Our book today is German Flare Pistols and Signal Ammunition, by Dr. Lorenz Scheit (and edited in English by Dr. Geoffrey Sturgess). This is a 700-page, full-color tome covering more flare pistols and ammunition for them than you had any idea existed.

Simpson Ltd puts out Deluxe editions of se...

Flying Guns of World War I is an excellent work on aerial weaponry up to 1932, from the very first hand weapons up to heavy cannons. It goes into detail on not just the guns, but also the aircraft and tactics of the time. Pick up a copy from Amazon and enjoy!

Central Powers Pistols, by Jan Still, is a bit of a neither-fish-nor-fowl book. It has many more and better quality photos than most heavy-duty reference works, but also has much more detailed information (particularly on markings and serial numbers) than most coffee table volumes. I wasn't reall...

Our book today isn't particularly flashy or exciting, but it is a solid piece of research. It is Astra Automatic Pistols by Leonardo Antaris - and the subject is pretty self-explanatory. Antaris follows a simply and effective layout, with the book divided into chapters on each model of pistol (ma...

I ran across a mention of this book while trying to find some information on a 37mm Hotchkiss machine gun - and this book was the only reference I could find any mention of it in. Robert Mellichamp has taken on a pretty daunting task; documenting the history of the 37mm gun and ammunition from 18...

There are really no new ideas in firearms design today - some of the best and brightest engineers humanity has produced have spent the last 120+ years figuring out every possible mechanism for building self-loading firearms. What we have today in new guns are creative new ways to put together var...

We had the chance to shoot a couple of the lesser-known submachine guns used in World War II, a German MP41 and an Italian Beretta 38/44. Both are pretty typically submachine guns, firing 9mm Luger from open bolts with fixed firing pins and simple blowback actions. They both have solid wood stock...

The Ball Repeating Carbine was one of the last Civil War arms manufactured, as an initial order of 1,002 units was ordered in 1864 but not delivered until shortly after the cessation of hostilities in 1865. The carbine was designed by Albert Ball of Worcester, Massachusetts and manufactured by La...

In my defense, I want to point out that the only reason I wanted to get one of these pistols was to see how much it actually resembled the Czech vz.61 Skorpion, wich is a very nice piece of machinery. And the answer is, the Armitage "Scarab" version is like the real Skorpion in basic profile only...

The Broadwell drum was one of many feed mechanisms used on the Gatling Gun.

In many countries prior to WWII, it was not uncommon to begin preparing children for military service at fairly young ages, and several countries produces small-scale rifles for training boys who could not yet handle full-size weapons. These include France and Italy (with miniaturized Lebel and C...

Yep, it's that time again - we've had another 2-Gun Action Challenge Match. I was hoping to take a Ross rifle this month, but it didn't arrive in time - so instead I used a heavily modified M1 Garand. I've had some people ask what my personal favorite (practical-use) guns are, and this month I'm ...

It's 102F at the range, my rifle weighs 20 pounds, and the bipod puts me in Open class. Why do this? Because it's fun, that's why...2-Gun Action Challenge Match Tucson: it's like the Crossfit of run-n-gun!

The rifle is a semiauto Madsen LMG, made by Midwest Metal Creations.

Once again, we have video today from the monthly 2-gun Action Challenge Match. This time, I thought it would be interesting to do a bit of a historical matchup, and look at the oft-discussed question of how much of an advantage a shooter with an Enfield has over one with a Mauser. So, with the he...

2-Gun Action Challenge Match Overview

So, after the hype about setting the FG-42 up against the M1 at a practical action match, I unfortunately have to let you down. We had a bit of a mishap right before the match started, which rendered the FG unable to be used. It's disappointing, but we're going to get it fixed up and try again in...

The US military experimented almost continuously with new repeating rifles between the end of the US Civil War and the beginning of the 20th century, and the rifles submitted for testing are a fascinating spectrum of ideas. Many were purchased in relatively small quantities for military field tes...

William John Whiting spent about 10 years trying to get the British military to adopt his automatic pistol, and finally achieved his goal in 1913 with a contract for pistols supplied to the British Royal Navy - only to have the expense of World War I wipe away all interest in self-loading pistols.

The Walther KPK was a modified version of the PPK automatic pistol made in very small numbers by Walther in hopes of winning a new military contract. Mechanically identical to the PPK, the KPK has a lengthened slide to effectively shroud the hammer, preventing it from catching or snagging on clot...

The Walther HP was the immediate predecessor to the P38 pistol that was adopted into widespread German service. The HP (Heeres Pistole, or Army Pistol) was offered for commercial sale and export by Walther. It was formally adopted by the Swedish army in 1939, but only a small number were shipped ...

The story of the .45ACP Lugers is a bit complex, and widely misunderstood. What most people believe is that two such guns were made for US military testing, one was lost, and the other is worth a million dollars. Well, that's virtually all incorrect. In actuality, probably about a half dozen were...

I recently had a chance to take a look at a rifle that has been floating around the Japanese collector's community causing grief since for at least 25 years. It is a Type 99 Arisaka, specifically a first-series Nagoya production gun, serial number 84664. What makes it unusual is that it had a Typ...

The JoLoAr pistol was a combination of a poor-selling and unremarkable Spanish blowback semiauto pistol called the Sharpshooter and an idea by a man named Jose Lopez Arnaiz (whose name is the source of the pistol's name). Arnaiz conceived the idea of mounting a lever (palanca in Spanish) onto a p...

I recently got a copy of Tom Davis Jr's brand new book on the history of British use of the Thompson SMG. This is very much a history book rather than a technical book, and it is based on meticulously researched documents from the British national archives, right down to the hand-written notes sc...