The US Army spent nearly 16 years languidly testing the Maxim gun, but was never willing to actually make a decision until a final trial in 1903 finally settled the matter. The Maxim was deemed the...
2022-11-09 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
When the German Army wanted a new semiauto service rifle in 1941, it received submissions from two companies; Walther and Mauser. Walther’s design didn’t strictly meet the criteria set forth, b...
2022-11-08 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
In 1977, the US military adopted the FN MAG as the M240 in vehicular configuration to replace the less-than-successful M73/M219 machine guns. The USMC would get an early start adapting the 240 to g...
2022-11-07 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
The Reising was adopted by the US Marine Corps and used in campaigns through 1942 and early 1943, and it garnered a pretty poor reputation for reliability on the islands of the Pacific. However, it...
2022-11-05 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Eugene Reising developed a .45 ACP submachine gun in the late 1930s that was basically the opposite of the Thompson - it was light and handy, fired from a closed bolt with a delayed blowback action...
2022-11-04 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
The Auto Ordnance company made a couple different types of cases for the Thompson SMG, and today we are going to look at two of the most common and one exceptionally cool type. The two most typical...
2022-11-03 13:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Someone digging through the warehouses an FN in Herstal found 400 FAL rifles turned in by the Belgian Gendarmerie when they upgraded to newer arms...and they decided to send them to the US as parts...
2022-11-02 13:02:01 +0000 UTC View Post
It's time for the annual Halloween PCC/shotgun match! By popular demand, I went as Futurama's Lee Lemon this year, with the Angstadt Arms MDP-9 PCC. Since the last time I was shooting it, I've gott...
2022-10-31 12:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
The pre-war Beretta Model 38A was a magnificent SMG, but it included a fair number of fancy elements that would prove to costly to justify once wartime production needs grew. Beretta would simplify...
2022-10-29 13:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post
The Beretta Model 38A was an outstanding SMG at the beginning of World War Two, loaded with features and very easy to shoot. However, it was expensive and complex to produce, and pressures of war f...
2022-10-28 13:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post
In 1942, the US Navy adopted the Mk22 Pedestal mount, which fitted a pair of water-cooled Browning M2 machine guns (one left-hand feed and one right-hand). It was used for antiaircraft use primaril...
2022-10-27 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Amos Rogers and Julius Spencer ran a company making mostly farm equipment in the 1840s and 1850s. In 1859, they took on a firearms manufacturing contract (as mechanical fabrication companies often ...
2022-10-26 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
The Johnson LMG was adopted by the US Marine Corps for specialist units like Paramarines and Raiders, and saw use in some of the fiercest island campaign of the Pacific (in addition to use in Europ...
2022-10-25 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
While the Johnson LMG was issued in limited quantities throughout World War Two, notably to Marine Raiders, Paramarines, and the 1st Special Service Force, the US never issued web gear made for its...
2022-10-24 13:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post
A crash program to produce the PPD 34/38 after the initial battles of the Winter War, even as the improved PPD 40 was being rapidly developed. These are very rare gun today, and we have the chance ...
2022-10-22 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
The Soviet Union adopted its first submachine gun in 1935 after trials of some 14 different design in 1932/33. The winner of the trials was Vasily Degtyarev, once of the Soviet Union’s most proli...
2022-10-21 13:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post
During the 1970s and 1980s, Colt wanted to sell not just standard M16 rifle and CAR-15 carbines to foreign military customers, but also wanted to supply support weapons. They put together the Model...
2022-10-20 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
The Winchester 1866 was chambered for the .44 Henry rimfire cartridge, like the Henry rifle before it. Before too long, however, centerfire ammunition began to take over as the best and most common...
2022-10-19 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Finland adopted the AK in 1962, as the m/62 - a milled receiver pattern. By the late 1960s the Valmet factory was experimenting with stamped receiver design to reduce costs. The first stamped Valme...
2022-10-18 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
In 1886, the Remington company fell into financial insolvency. It was reorganized as the Remington Arm Co under the leadership of Marcellus Hartley, and in 1890 the company made an attempt to compe...
2022-10-17 13:00:19 +0000 UTC View Post
I have found the "cheek pistol" concept from Rhett Neumayer at Demonstrated Concepts to be pretty interesting. When I was thinking about what pistol designs might be suitable for this sort of use, ...
2022-10-15 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
"Pistols of the Warlords" is available and shopping now from Headstamp Publishing:
2022-10-14 12:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
On my recent trip to Finland for Finnish Brutality, I spent a few days first in Iceland, with my friend Dr. Jackson Crawford (2022-10-13 12:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Immediately upon the liberation of France in 1944, the French military began a process of developing a whole new suite of small arms. As it applied to SMGs, the desire was for a design in 9mm Parab...
2022-10-12 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
When I got a tour of Arex Defense in Slovenia, one of the really neat things I saw (which I had not seen elsewhere before) was a machine for making MG links. It's a single really long piece of hard...
2022-10-11 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
George Kellgren is the brains behind KelTec and all their unorthodox designs. But before he formed KelTec, he created Grendel Inc, where he began his long career in the firearms industry. The first...
2022-10-10 12:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
As the end of World War Two loomed close, the German arms industry turned to a number of Volkssturm rifle designs. These were the crudest and simplest rifles that could be made to work with minimal...
2022-10-08 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
One of the rarest versions of the FN49 rifle is the Belgian Congo contract, made to equip the Force Publique there - the military force in the territory when it was a Belgian colony. A total of 2,7...
2022-10-07 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostFrom Nick on Patreon:
"What small arm of the 20th century do you think got the most updates and changes from first production model to last? Was the effort worth it? Or should this country/co...
2022-10-06 12:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
From Nick on Patreon:
"What small arm of the 20th century do you think got the most updates and changes from first production model to last? Was the effort worth it? Or should this country/co...
2022-10-06 12:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post