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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