The Laugo Alien has survived its mud and sand tests without any long term damage, and now it’s time to put it to work. The MGM Spinner has long been my nemesis, and so I bought one to practice on. The advantages of the Alien are immediately evident – I’ve never been able to double-tap a spinner except by occasional luck. With the Alien it’s something I can do routinely, even here on my first time trying.
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Laugo Alien: Real Innovation in Modern Handgun Design
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YMMV, but lately the channel has been feeling like a long ad for Laugo, Springfield’s bullpup and the WWSD carbine. Maybe more of this on In Range, but there it’s been spiced up w blunderbuss skeet and other stuff. Feels fresher to me.
As I said, your MMV. Maybe it’s a lack of book blues (Chinese Pistols, anyone?) but I hope the channel finds its stride again soon.
The point of Forgotten Weapons is not to just show off old guns. It is to show how those guns exemplified the evolution of firearm technology. This evolution is still going on. Ian is showing where the bullpup concept now is going how new concepts for auto pistols are exemplified in the Alien. If Ian was showing every new minor iteration of Glocks, I would agree with you. But what he is showing in the Hellion and Alien is the cutting edge of new technology, which will in time lead to further new technology. So I don’t get upset with what he has been doing.
Patience Grasshopper!
You are having trouble because you do not shoot the backside of the target as it comes over. Several times you missed that opportunity which would have spun the doggone thing.
I was thinking the same, but i have only shot the spinner a couple times as a goof, never in a match. So my opinion is mostly theoretical.
Any time you let the spinner freewheel, it is going to try to stop itself from spinning. Waiting for the front side to show again is giving the spinner an opportunity to slow down. So shoot the backside if it presents itself.
That is the physics of the situation, which is vastly different from the marksmanship of the situation. It would take a really cool head and fast thinking to sort which side to shoot. Not sure many shooters would be able to pull that off.
Seems to be as sensitive to grip hold as a Webley-Fosbery and a Webley-Fosbery is well over 100 years old. For 5 grand I will take the W-F. Ok, no one will let me have one for five grand.
All the Lefties out there will get mad at me for saying this, but the pistol was made for right hand shooting. Lefties should be glad that the pistol can be fired left handed even if more care with grip needs to be taken. I am are a left hand Alien would have a good market.
The Alien is a fascinating gun, but at its price point and production cost, I expect a wrong-handed version would bankrupt the company – much as happened to Randall.
It would be interesting and entertaining to shoot the spinner with .357 and .41 magnums with the capacity limits of revolvers being offset by the greater impact energy/velocity of the heavier rounds. Yes, recoil makes double taps more difficult.
Ian needs to try this exercise with a high capacity .45 ACP. Those slugs would give the spinner a turn.
Any caliber with heavier bullets or higher velocity would be more effective at spinning the plate and reducing the amount of ammo used necessary to succeed at spinning the plate.
I know that 9mm is the “in caliber” these days. But you need to look to purpose not popularity when choosing a gun/ammo for a specific use. If the match is only stationary targets, grab your favorite 9mm and go for it. If there are spinners or other mechanical targets, grab the “big hammer”.
Absolutely agreed in this circumstance- 9mm does not have the bullet mass to be consistently effective on any spinner.
Could you be wasting your time double tapping the bottom target my spider sense tells me just do alternative shots.
You need to hit the target at the bottom when it’s at it lowest point and the top target when it’s at its highest point. That’s my thinking .
I also wondered about the double tap on the bottom target. Maybe this is because the bottom target is heavier and needs extra attention. Ian also seemed to at times hit the top target when it was swinging towards him. But this could be an issue of not yet getting the timing down to fire when the bullet would hit the target when it is at the top.
But beyond all the griping here, I doubt I could have done anywhere near as good as Ian was doing.
With this draggy spinner he actually needs both – double-tapping the bottom (it does impart more energy) and hitting the top plate. On a less draggy spinner or with a more powerful round, you can do it with just alternating shots.
230 grains at 1020ish… why double tap?
Lack of energy from a slow & light load like that… Something like 300grains @ 1900 would be a bit more effective. (prob more effective at ruining the spinner)
Shooting the backside of the target generally just stops the target, unless you can time it perfectly when it is still moving away from you. Hard to do when you are head on to the target. People standing to the side can see when, but not the shooter. Better to be patient and make sure you get a hit on the other target. If yo are really good with quick double taps,it can be hammered over. Easy with a pistol caliber carbine, hard with a pistol.
And, don’t miss. https://youtu.be/XHBlWHNN0XM
It’s not about kinetic energy (0.5 x m x v^2) but about momentum (m x v)
Since the impulse (change of momentum) to the spinner depends on the target angle my strategy would be to alternate between high and low shots.
Hint: the most effective transfer happens at a 90° impact angle.