General GunTuber thread

ffs this entire Baldwin thing. and now some guntuber personalities are commenting on it with some less informed than others. at least this production house supposedly has sworn off using unmodified weapons in film.

i work off and on as a manufacturer and sometimes lender of firearms for theatrical performances ranging from photographs to feature films and even a few video games. i'm not as big as Bapty's or MAGC or Specialist's, but you've likely seen stuff i've made or supplied.

normally, non firing props are used as much as possible, rubber molds, plastic kitbashed stuff on dummy barreled deactivated receivers, even toys. for some sequences that involve firing there are many practical and special effects options. for revolvers and some other weapons, the visibility of the ammunition creates a bit of an issue. after the 90's it became popular briefly to use special effects with some practical effects (flash paper, pyrotechnic blanks) because the technology had become cheap enough to be affordable to smaller budgets. for revolvers, because blanks would be fairly obvious, there are some unique handling done:

1. do a swap between props, blank fire, and live fire, with the live fire being done filmed in a unique way (editing, camera angle) so there's minimized danger.
2. post production editing of the recorded film to obfuscate the blanks or add effects for flashpaper or non firing props.
3. use blanks with a dummy bullet made of paper or plaster (usually colored) and film off angle.

often a combination of the above is used. in no circumstances is live ammunition to be used, even in sequences being filmed where nothing is loaded (say on a table or something). usually these are deprimed/powderless dummy cartridges filled with sand and a lead plug at the base. very real looking, but completely inert.

on the set, an armorer is in charge of all the weapons and ammo being used and is uniquely responsible for their provisioning and disposition. armorers have assistants as well to do grip work, but generally it's a one-man operation with a separate person doing safety and supervision and hire-outs or sub-contractors doing prop building, furnishing of the base weapon (me), or training. there's usually 3-4 "gun people", regardless of politics, that should have the training and experience of how to do this stuff safely and effectively.

for this incident i can't comment on specifically on what might have happened, but the description sounds like what some super cheap production houses do: buy normal weapons and film with live ammo until ready to shoot with real people involved, where blanks are swapped in. this is incredibly dangerous and is extremely discouraged in the trade.

what a complete shitshow.
 
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ffs this entire baldwin thing. and now some guntuber personalities are commenting on it with some less informed than others. at least this production house supposedly has sworn off using unmodified weapons in film.

i work off and on as a manufacturer and sometimes lender of firearms for theatrical performances ranging from photographs to feature films and even a few video games. i'm not as big as Bapty's or MAGC or Specialist's, but you've likely seen stuff i've made or supplied.

normally, non firing props are used as much as possible, rubber molds, plastic kitbashed stuff on dummy barreled deactivated receivers, even toys. for some sequences that involve firing there are many practical and special effects options. for revolvers and some other weapons, the visibility of the ammunition creates a bit of an issue. after the 90's it became popular briefly to use special effects with some practical effects (flash paper, pyrotechnic blanks) because the technology had become cheap enough to be affordable to smaller budgets. for revolvers, because blanks would be fairly obvious, there are some unique handling done:

1. do a swap between props, blank fire, and live fire, with the live fire being done filmed in a unique way (editing, camera angle) so there's minimized danger.
2. post production editing of the recorded film to obfuscate the blanks or add effects for flashpaper or non firing props.
3. use blanks with a dummy bullet made of paper or plaster (usually colored) and film off angle.

often a combination of the above is used. in no circumstances is live ammunition to be used, even in sequences being filmed where nothing is loaded (say on a table or something). usually these are deprimed/powderless dummy cartridges filled with sand and a lead plug at the base. very real looking, but completely inert.

on the set, an armorer is in charge of all the weapons and ammo being used and is uniquely responsible for their provisioning and disposition. armorers have assistants as well to do grip work, but generally it's a one-man operation with a separate person doing safety and supervision and hire-outs or sub-contractors doing prop building, furnishing of the base weapon (me), or training. there's usually 3-4 "gun people", regardless of politics, that should have the training and experience of how to do this stuff safely and effectively.

for this incident i can't comment on specifically on what might have happened, but the description sounds like what some super cheap production houses do: buy normal weapons and film with live ammo until ready to shoot with real people involved, where blanks are swapped in. this is incredibly dangerous and is extremely discouraged in the trade.

what a complete shitshow.
No matter how bad production fucked up, Alec Baldwin is a drooling, mouthbreathing, crosseyed mongoloid for pointing a gun he had no idea what was inside of at a person and pulling the trigger. He is completely culpable for negligent homicide because he didn't follow a single rule of standard gun safety.
 
No matter how bad production fucked up, Alec Baldwin is a drooling, mouthbreathing, crosseyed mongoloid for pointing a gun he had no idea what was inside of at a person and pulling the trigger. He is completely culpable for negligent homicide because he didn't follow a single rule of standard gun safety.
indeed, however irresponsible Baldwin is, the set supervisor, safety supervisor, prop master, armorer and armorer's assistant all had hands involved in this incident. i'm not even going to comment on the armorer's background, but her professional background is a bit limited in scope, could be lack of experience and wanting to make a big impression and allow more leeway than what is safe, especially if Baldwin was the producer that had budget approval powers. where the heck are the other people normally involved in film armory? every time i've worked on-set there's been like a half dozen people in the department.

edit: the new TMZ rumor is that the "prop" gun was being used with live ammo off-set for recreational shooting. wtf. assistant director Dave Halls was supposedly the one that handed Baldwin the "cold gun" prior to Baldwin starting to point it at people, accessed without the armorer (who is nominally in charge of weapons on-set). what a complete shitshow.


in anycase, this isn't really guntuber stuff, so i'll refrain from posting about it here.
 
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Here's the armorer that thought having live rounds on a movie set was a cool idea.
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If this is true, Baldwin and company got what was coming to them. Hell, I keep a watchful eye on anyone under 30 with a firearm regardless of context (at least until they've demonstrated they're safe users), and that's on a square range. No way I'd trust a 24 year old to manage safety for a bunch of guns and a bunch of noobs in a busy/chaotic environment.
 
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If this is true, Baldwin and company got what was coming to them. Hell, I keep a watchful eye on anyone under 30 with a firearm regardless of context (at least until they've demonstrated they're safe users), and that's on a square range. No way I'd trust a 24 year old to manage safety for a bunch of guns and a bunch of noobs in a busy/chaotic environment.
What's even better was that she was shooting the same gun with live ammo after they were done shooting for the day. How the fuck did she even get hired? Should I move to New Mexico and work as a film armorer? I know better than to have fucking live ammo near movie prop guns.
 
No matter how bad production fucked up, Alec Baldwin is a drooling, mouthbreathing, crosseyed mongoloid for pointing a gun he had no idea what was inside of at a person and pulling the trigger. He is completely culpable for negligent homicide because he didn't follow a single rule of standard gun safety.
As previously mentioned and despite negligence on/off set, the actor in the position of acting is specifically not responsible for the condition of the gun because of assumed ignorance. Everyone has their own job and the actor is expected to work with what they've been handed - his failure was accepting the gun from the assistant director rather than the armorer. Comfort and complacency kills.
Everything that could have gone wrong happened to have gone wrong and now Alec has to live with having experienced accidentally killing someone.
 
What's even better was that she was shooting the same gun with live ammo after they were done shooting for the day. How the fuck did she even get hired? Should I move to New Mexico and work as a film armorer? I know better than to have fucking live ammo near movie prop guns.
From what I understand it started with a disagreement between Baldwin and the crew union. Which led to a walk off and Baldwin replacing the entire crew with non union workers over night.
 
I know there are some doubts about Rob Ski's trust worthiness but it his video about the DPMS anvil is out and surprise surprise it has a few issues.
I wouldn't trust anything he says since he sold his integrity to PSA but I absolutely do believe anything branded DPMS would have issues.
 
Pour one out for Taofledermaus Danny:


Cancer still sucks.
Aww, fucking hell, man.

Jeff may be a lolcow sometimes but his videos with Danny were always fun to watch. Rest in peace, old man. You will be missed.
 
PSA owns DPMS
JJE Capital owns DPMS, same with AAC, PSA, and other companies. JJE was started as a private venture capital equity firm for real estate and construction with manufacturing for pre-fab apartments/housing and when that took a downturn they reinvested and sold off properties to liquidate debt.

putting the DPMS Anvil and PSAK side by side, they are mostly the same other than small parts and the receiver, probably the same source for those, barrel is extremely similar but also seems different (maybe because the PSAK i have is the gen 2, there is a gen 3 that i don't have that could have changed many things). a lot of Russian/Bulgarian parts for seemingly random bits in the two samples i have. at some point i think a container of foreign made small parts were imported and used.

last December when DPMS warehouses were being liquidated i stocked up on spare parts since DPMS small parts were great for replacement springs, screws, and things like grips or stocks from their standard carbine line. i'm hoping the DPMS LR-308 will get a refresh since that became more or less the standard pattern through the industry with only a few going the Armalite AR-10 pattern, and fewer copying the scattered other variations. standardization is a cost benefit for everyone involved.
 
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