Today we have a look at the EFA-2k Makarov holster that was "made for Spetznaz". I am extremely skeptical that any Spetznaz operator ever actually deployed with one of these things, though. It's a holster with a neat mechanical function; you can push the pistol down through the bottom of the holster and it will automatically ...
2023-12-12 12:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
The VSS (Special Sniper Rifle) Vintorez was one of two dedicated silenced rifles developed in Russia in the 1980s. The Vintorez was given a very good barrel and intended for precision shooting, while the AS (Special Assault rifle) Val used the same action and suppressor, but had a pistol grip and folding stock, and was intend...
2023-12-11 12:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Yesterday we looked at the history and the mechanics of the Vektor CP1, and today I'm taking it out to the monthly BackUp Gun Match. It isn't a pistol with a good reputation, but it's also not a pistol very many people gave a fair shake to. It has a decent grip, pretty decent sights, a fixed barrel, and a single-action trigge...
2023-12-09 12:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
The Vektor CP-1 was developed by Lyttleton Engineering Works (who owned the Vektor brand) in 1995 for a South African Police contract. They lost that contract to the Republic Arms RAP-401, but decided to put the CP-1 onto the civilian market instead. It was a pretty decent seller for them, and after a couple years they starte...
2023-12-08 12:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Today I'm speaking with retired Master Sergeant John Keene, the NFA export for Morphy's. John is a machine gun collector himself, and between this and his work with Morphy's he has exceptional experience and expertise. So we have a slate of questions for him from Patrons:
0:00 - Introduction
0:29 - What’s the be...
2023-12-04 12:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
C&Rsenal posted a Top 10 Pistols of WWI video a few days ago, and I didn't entirely agree with their choices - so I figured I'd do my own list. I'm using the same base conditions that they did (only locked-breech pistols), and I'm judging the guns based on their desirability to a trained and practiced pistol gunfighter. I...
2023-12-03 12:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
When the Allies occupied German at the end of World War Two, the Walther factory at Zella Mehlis was initially garrisoned by American soldiers (who did a pretty thorough job liberating all the guns they could find there) but eventually ended up in the Soviet occupation zone (and later East Germany). This was in Suhl, a major ...
2023-12-02 12:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Venezuela was the First Nation to purchase the FN-49 rifle, before even the Belgian military. In fact, the Venezuelan contract was signed in 1948, before the "FN-49" designation was even in place. Venezuela bought a total of 8,012 rifles in two batches - 4,000 rifles plus 12 cutaway training examples delivered in 1949 and a f...
2023-12-01 12:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
In stock and shipping now: https://www.headstamppublishing.com/ww2-usa
European sales: https://www.headstampbook.com/
Small Arms of WWII: United Sta...
2023-11-30 12:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
The Maxim Gun was the first successful true machine gun, and it became extremely popular worldwide. Maxim sent his first two working models to Enfield for testing in 1887, and by 1889 he had what he termed the "World Standard" model. No two contracts were quite identical, as the gun was constantly being tweaked and improved, ...
2023-11-29 12:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
The Portative was an attempt by the Hotchkiss company to make a light machine gun companion to their heavy model (which had found significant commercial success). The Portative used the same feed strips, albeit loaded upside down, and the same gas piston operation, but a very different locking system. Instead of a tiling lock...
2023-11-27 12:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Charles H. Ballard is much better known for his single shot rifle design, but he also designed, patented, and produced a .41 rimfire caliber derringer. These were popular concealed weapons during the 19th century, and remain in production even today (though no longer in .41 rimfire...). Production began circa 1870, and a few ...
2023-11-25 12:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
It's time for the monthly 2-Gun Action Challenge Match, and this time I'm bringing out the Madsen! I've rigged it up like the BOPE (Brazilian military police special teams) typically use them, with the flash hider and bipod removed to save weight. It's still a heck of a gun, weighing in at about 20 pounds (9kg). I've paired i...
2023-11-24 12:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
FN played a role in the production of Polish wz.28 BARs, and in the process obtained a copy of the technical package for the weapon, and converted it to metric measurements. Under the supervision of Dieudonne Saive, this was used as the basis for FN's own BAR production, called the Modelé 30. Production was done with a licen...
2023-11-22 12:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
When Colt decided that it wanted a piece of the Derringer market, it used a tactic we are used to seeing today: it found an existing manufacturer and just bought them outright. This was the National Firearms Company, which was manufacturing a Derringer designed by Daniel Moore in 1861. Moore made the guns himself until 1865 w...
2023-11-20 12:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Yesterday we took a look at the vz.52/57 rifle in 7.62x39mm, and today I have one of its 7.62x45mm predecessors out at the range. Not so much to do some shooting, as it turns out, but to fix malfunctions and wait for hangfires and duds...
However, we did have enough success to put some 7.62x45mm into ballistics gel and ...
2023-11-18 12:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
We don't need the SKS, we have gun designers at home! In the early days of the Cold War, the Czechoslovak communist party was on very good terms with Josef Stalin, and were able to design and use their own small arms. A whole new slate of small arms were developed in the early 1950s, with a rifle, pistol, and light machine gu...
2023-11-17 12:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
First produced in 1902, the Madsen was one of the first practical light machine guns, and it remained in production for nearly 5 decades. The Madsen system is a rather unusual recoil-operated mechanism with a tilting bolt and a remarkably short receiver. The most unusual variation on the system was the belt-fed, high rate-of-...
2023-11-15 12:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
The Colt Model 1903, aka Pocket Hammerless, aka Model M, was a massively successful design for Colt on the commercial market. It was chambered for the .32ACP cartridge, with a .380 model introduced in 1908. During World War Two, the US government took an interest in the pistol. A total of 17,330 were purchased in .32 ACP, and...
2023-11-13 12:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
The Breda Model 37 was Italy's standard heavy machine gun (which meant a rifle-caliber gun fired only from a tripod) during World War Two. It was chambered for the 8x59mm cartridge, as Italy used a two-cartridge system at the time, with 6.5mm for rifles and the heavier 8mm for machine guns to exploit their longer effective ra...
2023-11-11 12:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Cossack forces have long been a key cavalry element of the Russian military, and this did not change during the Soviet era. The Cossacks had their own rather distinctive style of sword, the shashka, and the Red Army maintained the tradition of issuing them to Cossack cavalry troopers. In 1927, a new pattern was adopted, and i...
2023-11-10 12:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
https://practiscore.com/moons-out-goons-out/register
We are running another night rifle match this year, called Moons Out Goons Out. It's an 8-stage, 2-night match taking place at the Echo Valley Training Center outside Winchest...
2023-11-08 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
The Madsen LMG was first introduced in 1902, and it is still in use with police forces in Brazil today. The Madsen was not very popular with major European armies, but it sold extensively in South America, with Brazil acquiring batches in 1932, 1935, and 1949. These were converted to 7.62mm NATO in the 1950s, and the military...
2023-11-08 12:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
I really enjoy finding guns that can be positively traced through multiple different parts of history, and Lugers can be a great source for that sort of story. Today I have a Luger from Royal Tiger Imports that has an incredible amount of history to it...
The upper assembly of this Luger was built in 1917 for the...
2023-11-07 12:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Morphy's recently took the world record for the most expensive machine gun ever sold at public auction - with a transferrable FN Minimi. It sold for a winning bid of $490,000, which became a total price of $588,000 after adding the 20% buyer's premium. Good heavens. So today, let's consider why someone might speak THAT MUCH m...
2023-11-06 12:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, CZ started exploring more commercial export options for its guns. In addition to resurrecting (well, attempting to) the vz.68 Skorpion in 9x19mm, they also developed a selective fire version of their landmark CZ-75 pistol. Production began in 1995, and shut down in 2000. A few ...
2023-11-04 12:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostI'm looking to commission a piece of art based on Alphonse Mucha's work - is there anyone here who is an artist interested in that sort of project? If you are, please drop me an email at ianm07@gmail.com with links to some of your work, and we can discuss details. Thanks!
2023-11-03 16:55:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Contrary to what you might expect, Mauser was actually the last company to produce a fully automatic model of the C96 "broomhandle" pistol. The C96 was very popular in China (Mauser sent hundreds of thousands of them to China) and Spanish firms like Bestigui Hermanos and Astra jumped at the chance to make their own lookalikes...
2023-11-03 12:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
0:00 Introduction and History of Underwater Firearms
0:55 Engineering Challenges and Russian Underwater Firearms
2:07 Development, Adoption, and Global Usage of the H&K P11
3:36 Examination of H&K P11: Fired Barrel Cluster and Firing Mechanics
5:24 Unique Features of the H&K P 11: Silence a...
2023-11-01 13:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
The “Guycot” is a rocket ball chain rifle system named for its two creators, Paulin Gay (the designer) and Henri Guénot (the financier). They patented the idea in 1879, and manufactured it in both rifle and pistol form - I have a previous video on one of the pistols and today we are looking at two of the rifles. The chai...
2023-10-30 13:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
