Have museums fundamentally changed since the advent of the internet? Does this impact decisions about whether artifacts like firearms are best held in museums versus private collections for the sake of study and understanding? How do creeping deactivation standards irreparably harm the community,...

Some people put a lot of weight on the fact that the 1911 has a grip safety and a thumb safety...but I don't think many folk understand how it ended up that way. John Browning's first self-loading pistols had very different safeties...and often, no safety at all. So today, let's look at the guns ...

Is the G36 a great rifle unfairly maligned? Or is it mealy and inaccurate? Let's look at the question, and find out what was really going on with the Great G36 Controversy.

The Hollywood-spawned mythos of the M1 Carbine is that it was created by David Marshall "Carbine" Williams. The reality is far different. In real life, Williams was talented, but short-tempered, stubborn, and unable to work effectively as part of a team - and a cohesive, cooperative team is what ...

R.L. Wilson was a pillar of the firearms collecting community, and especially the Colt collecting community, in the 1970s and 80s. He wrote a slew of books on Colt, and was a major broker, dealer, and appraiser. He also betrayed the trust people put in him, as best exemplified by the "trade of th...

I get a fair number of questions about restoring sporterized rifles, so I figured I should address them in a stand-alone video...

I really don't know if this sort of format will be interesting to anyone, but I figured I might as well record it and see what you think. This is about 40 minutes of me cleaning up the Laugo Alien after its dust test, rambling about the gun and the testing as I do. Plus intermittent silent gaps w...

A lot of people see the constantly-increasing price of collectible firearms, and assume that guns must be a pretty good investment. Well, they really aren't. The stock market outperforms collectible firearms with ease. But if you want to buy guns with an eye to increasing prices, there are a few ...

This is a recording of a workshop given at the 2014 AFTE (Association of Firearm and Toolmark Examiners) conference in Seattle, on the subject of proof marks and other identifying marks on firearms, specifically arms made between roughly 1880 and 1945.

I am available to present classes on this...

This is a presentation I gave to the Arizona local AFTE (Association of Firearm and Toolmark Examiners) group in February 2015 discussing some of the uses for high speed camera photography of firearms. Specifically, this presentation was based on the Edgertonic camera I have been using for about ...

I have had a number of people email me saying that they are interested in starting a gun collection, and what would I say they should collect? I think this is a fundamentally erroneous approach to the question. There used to be a sort of understanding that "Gun Collecting" meant a specific group ...

From Paul on Patreon:
"I’ve always thought there were a lot of older guns that deserve to be reproduced, many of which could be really simple to manufacture. PSA is planning the release of their StG44 repro which is exciting. But why don’t we see this sort of thing more often. I suppose not ever...

One of the interesting implications of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is the potential for expanded legal civilian ownership of firearms, particularly rifles, in many of the smaller countries in Europe. We saw the Ukrainian government jump to legalize civilian arms ownership immediately after th...

Lots of people put together significant gun collections over a lifetime, and want to see those collections preserved after they pass. This often manifests as looking for a museum that will keep a collection intact and display it - which is unfortunately a nearly impossible goal.

First, it is v...

From crablegs21 on Utreon:

"In your opinion and in hindsight, which country had the most optimized cartridge for the their primary infantry rifle for WWII? Additionally, which country would have benefited most by switching to that cartridge prior to WWII?"

In my opinion - and I think post-w...

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...

From Arvid on Utreon:
"Why does an AR-15 need a buffer thingy? Why can't it just have a spring like every other normal gun?"

The Ar-15 really doesn't need the buffer and tube, but it is a holdover from the origins of the system: the AR-10. The intent of the AR-10 was to create a 7.62x51mm bat...

From Thunderchild on Patreon:

"How would you see a modern major nation (US, USSR/Russia, China, etc) simplify their small arms in a large scale war, WW3 or Cold War gone hot? You've mentioned in the past how most nations end up having to simplify to meet demands, so why not start simplified?"
...

From Jubs on Patreon:
"They say that 'no one's gone bankrupt making guns during a war,' but is that actually true?"

It's usually true, but not always. Even during a war, you can make enough bad choices that you can go bankrupt as a gun manufacturer, and Hopkins & Allen is a perfect example of...

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 John on Patreon:
"You've covered your fair share of strange conversion of firearms. Have you ever come across a bullpup conversion that was actually useful, and not a kludge?"

Nope.

That's basically the whole answer.

Okay, to elaborate a bit, it's because making a bullpup use blue ...

Edit: I mixed up the selector and rear pin holes; the rear takedown pin hole is not stepped. Sorry!

From Ryan on Patreon:
"Why do more rifles not have captive takedown pins? It seems that if someone is developing a rifle from the ground up there are almost no drawbacks to having them, especi...

From Nikolas on Patreon:
"Have there been any attempts to make miniaturized man-portable chain guns? Do you think there's a future for such a machine gun given modern advances in energy storage?"

Chain guns are a specific type of externally-powered machine gun. They have a single barrel, and ...

From Jan on Patreon:
"What often baffles me is the transition period of various stages of development of gun technology - in particular around the Civil War. What were the types of guns used during civil war and why weren't more modern mechanisms used, if they were available? Was it similar in w...