Training scars: the idea that your practice routine will dictate what you do under stress. Is it real? Yes. Does it need to be? No.

The first objective of basic practice and training is to become proficient at specific tasks, like drawing a pistol or reloading a rifle. Unfortunately, that seems...

The fine folks at DSA had this rather mysterious MP5 in their reference collection, and we decided to take it out to the range to see if it would run. It's an MP-5, but chambered for .45ACP using altered M3 Grease Gun magazines. The original manufacturer is unclear; it's marked as being imported ...

Courtesy of DSA, I'm out at the range today with a Vektor CR-21 to see just how it handles compared to a regular Galil...

When France decided to adopt a new 9x19mm submachine gun after World War Two, all three of the main French arsenals (St Etienne/MAS, Chatellerault/MAC, and Tulle/MAT) developed designs to compete for adoption. Tulle would eventually win and their design became the MAT-49, but the other lines of d...

The Stanley Bull-Dog revolver is an English-production revolver which is marked as being "Hill's Patent". The gun uses an interesting simultaneous ejection system similar to the Fagnus - which one would assume was the subject of Hill's aforementioned patent. The guns were made in a variety of con...

Over the next couple weeks we will be looking at several Polish firearms, and the first one is today: the G29/40. When German forces overran the arms factory in Radom, Poland, they captured in nearly completely intact. One of the guns being produced there had been the wz. 29; a Polish version of ...

Thanks to all my great Patreon supporters who make this possible! We have a great selection of questions once again. Want to ask one yourself? Sign up over at Patreon!

The tools I mention in today's second question are these:

Screwdriver set: http://amzn.to/2gL9tLV
Punch set: http://amzn.t...

In late 1940, the US military opened a competition for what would become the M1 Carbine - a rifle that needed to use the .30 Carbine cartridge and weigh no more than 5 pounds (2.27kg). No fewer than 9 companies and designers entered the first round of competition in April 1941, including John Gar...

The LeMat grapeshot revolver is one of the most distinctive and powerful sidearms of the US Civil War, sporting both a 9-round .42 caliber cylinder of pistol bullets and a shotgun barrel as cylinder axis. Alexander LeMat received a contract for 15,000 of these guns for the Confederate military, b...

Time for another monthly Q&A video - thanks to my supporters on Patreon for helping to make this possible! I have a whole bunch of questions this time, and have timestamps for each individual one here:

0:52 - Barrel length in terms of bore diameter
3:18 - Why did the XM8 fail?
http://weapo...

The Walther A115 was one of the semiauto rifles developed in pre-WWII Germany. Apparently only three were made, and it uses a neat combination of sheet metal construction with a rotating bolt and annular gas piston like the later G41 rifles. This particular example was examined by Aberdeen Provin...

The Johnson light machine gun is one of the lesser-known US military machine guns of WWII, although it seems to have been very popular with all those who used it in combat. Melvin Johnson made a commendable attempt to get his rifles adopted by the US military, but was unable to unseat the M1 Gara...

Questions in today's Q&A:

1:04 - What was Rollin White's revolver like?
7:09 - Why did pan magazines disappear?
10:14 - Why no pointed pistol bullets?
13:24 - Funky rounds like Trounds or Gyrojet rockets
17:47 - Current US MHS trials
19:55 - Underappreciated designers
24:17 - Import mark...

In the early 1960s, an influential but little-known (today) firearms designer by the name of Robert Hillberg came up with an idea for a cheap-but-effective armament for the masses. With encouragement from DARPA, the Winchester company took up manufacture and development of the design, under the n...

Another set of questions from my awesome Patreon contributors!
0:43 - Guns flexing in slow motion
3:41 - Destructives Devices - the guns vs the ammo
9:54 - What makes some stocked pistols exempt from the NFA?
14:41 - Unusual things build into rifle stocks
17:36 - Best rifle/pistol that neve...

The Whitney-Scharf was the final rifle manufactured by the Whitney company before it was bought out and closed down by Winchester in 1888. Only about 2,000 of these rifles were made before that time.

The General Electric M134 "Minigun" is essentially an electrically-powered Gatling gun - the conceptual operation of the gun is identical to Dr. Gatling's original creation. What has changed, however, is the chambering (it's in 7.62 NATO), the power source (an electric motor), and the feed mechan...

In this month's Q&A video, I take on more questions from my wonderful Patreon supporters, including:

* Would we still have Browning pistols if the 1911 had not been adopted?
* Gun designs from non-industrialized places
* British .303 Conversions of the Martini
* Weapons best left forgotten
...

The MAG-7 is an unusual shotgun made in South Africa in the 1990s, and imported to the US in small numbers. The idea of the gun was to offer maximum firepower in the smallest package possible, and to this end the gun had no buttstock and a 12.6 inch (320mm) barrel. It was chambered for 60mm 12 ga...

The Mauser Selbstlader M1915 was the result of many years of work by the Mauser brothers to develop a semiautomatic rifle suitable for military use. They tried many different types of operating systems, and this one is a particularly unusual recoil-operated mechanism.

Only about 600 of these r...

The Hamada was one of very few Japanese military weapons made by a private commercial firm. Designed and introduced in 1940, the basic Type Hamada pistol was a blowback .32ACP handgun similar in style to the Browning model 1910. About 5000 of them were manufactured during WWII, although most of t...

The 4-bore (approximately 1"/25mm bore diameter) is the largest shoulder-fired rifle actually used for hunting. Developed in the days of black powder muzzleloaders, it was intended to be the ultimate rifle of last resort, to stop a charging elephant, rhinoceros, or other angry behemoth by sheer s...

Note: This video was filmed over a year ago, but I have been holding it in anticipation of the rifle going to auction. That doesn't seem to be happening, so I'm posting the video now.

Only three example of this 1925 prototype rifle from MBT (Metallurgica Brescia gia Tempini) were ever made, an...

In the aftermath of WWI the newly-united Poland had a military equipped with a mishmash of leftover light machine guns, from Chauchats to MG 08/15s. They wanted to adopt a new standardized weapon, and trials in the 1920s found the FN BAR to be the best option. Unlike the American military BAR, th...