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.45 Schofield

The .45 Schofield or .45 Smith & Wesson is a revolver cartridge developed by Smith & Wesson for their S&W Model 3 American top-break revolver. It is similar to the .45 Colt round though shorter and with a slightly larger rim, and will generally work in revolvers chambered for that cartridge. US government arsenals supplied .45 Schofield cartridges for the Schofield revolver and the Colt Army revolver to simplify their armament needs. 45 Colt cartridges cannot be used in .45 Schofield firearms, since the .45 Colt is a longer cartridge.

History

This cartridge was originally designed as a black powder round. The Schofield revolver (a variant of the Smith & Wesson Model 3) was patented in the USA on 20 June 1871 and 22 April 1873 by Smith & Wesson. It was a Smith & Wesson Model 3 that was modified by Major George Schofield to make it easier for a cavalryman to reload while riding. While the Colt 45 had more power, the speed at which a cavalryman could reload a Schofield was less than 30 seconds, half of the time for a Colt 45. By 1879, the U. S. Army had purchased 8,285 of the revolvers. Due to its reduced power and recoil compared to the Colt .45, it was easier to shoot accurately, yet still retained effective stopping power on the battlefield. It became the standard cartridge of the Army, though the Colt 1873 still was the main issue side arm of the Army.

.500 S&W Magnum

The .500 S&W Magnum (12.7×41mmSR) is a fifty-caliber semi-rimmed handgun cartridge developed by Cor-Bon in partnership with the Smith & Wesson "X-Gun" engineering team for use in the Smith & Wesson Model 500 X-frame revolver and introduced in February 2003 at the SHOT show. Its primary design purpose was as a hunting handgun cartridge capable of taking all North American game species.

Cartridge history

Smith & Wesson had been at the forefront when developing powerful handgun cartridges such as the .357 S&W Magnum and the .44 Remington Magnum. However, since 1960 the company’s .44 Remington Magnum, which it had developed in partnership with Remington, was eclipsed by the .454 Casull. Since then, several other more powerful cartridges had been developed by Action Arms, Linebaugh, Ruger, Wildey, and Winchester for repeating handguns.

In 1971 Smith & Wesson had experienced a dramatic surge in orders for their Model 29 revolver in the .44 Magnum cartridge with which S&W production was not able to keep up. Available Model 29 revolvers were being sold for two to three times the suggested retail price, due to the low supply and high demand for the revolver. This surge in demand was due to the Dirty Harry movie, where the Model 29 revolver was billed as the most powerful revolver (The .454 Casull designed in 1955 would not be in commercial production until the 21st century). With the entry of the .500 S&W Magnum and the Model 500 revolver, Smith & Wesson recaptured the title of the most powerful handgun, and with it an increase in sales.

SWAT

Special Weapons and Tactics teams are police units in the United States that use specialized or military equipment and tactics. First created in the 1960s for riot control or violent confrontations with gunmen, the number and usage of SWAT teams increased in the 1980s and 1990s during the War on Drugs, and in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. In the United States today, SWAT teams are deployed 50,000-80,000 times every year, 80% of the time in order to serve search warrants, most often for narcotics. SWAT teams are increasingly equipped with military-type hardware and are trained to deploy against threats of terrorism, for crowd control, and in situations beyond the capabilities of ordinary police, sometimes deemed "high-risk." Other countries have developed their own paramilitary police units (PPUs) that are also described as or compared to SWAT police forces.

SWAT units are often equipped with specialized firearms including submachine guns, assault rifles, breaching shotguns, sniper rifles, riot control agents, and stun grenades. They have specialized equipment including heavy body armor, ballistic shields, entry tools, armored vehicles, advanced night vision optics, and motion detectors for covertly determining the positions of hostages or hostage takers, inside enclosed structures.

S.W.A.T. (TV series)

S.W.A.T. is an American action/crime drama series about the adventures of a Special Weapons And Tactics (S.W.A.T.) team operating in an unidentified California city. A spin-off of The Rookies, the series aired on ABC from February 1975 to April 1976.

Like The Rookies, S.W.A.T. was produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg.

Synopsis

S.W.A.T. stars Steve Forrest as the unit's leader, Lt. 'Hondo' Harrelson, and Rod Perry as Hondo's second-in-command, Sgt. David 'Deacon' McKay. The show also featured early starring roles by Robert Urich as Officer Jim Street, James Coleman as Officer T.J. McCabe, and Mark Shera as Officer Dominic Luca.

The series is known for its theme song which became a number-one hit single in 1976 for Rhythm Heritage. The title sequence that used that piece was also familiar with the principal characters responding to a muster signal, grabbing their weapons and running to their specially-equipped transport van driven by "Sam," an uncredited, non-speaking role.

SWAT 4

SWAT 4 is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games and published by Vivendi Universal Games on April 5, 2005. It was built on Irrational Games's Vengeance Engine powered by Unreal Engine 2 technology. In SWAT 4, the player leads a SWAT tactical element in resolving various situations, such as hostage standoffs or apprehensions of dangerous subjects. An expansion to SWAT 4, entitled SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate, was released on February 28, 2006.

Gameplay

Single-player

Campaign

Unlike previous installments in the Police Quest and SWAT video game series, which followed LAPD SWAT officers through missions set in Los Angeles, California, the single-player campaign of SWAT 4 takes place in New York City, during the game's then-future of 2008 to 2009. During the single-player campaign, the player is tasked with leading a five-man police SWAT team, also known as an "element", through 13 missions.

Gameplay

To simulate realistic police procedures, SWAT 4' encourages the use of non-lethal force to subdue and arrest subjects rather than incapacitating or killing them. In addition, players must follow strict protocol to ensure proper use of force. Players may not fire on suspects with lethal weapons unless the suspect points their firearm at a fellow officer or a civilian. Penalties are given for unauthorized use of force, injuries to hostages, officer incapacitation, and personal injury. If a hostage is killed, the mission is automatically deemed a failure. On the higher difficulty levels, more points are required to pass the mission, with 100 being perfect. On the most difficult level, Elite, players need a 95/100 to pass, and will fail for killing even a single suspect, losing more than two team members without committing an infraction, or committing any infraction in addition to being injured.