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Baron-Engel — Wilkinson Terry carbine
Published: 2013-04-08 18:40:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 4599; Favourites: 64; Downloads: 85
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Ugh. My day job has really been draining me lately. So here's some a sketch of some bang tech I did a few years ago.This is the Wilkinson Terry carbine. Derived from the J&R Engineering M68 it was manufactured to tap into the Law Enforcement, home defense, survivalist movement market of 70's and 80's. Developed in the late 1960's it never really gained much following and production ceased in the mid 80's. For what I understand it was a well made weapon. Although further research and discussions with people who have owned has led me to wonder whether the design may have had issues with successfully cycling hollowpoint ammunition of the era. This was not a complete deal breaker since many semi-auto firearms from that era had similar problems.
It represents a class of weapon that was designed to fulfill many of the same roles that a submachine gun would while not being a true automatic weapon. This also made it more readily available for the US. market at the time since one did not have to apply for a Class III license with the ATFE. When this weapon was being developed the concept of giving US. police officers military-type weapons like assault rifles and submachine guns was considered radical and alarming to some people. Although it was already becoming fairly common in Europe. Enough years had passed that memories of the "Roaring Twenties" were history and the concept SWAT was still in its infancy. Also the market for semi-auto versions of current military rifles or "Assault Weapons" for the civilian market in the US. was just starting to grow. Therefore several manufacturers tapped into this market and developed new firearms for it.
There was also pistol variant of the carbine called the Linda. Apparently from some sources both Terry and Linda were daughters of the original owner of the company and he named the two weapons after them.
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Comments: 13
In addition to the Wilkinson “Terry” carbine and “Linda” pistol, there was also a conventional pocket pistol in .22-LR made by Wilkinson called the “Sherry” Pistol. I have a work in progress involving a “Linda” pistol as I type this comment.
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I remember this gun.It was sold here in the states for many years.It was in a lot of TV Cop Shows in the 70s.
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This is the first time that I have seen this gun outside a book published before the 1989 gun ban, good to know that they made some thing like this
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The first time I ever heard of Wilkinson Arms' weapons was in the Spike TV miniseries 'The Kill Point', one of the characters carrying a Linda pistol fitted with a muzzle brake from a Terry carbine. [link]
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This part:
When this weapon was being developed the concept of giving US. police officers military-type weapons like assault rifles and submachine guns was considered radical and alarming to some people. Although it was already becoming fairly common in Europe. Enough years had passed that memories of the "Roaring Twenties" were history and the concept SWAT was still in its infancy.
made me curious. Did cops have that kind of weaponry in the 20s?
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During some of the stakeouts and arrests of such famous criminals as John Dillinger or Bonnie and Clyde it was not at all unusual for the police and federal authorities to have on hand such weaponry as Winchester 1907 or Remington 08 semi-auto rifles with special 20rd extended magazines. Winchester 1897 Riot shotgun and surplus examples of the Military model shotguns were used. Riot versions of the Winchester Model 12 and Remington Model 10 served alongside with their semi-auto stablemate the Remington Model 11 which were often fitted with extended magazines of six to eight rounds.
Even semi and full-auto versions of the 30.06 BAR were employed when heavy firepower was required. In fact Colt marketed a semi-auto version of the BAR called the Monitor that was tailored for this role.
The one firearm that was not quite as common as Hollywood would lead us to believe was the Thompson submachine gun. Apparently for their time they were very expensive weapons and for the price of one Thompson you could buy several Winchester or Remington Police rifles. Even the lever action Winchester 1894 and 1895 found regular employment with the Texas Rangers. An important reason for the use of these rifles was the fact that they fired a more powerful cartridge with better penetration power and range than the 45ACP that the Thompson chambered.
An interesting bit of information I have learned over the years is during this time the .357 Magnum and 38 Super gained quite a bit of their popularity specifically because they possessed better penetration against the heavy car bodies and early body armor worn by some of the criminals. These obstacles often defeated the 38 Special, 38 S&W, 32 Long and even 45ACP ammunition of the period.
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I read where the Thompson was used mainly by company strike breakers against rioting trade unionists.
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Funny you mention the Thompson as the Terry reminds me a little bit of a Thompson.
I think the film industry prefers the Thompson in period pieces like the recent Gangster Squad because there's more excitement in seeing a Thompson's rapid fire capability blazing in a gun fight than a slower rate of fire (simply by comparison) from a Winchester as an example. That combined with a hip-fire style of shooting just makes it look cooler and an easy weapon to pick for such films.
I imagine they'd love to include such a weapon in films set in an earlier time period like a western if they could get away with it, like introducing a time traveler or a prototype version of the gun suggesting it was in it's development during that time and somehow found it's way in the hands of our protagonist.
Anyway, it's unfortunate to think that as time has passed that law enforcement has needed stronger guns like sub-machine guns and even assault rifles/shotguns to combat some of the bolder breed of criminals, but they certainly weren't short of options to chose from. I've never seen or heard of the Terry or at least not that I can remember. Was it not marketed well enough to allow it more use or was the competition of such style guns better in comparison?
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I think the film industry prefers the Thompson in period pieces like the recent Gangster Squad because there's more excitement in seeing a Thompson's rapid fire capability blazing in a gun fight than a slower rate of fire (simply by comparison) from a Winchester as an example. That combined with a hip-fire style of shooting just makes it look cooler and an easy weapon to pick for such films.
Also in Hollywood's defense it might be a matter of using what they had for props. If you've got lots of Thompsons you're going to use them.
. I've never seen or heard of the Terry or at least not that I can remember. Was it not marketed well enough to allow it more use or was the competition of such style guns better in comparison?
It may have not been marketed correctly, but also suffered from a problem that has plagued many a company. Brand name recognition. Why should I buy your product, even if it is a good product when I can buy this uber-cool semi-auto Uzi. Everyone knows what an Uzi so I'll buy the thing I just saw in the latest Arnie movie. And god knows Arnie was a walking ad for various firearms in the 1980's.
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Good point. Work with what's available. But I wonder if it would be cheaper using something as well known and mass produced or something lesser known with little use? What kind of deal do you get?
Lol, yes Arnold was the poster boy for big, bad-ass guns. Similar to Clint Eastwood's promotion of the S&W.357 Magnum in the Dirty Harry films.
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"An interesting bit of information I have learned over the years is during this time the .357 Magnum and 38 Super gained quite a bit of their popularity specifically because they possessed better penetration against the heavy car bodies and early body armor worn by some of the criminals. These obstacles often defeated the 38 Special, 38 S&W, 32 Long and even 45 ACP ammunition of the period."
And nowadays those rounds wouldn't even put a dent in most modern body armor; you'd need something on the order of a .50 BMG or the like to reliably penetrate them.
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No, depend on what style and grade of body armor you can still penetrate it with much smaller rounds. I remember watching a demonstration of handgun ammunition being fired into various media. In many cases the smaller caliber rounds like 9x19mm and 7.62x25mm performed much better than many larger calibers. Cross section and velocity combined with bullet construction seem to be the key to penetrating.
Whether the projectile then actually transfers any useful energy to the target and induces any shock or trauma after penetrating or just exits out the other side with no immediate reaction from the target is another matter.
.50BMG is big, big boom.
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