crisply after that. Reset is not short but is positive and easy to use in rapid-fire and double-taps.

If I had to pick one word to describe this gun it would be ‘smooth.’ Everything moves like greased glass, from the slide to the trigger to the de-cocking lever. Even inserting a magazine is conspicuously slick. Smoooooth.

I adore this gun, and expect it will be seeing a lot of range time in the near future. The gun came with two magazines, and I’ll be picking up a couple more. I’ll be making a holster or two and a mag pouch for this gun, and if it continues to be as reliable as this first outing I fully expect I’ll EDC it when conditions permit.

Michael Tinker Pearce, 12 August 2020

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In the wake of WW2 the Italians were seeking a replacement for their aging .380 ACP Beretta M1934 pistols, and of course who would they turn to but Beretta? By 1951 the new pistol was ready. It was the company’s first locked-breech pistol, chambered in the more powerful 9mm Parabellum. It was adopted by the Italian Navy, the Carabinieri and other police agencies; the army retained their M1934s until the double-action, high-capacity Model 92 was introduced.`

The gun entered production in 1953 with an alloy frame, but this was soon found to lack the durability needed in a military arm, and it was replaced with a steel frame. Like its predecessor it was a hammer-fired single-action design. It borrowed the hinged locking-block and open-topped slide of the Walther P38, and like that gun carried eight cartridges in it’s single-stack magazine. Moving the recoil springs from the sides of the slide to under the barrel allowed the new gun to be slimmer than the Walther. This necessitated a full-length slide which resulted in a handier, better-balanced weapon. Like the M1934 the magazine floor-plate had a hooked finger extension, which made the gun comfortable and secure even for those with larger hands.

The new pistol garnered interest from other nations, and Egypt’s army ordered their own unique variant of the gun. This had a slightly longer barrel, high-profile sights, a different, simpler grip and a heel-magazine release. It is believed around fifty-thousand guns of this configuration were produced for Egypt before Maadi licensed the design from Beretta and began producing the Helwan in Egypt. Interestingly the Helwan includes none of the modifications requested by the army for their model. The ‘Egyptian model,’ despite being produced in large numbers, has never been officially imported, so they are rare in the United States.

Iraq also produced their own version of this gun, the Tariq, and additionally the gun was used by Israel, Nigeria, Yemen, Libya, Thailand, Tunisia as well as being used by British police organizations. A civilian version known as the M951 Brigadier was also produced for several decades, though in the 1970s and 80s it was eclipsed by it’s descendant, the Model 92. Versions in .30 Luger were produced for countries where private ownership of guns in ‘military calibers’ was prohibited.

The Brigadier was famously used in Don Pendleton’s long running series of Executioner books, where the main character Mack Bolan used a .44 Automag and a silenced Beretta to mow down improbably large numbers of mafia Dons and Soldiers.

The M1951 achieved a legendary reputation for reliability in the deserts of the Middle East, and as the Tariq it remains in production, and service, to this day. Recently a large number of Italian police trade-in M1951s have been imported from Italy, selling for prices under $300. Having owned both the Helwan and an Egyptian Contract M1951 I scooped one up, and have been giving it a good wringing out at the range.

My gun arrived in quite good condition with only minor holster wear. It came with a single magazine, but my Helwan magazines work just fine. The gun is very comfortable in the hand, and for me it points naturally. The sights are… well, they aren’t wonderful. Comparable to GI sights on a 1911; usable but far from ideal. The trigger has a little free-play and significant over-travel, but it’s crisp. I was surprised at how easy it was to double-tap with this gun, but the second shot did tend to hit rather high. It would still be on target though, and I expect I’ll improve with practice. Recoil with standard-pressure loads is mild, and after a slight tweak to the magazine lips it feeds hollow-points flawlessly out of all three of the magazines that I had on-hand.

Speaking of ammunition I have been advised to stick to standard-pressure ammo, and I see no reason not to. This may or may not be important for the Beretta, but it is vital in Helwans; two shots with +P ammo peened the locking lugs and rendered the gun non-functional. Apparently Maadi’s metallurgy is not up to standard.

This old Beretta is a real pleasure to shoot, and box after box of ammo disappeared downrange; after a couple of hundred rounds I found myself wishing I’d brought more.

Having the magazine release on the grip is odd, but it actually works pretty well. To change the magazine draw a fresh magazine, bring your left hand to the grip and hit the button with your thumb. The spent mag falls out and your hand is right there to slap the fresh one in. With very little training it’s about as fast as a conventionally located button, and even a person with small hands doesn’t need to change their strong-hand grip. Awkward as hell for a southpaw, of course; these are very much a right-handed gun.

OK, last but not least let’s address the elephant in the room; that weird cross-bolt safety. It’s a strange feature for a service pistol and seems out of place, but for a right-handed person, specifically me, it’s surprisingly workable. When I assume a firing grip it’s very easy to pop it in with the joint of my thumb. Putting it back on requires a second hand, or at least a serious shift of my grip. Overall though it works surprisingly well.

Yes, it’s obsolete. Yes, it could use better sights. Yes, there are lighter, better, more modern guns that hold more rounds. But I would not feel abused if this was my only option; it’s a fine (if unconventional) design and still effective after all these years. Maybe Mack Bolan was on to something…

Michael Tinker Pearce, 7 August 2020

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