Members of the female anti-drone mobile air defence unit “Bucha Witches” from the military Volunteer formation of Bucha territorial community, attend exercises near the town of Bucha in Kyiv region, Ukraine on August 3, 2024. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Posted by BlackZapReply@reddit | shittytechnicals | View on Reddit | 39 comments

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Substantial-Tone-576@reddit

Here are some 150 year old guns, ladies. They work great, and never jam. Unlike these new gun.

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BlackZapReply@reddit (OP)

Probably 70-80 year old. The Soviets cranked those out for most of WWII.

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Substantial-Tone-576@reddit

Yes. I was being sarcastic but the OG design which hasn’t changed much was made in 1884.

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BlackZapReply@reddit (OP)

They are famed for their reliability. As water cooled guns, they are also capable of sustained fire the air cooled designs can only dream about.

As a silly side note, the British found that firing off a 250 round belt on a Vickers (evolved from the Maxim) would get the water hot enough to brew tea.

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These don’t have hoses connected to them. Is the water in the jacket? Then gets replaced? I thought it worked so well because it was being fed water and recirculating. I thought they made some non water cooled ones.

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joost1320@reddit

These also don't seem to be the Russian model of the guns. Those have bigger filling caps that allow you to easily insert blocks of snow and ice into the jacket.

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Plump_Apparatus@reddit

The PM1910 didn't get the extra large "tractor cap" or "snow cap" until sometime in WW2. Plenty of PM1910s were built with the smaller older style filler.

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Kozakow54@reddit

Water circulation is just an additional feature, not even necessarily the primary way to use them. You more than can just fill them with water and fire. Heat will dissipate via the jacket.

And even in this setup they still have longer sustained fire rate than air cooled guns.

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Plump_Apparatus@reddit

Water circulation is just an additional feature

They were never designed for water circulation, they are completely passive.

Water gets hot till it boils, inducing cooling via phase change. The hose that is typically attached collects the steam, the hose is cooled by the surrounding environment making the steam condense back into water which is collected in a small canister. When the canister is full it is dumped back into the filler on top of jacket.

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ourlastchancefortea@reddit

Artisanal water circulation.

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jacksmachiningreveng@reddit

Sometimes they would have a hose leading to a condenser can so that water that would be otherwise lost as steam could be collected, but there was no circulation per se, it was basically evaporative cooling. The Maxim derivatives used in aircraft benefitted from airflow that was enough to keep things cool so the jackets were left empty and perforated to allow air to circulate.

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DomSchraa@reddit

"Sir, how many bullets do we have left?"

" 2 250 belts sir"

"Excellent, now mow down the germans with the first, and use the 2nd one to boil the water for our noon tea"

"Sir, what if 1 belt isnt enough for the germans"

"Well then john, youre gonna need to figure out another way to kill the germans, we're not gonna miss out on our tea just because youre a bumbling idiot!"

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BlackZapReply@reddit (OP)

"Sir, were you a Member of Parliament?"

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Reasonable_Archer_99@reddit

That information will love rent-free in my brain for the remainder of my life. I now know I need 250 rounds to make mac and cheese in a pinch.

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m-a-r-i-n-a-r-a@reddit

How many belts to get past al dente?

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zorniy2@reddit

I have also read that sometimes the Brits filled the water jacket with urine if they couldn't find any other water.

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Stormagedd0nDarkLord@reddit

Or the blood of their enemies...

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SlickDillywick@reddit

Which I read was one of the only ways to kill the gun. The heated urine corroded the gun and also didn’t cool nearly as well as water

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hifumiyo1@reddit

If it ain’t broke…

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Jazzspasm@reddit

She doesn’t look to young, herself - the courage in that woman.. i pray she goes well and stays safe

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Expensive_Risk_2258@reddit

I am pretty sure that you can use a strobe light to spot drones. They are very bright, albeit flickering, though aimed into the sky they should make any airborne drones seem to start blinking.

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SarpedonWasFramed@reddit

I don't understand what you're saying. The strobe flashing off the drone is easier for a human to see?

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Lonecoon@reddit

Strobe lights make detecting movement much easier. Your brain isn't processing movement, but still images, making it easier for your brain to spot the differences, e.g. the thing you're trying to find.

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ourlastchancefortea@reddit

Basically a (passive?) external blinking light "on" the drone.

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senegal98@reddit

That's a pretty genius idea.

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SarpedonWasFramed@reddit

That makes more sense than the flashing explanation. Thanks

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Weary_Bike_7472@reddit

Exactly.

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milovatelj_zena@reddit

Twin mk1 eyeball targeting system is extremely reliable, especially at night

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LtButtermilch@reddit

Don't worry, the girls only come out during the day for photo ops

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ChornWork2@reddit

Read about Bucha you illiterate fuckwit.

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ChrisbKreme062@reddit

This is an existential war fuckass

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GremlinX_ll@reddit

They usually works with projectors and at least one HMG with thermals.

So, if they need just to make "wall of lead", it's enough

Lack of modern HMG is not a big secret.

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MrM1Garand25@reddit

I know the drones are small but these seem like they’d be effective against them, contrary to a post I saw of a Russian using a ZPU against them lol

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Plump_Apparatus@reddit

Eh?

A ZPU(1, 2, 4) is a purpose built anti-aircraft gun, ZPU translates to anti-aircraft machine gun mount. It's a far more effective AA weapon than some Maxims.

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