I don't normally take actual backup guns to the backup gun match; it's usually some oddball old pistol. But today, I decided to bring out the new S&W Shield Plus in .30 Super Carry. It's actually exactly the sort of gun that the match is designed for. I chose to minimize the size of the gun by us...

The Bren 807 is an interesting hybrid of the Bren 805 and Bren 2. It was introduced by CZ in 2016 as a lower-priced model than the Bren 2. It was offered in both 5.56mm and 7.62x39mm, although it was not intended to be user-changeable between calibers. Its introduction was done in part with hopes...

With the Velvet Revolution and the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia, a new Czech Republic immediately looked to NATO membership. This would require rearming the Czech Army with a rifle in 5.56mm NATO. After some unsuccessful dabbling with the Lada/CZ2000 AK platform, CZ began to develop the Br...

After a lot of requests from law enforcement and military organizations, CZ developed a collapsing buttstock for the Bren 2 rifle. It requires a different upper receiver than the standard Bren 2, although that upper will become standard in future production. Combined with a short barrel, the coll...

CZ has taken the Bren 2 design, and scaled it up to 7.62mm NATO as the Bren 2 BR (Battle Rifle). A decent number of military and security organizations are still interested in the larger cartridge, including the Hungarian military and Kenyan game rangers. Essentially this is the same mechanism as...

The Soviet Union began to take an interest in military suppressors in the early 1930s, and experimented with things like suppressors for the DP light machine gun. Through the 1930s a variety of different designs were tested, but none were found really suitable. Everything they tested was deemed t...

Only available direct from Vickers Guide:
https://www.vickersguide.com/hk-vol1-1

The Vickers Guide series of books by Larry Vickers and James Rupley began as beautifully photographed firearms art books - and that's all they claim to be today. However, with the release of Heckler & Koch Volume...

Available on Amazon:
https://amzn.to/3Ak8w3Y

Tom Whiteman (of Legacy Collectibles) has just recently published "Third Reich Lugers: An Illustrated Collector's Guide to German Military Lugers from World War II". The full title pretty much says it all here; this is not a history of the Luger or...

The story of the Czechoslovak resistance to German annexation and occupation during World War Two is a pretty bleak one - the Gestapo did a very effective job of rooting out almost the entire organization. One of the most notable actions taken was the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich by two SOE...

The Blyskawica ("LIghtning") is an SMG developed in occupied Poland to be issued out to Home Army units during Operation Tempest; the liberation uprisings planned for the advance of the Red Army into Poland.

The gun was developed starting in September 1942 by two engineers, Wacław Zawrotny and...

It was no secret in the international arms market that Mauser was doing a tremendous business selling C96 pistols into Warlord-era China in the 1920s. The C96 was an imposing and powerful handgun that was highly regarded in China. Spanish companies including Bestigui Hermanos took note, and start...

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 kits. So FN America has these 400 kits now, and they are selling them off via lottery (free entry f...

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 2,795 of them were delivered (all actually AFN-49s, chambered for .30-06); 1,500 rifles in 1951, 1,100 ...

The Browning High Power (“Grande Puissance”, aka GP-35) was developed by Fabrique National in Belgium, designed primarily by John Browning’s apprentice Dieudonné Saive. It began in the very early 1920s as a pistol designed for a new French Army requirement, but eventually split into two separate ...

The Bechowiec (or Beha) is a fascinating SMG produced in small numbers in southern Poland under German occupation during World War Two. It was made for use by the Bataliony Chłopskie (Peasant Battalions) by a young man named Henryk Strąpoć.

Henryk built his first (quite illegal) gun at the age...

I recently had a chance to visit the Austrian Museum of Military History, and figured it would be nice to film a tour for the channel. The museum is in Vienna (the address is actually "Arsenal 1") and is one of the oldest continuously-operating military museums in Europe. There are four main gall...

A very small batch of special target model pistols was made at the very end of Astra 400 production in 1945. They were fitted with Patridge front sights and adjustable revolver-style square-notch rear sights, much improved over the stock Astra 400 sights. In addition, they were fitted with a spec...

From Richard on Patreon:
"Why didn't the M3 and M3A1 (grease gun) have a double stack/double feed mag and use the Thompson mag? It would have certainly simplified logistics."

The answer to the first part is that the M3 used a single-feed magazine because it was largely copied from the Sten. A...

From Michal on Patreon:
"Can you talk about difference between .223 Remington and 5.56 NATO? Or in more general terms about possibility of using military grade ammo in civilian rifles. I heard everything from 'it will explode' to 'it will work normally'."

The short answer is that the differen...

Asked by Charles on Patreon:
"I'd love to hear you do a deep dive on the commissioning and procurement process of the Chauchat compared to the FAMAS or the HK416F (or the STEN and the L85, PPSh41 and the AK-12 etc). The specific question to answer would be: 'why does defense procurement take so ...

From Jack on Patreon:
"Why did the US go on to develop the M1 Garand instead of continuing development of the BAR? With the BAR you already have a self-loading rifle with as much firepower as later battle rifles of the Cold War (such as the M-14), including detachable 20 round magazines. Why n...

A question I have been asked by several different people in several Q&A threads is:

"Does the Savage rotating-barrel system actually do anything?"

In his 1905 patent, Elbert Searle specifically claims that his design creates a positively locked breech. He did this, in theory, by having a sy...

From Jamie on Utreon:
"I know naval gatling guns like the 20mm CIWS uses gain twist rifling, but are or were there any commercial or military small arms that used gain twist rifling?"

Yes, there have been some significant uses of progressive (gain) twist rifling on military and civilian small...

From Nintendoeats on Utreon:
"Modern centerfire and rimfire cartridges seem (to the casual observer) like they would always have been the simplest cartridge types to make. Why was pinfire ever used, and how was it economically manufactured?"

Essentially, pinfire represents a cartridge develop...