The US first tested the Luger in 1901, and it seemed potentially good enough that the government spent $15,000 to buy 1,000 of the pistols (in 7.65mm Luger; the only cartridge available at the time) for field trials. The trials resulted in a variety of complaints, but particular among them was a ...

This is a prototype or one-off over/under sporting shotgun, made in a bullpup configuration. It is basically two long slabs of wood clamshell around a pair of barrels, with the action at the very end in the stock. The breech rotates up to open, activated by a lever on the surface of the buttplate...

Bulgaria bought its first Lugers in 1903; 1000 Old Model guns in 7.65mm. It bought another 1300 New Model Lugers in 1908 (again in 7.65mm), but both of these orders were intended for private purchase by officers. It wasn’t until 1911 that Bulgaria formally adopted the Luger as an army sidearm, an...

The Ballester-Molina was designed to be a more economical pistol to produce than the 1911A1, which had been adopted by Argentina as the Pistola Sistema Colt Modelo 1927. It was produced by a company called HAFDASA, an Argentine franchise of the Hispano-Suiza firm created by Arturo Ballester and E...

The AR-18 has its genesis in the AR-10. I n an effort to develop a less expensive version of that rifle, Armalite created the AR-12, an experimental rifle which used a stamped or bent sheet metal lower receiver in place of the forged AR10 lower. When Armalite sold the AR-15 patents to Colt, they ...

Manufactured in the 1880s and 1890s to serve the professional hunter market, Pieper’s 7-barrel Mitrailleuse was essentially a rimfire volley gun. It was offer in both .22 rimfire and .32 rimfire calibers, both models having clusters of 7 rifled barrels which fired simultaneously with a single tri...

Let's take a look at what some of the guns in the last RIA sale went for, shall we? If you've got a cool million bucks you can get an old revolver with no finish!

The KKW (“Klein Kaliber Wehrsportgewehr”, or small caliber military sporting rifle) was developed by BDW in 1937 as an amalgamation of various .22 rifle elements form other manufacturers as well as BSW itself. It was intended to fill the role of the German national standard target rifle. When he ...

Sweden tested the Luger in 1904, along with all the major semiauto pistols available at the time. The Luger was found to be the most accurate gun in the trials, but expensive and not as reliable in cold weather as the Browning 1903 - which was formally adopted as the m/1907 a few years later and ...

When East Germany received the technical data package for the 5.45x39mm cartridge, they began a program to make their own AK-74 model. Alongside, they also wanted a precision rifle using the new cartridge, and that became the SSG (Scharfschützengewehr) 82. It was developed for the internal securi...

During the Civil War, the Union purchased about 12,000 Spencer rifles and many tens of thousands of carbines, and the weapon became a standard arm for the Cavalry service. After the war, thousands of Spencers were in warehouses and arsenals in need of refit either from combat damage or just abuse...

The SPAS-15 was Franchi’s successor to the SPAS-12, improved with detachable box magazines (6 round capacity) and a construction of simple sheet metal samplings and polymer. Like the SPAS-12, the -15 allows the used to switch between manual pump action and semiautomatic at basically the touch of ...

First appearing in the decade of so before World War One, the Scheintod guns were designed to fire either flash or irritant cartridges, not lethal projectiles. The word “scheintod”, in fact, translates to something along the lines of “apparent death”, as in something that looks lethal but actuall...

I debated whether or not to film this rifle, because I can’t say with 100% confidence that it is genuine. It really seems genuine to me though, and so I decided to use it as an example of the sort of conundrum that comes up in gun collecting. Here I will present the evidence that suggests that it...

This appears to be a handmade prototype form one P. (or J. P.) Percy of Albany, NY, although I don’t have any information about who he was or when he built this. The gun itself is a .44/.45 caliber rimfire rifle, with three triggers. The first is actually a latch to release the tip-up barrel, and...

In 1798, the US Congress allocated a huge sum of money - $800,000 - to the procurement of military equipment to supplement the output of the Springfield Armory. One of the first contracts placed with this money was for 500 .69 caliber flintlock pistols from Simeon North of Berlin, NH. These would...

The Norinco 313 is the semiauto commercial variation of the Type 81 LMG. The Type 81 was a small arms family of rifle and LMG developed to finally replace the SKS and RPD in Chinese military service. When the Chinese and Soviets parted ways, China was making milled AKs, but did not have the stamp...

Rufus Nichols and Edward Childs had a partnership in Conway MA making revolving firearms in the late 1830s. Their patent was granted in 1838, for an indexing mechanism that linked the cylinder to the hammer. However, the guns also used a spring loaded cylinder with nested cones on the mouth of ea...

The Liliput was made by the August Menz Company in Germany during the 1920s, in several variations. It was introduced in both 4.25mm and 6.35mm (.25 ACP) and also later offered in 7.65mm (.32ACP). These were typical defensive pistol chambering at the time, although the 6.35mm version was much mor...

William Marston was born in the UK in 1822 and emigrated to the US in the 1830s with his father, who was a gun smith. William became a naturalized citizen in 1843, and in 1844 went to work for his father in the family business. He would later open his own shop, and became successful making a wide...

The US Navy held a trial in 1894 to adopt a new rifle, one to finally replace the .45-70 black powder Trapdoor Springfield. The rifle was to be chambered for the .236 Navy cartridge, a radically modern small bore round firing a 135 grain bullet at a remarkably fast 2500 fps. This was a lightweigh...

In 1983, Dennis Tippmann started a company making beautiful half-scale Browning machine guns, fully functional and chambered for the .22LR cartridge. This was a pretty cool idea, and the guns remain popular today because of their mechanics and easy transportation and cheap shooting cost - but th...

The HK41 (designation: “paramilitary rifle”, caliber 7.62x51mm) was the first semiautomatic version of the G3 military rifle. It was made for the Bundeswehr reservist market; a rifle that could be privately owned in Germany but which would duplicate the handling of the G3 for reservists to practi...

The H&K Model 4 was named for the fact that it was offered in four different calibers - .22LR, .25 ACP, .32 ACP, and .380 ACP. The gun came with a complete set of spare barrels and magazines to allow conversion between all of them, and interesting feature not offered by any other pistols like it ...