Even during World War Two, it was clear that the United States was interested in improving on the M1 Garand rifle. A company that could develop and update to the Garand to make it selective-fire and feed from a box magazine would be in a great position to sell the government a ton of rifles, and ...

The Scotti Model X (the X standing for the 10th year of the Italian Fascist era, or 1932) was one of several semiauto rifles tested by the Italian military during the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Scotti entry into these competitions was chambered for the 6.5mm Carcano cartridge and used standa...

A lot of people think that the US was the only country in World War II to mass-issue a semiautomatic infantry rifle, but that isn't true. While the US was the only country to issue everyone a semi auto, both the Soviet Union and Germany produced large numbers of them. The Soviet rifle in particul...

The Japanese military was interested in finding a new self-loading rifle to adopt in the 1930s. The development project began with a request to retired General Kijiro Nambu who designed a gas-operate,d rotating bolt rifle but could not bring it up to the standards demanded by the military and opt...

Sold at auction for $172,500.

By 1932, the competition for the new US semiautomatic service rifle had been narrowed down to just two designs: John Pedersen's delayed blowback toggle action and John Garand's gas-operated action. Both rifles were chambered for Pedersen's .276 caliber cartridge, ...

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 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...

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...

Given the status of the AR15 as the preeminent military rifle still today, it comes as a surprise to many people to learn just how old the gun really is. Civilian production of the SP-1 model by Colt actually began in 1964, which means that early SP-1 rifles started becoming Curio & Relic qualifi...

The Professional Ordnance Carbon-15 was developed during the assault weapons ban in the United States as a way to market a pistol version of an AR15 action without exceeding the weight limit imposed by legislation. While Olympic Arms achieved this goal through extensive skeletonization, Professio...

Developed in the 1980s, the H&K PSG-1 is one of the most iconic sniper rifles in popular culture, with a reputation for unmatched accuracy. It is, in fact, an excellent rifle, and today we will look at why.

The PSG-1 was introduced in the 1980s and based on the German G3 rifle action. Onto thi...

With the British military's return to Afghanistan in the Global War on Terror, it was found that the very long engagement ranges made it necessary to have a 7.62mm designated marksman's rifle, in addition to the 5.56mm scoped rifles in service. This was not unique to the British military; the US ...

Built in the 1990s, this rifle is part of an experimental series of precision rifles made by H&K. It is marked "SL7 Match", and uses the same action as the standard SL7 sporting rifle (the roller-delay blowback system of the G3). It is set in a competition type stock the an adjustable cheekrest a...

Today I am out at the range with a new M91 from Zastava USA. This is the civilian version of the Serbian M91 sniper’s rifle, which was developed in the 1990s to replace the M76 in Serbian Army service. The M76 was chambered for 8mm Mauser, while the M91 uses 7.62x54R. Aside from a 3-position adju...

The Walther WA-2000 has a reputation of being the ultimate German sniper rifle, with no expense spared in its design and construction. Designed in the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, the WA2000 was intended to be a police sniper rifle, not a military arm. It is a bullpup layout an...

The M1C was an M1 Garand with a telescopic sight, using a mounting system developed by the Griffin & Howe company of New York. It utilized a rail pinned and screwed to the left side of the receiver, coupled with a quick-release scope on top. The rails had to be installed prior to heat treating th...

The MC-1952 was a variation on the M1C Garand sniper rifle, adopted by the US Marine Corps in 1952. The Marines were not satisfied with the low magnification of the Lyman scopes on the Army M1C, and after some experimentation they adopted their own version of the rifle using a 4x scope made by Ko...

The M1D was the final adopted form of John Garands sniper M1 rifle, originally the M1E8. It was intended to be a kit issued in the field to add optical sights to any rifle deemed worthy, and retained that capability in a slightly different form than originally intended. Garland’s initial plan was...

After World War Two, Luxembourg was one of the nations which opted to purchase new FN-49 rifles. It bought a total of 6,203 of them for the military - an initial purchase of 4,000 semiauto SAFN rifles and a followup purchase of 2,000 AFN select-fire rifles and 203 semiauto rifles fitted with Belg...

Egypt was the first country to adopt the FN-49 rifle, and its purchases actually predated FN's development of a method for mounting a telescopic sight to the rifles. So Egypt came up with its own solution, using Czech Meopta 2.5 power scopes.

However, by the time Egypt was making its last ord...

Today we are taking a look at a SIG 550-1 Sniper model. This is mechanically a SIG 550, aka Sturmgewehr 90, but made to a very high level of quality control and fitted with a number of elements suitable for a marksman's rifle. It has a long (25.6 inch / 650mm) and heavy barrel, a thoroughly;y adj...

Delta Force was an early adopter of a lot of civilian competition gear into military service, and the modern AR-10 is a great example. Delta worked with Knights Armament to fine-tune the SR-25 rifle, with it first being used by Delta, then being adopted by the US Navy, and eventually by the Army ...

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 Al Kadesih (also sometimes spelled Al Kadesiah or Al Qadisiyah) is an Iraqi copy of the SVD Dragunov DMR/sniper rifle. It is not an exact copy, though, as it uses an AK-style stamped receiver and trunnions in combination with the fire control system and short-stroke gas piston of the SVD.

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