RARA-AVIS: More ejected casings

From: Moorich2@aol.com
Date: 31 Dec 2002


In a message dated 12/31/02 2:44:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, owner-rara-avis@icomm.ca writes:

<< The most common way to get hit by a shell casing is when you're
 standing beside somebody when they shoot in a normal manner.
 SWAT teams stagger an advance to account for it. Holding the
 gun sideways is going to eject them towards the ground or up
 into the air, and either way the shell is less likely to go into
 someone's eye.
>>

Mike, I don't doubt this but if so the people who did the specs really screwed up. I have never fired a Glock or a modern Berretta so I don't know how they eject. One of the guys I am spending New Year's Eve with owns one so I will ask him. I do know that when the U.S. did a big competition for a new sidearm at the beginning of the last century the 11th of the 17
"preferences" listed by the Ordinance Board was for "verticle in preference to side ejection of the cartridge case." Following the 1907 field trials the Board dinged both Colt and Savage for not complying with this preference.
 Both companies changed designs but I cannot state what changes were made in the ejection pattern. We do know that Colt won and the M1911 caliber .45 was the official sidearm for eight decades and I do know that while I would not call the ejection "verticle" it does, by design, go "up" as well as "out."

So maybe the deciders almost a century ago were smarter than the more recent bunch. If they didn't consider where the ejected casings would travel, they were idiots and alas, it would not surprise me in the least.

Both the 1911 Colt .45 and the Browning .32 which I own eject up and out in an arc. I've owned a Walther P-38 and can't remember it's ejection pattern. I've fired a Lugar 9 mm and my memory is that it's ejection is verticle, damn near straight up.

And I know that this is arcane as hell and apologize. For the record, I am more likely to reach for a revolver.

Richard Moore

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