Bolt Action Rifles
Swiss ZfK-55 Sniper (Video)
At the Rock Island Auction last month, there were several Swiss ZfK-55 sniper rifles up for sale. The rifle is basically a K31 action, with a bunch of modifications to convert it into a very […]
Year: 2013
Bolt Action Rifles
Vintage Saturday: Arms of the Empire
Japanese troops with Murata rifles, 1900.
Uncategorized
Excellent New Premium Members’ Benefit
I’m happy to announce that I’ve added a new benefit item to the Forgotten Weapons Premium Member program! Rock Island Auctions is offering us a great discount on their catalogs. If you’ve seen their catalogs, […]
Book review
Book Review: Forty Miles A Day on Beans and Hay
We wint to Arizona, for to fight the Injins there; We came near being made bald-headed, but they never got our hair. We lay among the ditches, in the dirty yellow mud, And we never […]
Commentary
US Army Rifle and Carbine Adoption 1865-1900
Courtesy of reader Mike, we have today a copy of a Master’s thesis written by Major John Davis in 2007, as a part of a Staff College degree. The title of the paper is “U.S. […]
Commentary
The New York Times, on Smokeless Powder
I ran across this brief article from the September 17, 1896 edition of the New York Times. They seem to have gotten things pretty well figured out… THE NEW SMOKELESS POWDER Change of Tactics Made […]
Commentary
2-Gun Action Challenge Match: SVT40 vs M1 Garand
So, after the hype about setting the FG-42 up against the M1 at a practical action match, I unfortunately have to let you down. We had a bit of a mishap right before the match […]
Machine pistol
Vintage Saturday: Premature Anti-Fascists
Canadian volunteers of the Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion in the Spanish Civil War, armed with with grenades and Mauser Schnellfeuer machine pistols or (more likely) Spanish-made copies thereof.
Commentary
Small Arms Influence on Warfare
I’m giving a lecture on the history of firearms technology for a class at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in a couple weeks, and the course instructor asked me to include some discussion of how […]
Book review
Book Review: Iver Johnson Arms & Cycle Works Firearms 1871-1993
The Iver Johnson company doesn’t get much respect or recognition these days, but they made a staggering number of generally very good, inexpensive handguns for many decades. The “cheap” image of the brand has largely […]