Rafael Mendoza was Mexico’s premier domestic arms designer, and the Model 1934 LMG is probably his most successful design. He began work on it in 1929, and it entered testing with the Mexican Army in 1932. It was formally accepted by the Mexican Army in 1934 (hence the designation) and would serv...

Patented by Alejandro Obregon in Mexico in 1934 and in the US in 1938, this pistol is an adaptation of the classic Browning 1911 to use a rotating barrel locking system. In addition, Obregon integrated a couple other clever elements. The safety lever and bolt stop were combined into a single part...

The Colt 1902 Military model was a more popular pistol than some folks might expect, and remained in production well after the introduction of the various .45ACP caliber Colts. It was also rather popular in Mexico - shipments to Mexican dealers accounted for about 2400 guns, roughly 13% of total ...

Mexico’s President for nearly 30 years, Porfirio Diaz was very interested in modernizing the Mexican Army. He invested in new artillery, magazine guns, and small arms - such as the Mondragon semiautomatic rifle. In addition, Mexico tested the Luger pistol circa 1903-1905. They found it to be quit...

The Trejo pistols were made by a small family company in Puebla, Mexico from the late 1940s until the early 1970s. They made primarily .22 LR rimfire pistols, in both small (Model 1) and large (Model 2) frame sizes. They were basically styled after the Colt 1911, but with a more aggressive grip a...

Most people who recognize the name Mondragon know it from Manuel Mondragon's model 1908 semiauto rifle, the first such rifle to be adopted on a large scale by a military (the Mexican Army, in this case). Well, Mondragon was designing arms for many years before that particular rifle. For example, ...

The M1908 Mondragon is widely acknowledged to have been the first self-loading rifle adopted as a standard infantry arm by a national military force. There are a couple earlier designs used by military forces, but the Mondragon was the first really mass-produced example and deserves its place in ...

One of the more interesting (and rare!) variations on John Browning's iconic 1911 automatic pistol is the Obregon. Developed in Mexico in the mid 1930s, this pistol uses a frame nearly identical to the stock 1911, but has a completely different locking system. It uses a rotating barrel, like a St...