Today we're looking at two books on the subject of Nepalese firearms. The video goes a bit longer than usual, but the story behind these books is a really cool one -- a lost time capsule of thousands of firearms showcasing 150 years of arms development.

We have probably out most specialized book yet for you today, entitled History Writ in Steel: German Police Markings 1900-1936. As the title suggests, it is about firearms (and to a lesser extent bayonets. rifles, and holsters) with German police property markings. The structure of German police ...

The Glock isn't a forgotten weapon by any stretch, but Paul Barrett has written a very interesting book on how the company got into gun manufacturing and how it grew so quickly.

Anyone who has looked at German arms and militaria from WWII and the years prior will be familiar with the 3-letter (or number) code system used to obscure where production was taking place. The more common codes are well known, but there are hundreds of smaller manufacturing companies or job sho...

And now, for our regular book review. We had a lot of interest in the FG-42 video we posted a couple days ago, and decided to check out the sole really good book on the gun. Many books make passing reference to the FG-42, but only one will give you an in-depth look at its design and history: Deat...

Today we have a copy of John Remling's work, a "Collector's Guide to Tokarev Pistols". It's a thin volume, but a good introduction and basic reference to the development of the TT33 Tokarev pistol and the different nations that adopted it.

Unfortunately, it does appear to be out of print, and ...

Today we take a look at Bruce Canfield's Collector's Guide to the M1 Garand and M1 Carbine. This is one of Canfield's earlier books, and is now out of print. It is still available, though, and a less expensive alternative to his revised and expanded "Complete Guide".

Most folks are not familiar with the variety of Japanese handguns available beyond the basic Type 94 and Type 14 Nambus. James Brown's guide to these guns is an excellent source of information, covering the rarer handguns used by Japan as well as the variants and manufacturing changes of the main...

Herbert McBride was a American who grew up learning to shoot from Civil War veterans and some of the big names of the American West, like Bat Masterson. He had a taste for adventure, and spent time scouting for railroads and searching for gold in Alaska. He had tried to ship out to South Africa t...

This weekend we took a look at a Beretta 1918/30 carbine, as well as a couple later Beretta SMG bolts. The 1918/30 is rather unusual in that is was designed specifically as a semiauto firearm, and uses a hammer mechanism instead of the much more common fixed firing pin setup generally found on pi...

The AG-42 was the first semiauto rifle adopted by the Swedish army, as well as the first production rifle to use a direct gas impingement operating system. Today we're taking a closer look at the Ljungman - how it operates and how to disassemble it. Enjoy!

The Hino-Komuro pistol (sometimes spelled Komura) was developed by a young Japanese inventor named Kumazo Hino, and financed by Tomijiro Komuro in the first decade of the 20th century. The gun uses a virtually unique blow-forward mechanism, which makes it very interesting to study. The rear of th...

Every pile of dusty old books you find at a gun show has a zillion reprints of Cartridges of the World and how-to pamphlets on stock refinishing from 1960. But occasionally you'll find a real gem in those piles - and this book is one of the gems. Written by R.K. Wilson and published in 1943, the ...

We have another video to post today - this time about the Steyr 1912 handgun, aka the Steyr-Hahn.

The Sig AMT was the commercial version of the PE57 military rifle. They were built in 7.62 NATO and used a roller-delayed blowback system very similar to that developed by Germany during WWII and used in the StG45 and HK91 series of rifles. The AMT is built to typical Swiss standards of quality, ...

Today we have some video of a British 1918 Farquhar-Hill rifle at the range. This rifle was an early semiauto design that was accepted by the British army too late to see service in World War I, but was used as an observer's weapon in two-seater British aircraft. It is chambered for .303 British ...

Today we take a look at Iain McCallum's "Blood Brothers: Hiram and Hudson Maxim: Pioneers of Modern Warfare" - a book deserving a place in everyone's firearms library. Most people don't realize that Hiram Maxim was a creative and technical genius, and the machine gun was one one of his many notab...

Welcome to Forgotten Weapons! Today we have an LGM 08/15 to look at - the aerial version of the German Maxim 08/15 infantry machine gun. This example was made at Spandau in 1916.

I've been promising this range video for a while now, and here it is. We took all three configurations of the C96 Broomhandle Mauser - a pistol, a carbine, and a machine pistol - out to the range for some comparisons.

Today we have a video from a range session with a 1914 Lewis Gun in .303 British. We disassemble the gun and do some shooting. The Lewis was a staple light machine gun for the British Army in the First World War, and a pretty nice gun to shoot.

Austria was a hotbed of early repeating handgun design, first with manually operated designs and shortly thereafter with self-loaders. One of the men contributing to this development in the 1880s was Josef Schulhof, a farmer-turned-gunsmith who had a number of patents and designs to his credit. H...

The Leader Dynamics T2 was produced in Australia with the intent of getting a military contract to replace the Australian military's FAL rifles. It did well in testing, but not well enough to be adopted. The rifles were available on the civilian market in both Australia and the US for a short tim...

Today we have a British Hotchkiss Portative machine gun in .303 caliber to look at. These were used by everyone on the Allied side in WWI, and were a reliable and effective gun, if not the simplest design.

The Gerat 03 was the first prototype roller-locked rifle developed by the Germans during WWII. Only a few were made, and the rifle was never put into mass production. This is the direct ancestor of the HK91 family of roller-delayed firearms.