Prototype
Prototype Locked-Breech 9x19mm Mauser HSc
When Mauser began development of the HSc pistol, it was intended to be a pair of guns – a simple blowback gun in .32 or .380 caliber for civilian and police use and a larger […]
Prototype
Prototype
High Standard’s Prototype World War One .45 ACP Pistol
The High Standard company only made on .45 caliber pistol, and it was an improvement on the Grant Hammond pistol tested by the US military during World War One. After his gun’s rejection by the […]
Conversion
Forced-Air Cooling in an Experimental Ross Machine Gun
In addition to building three main patterns of straight-pull bolt action rifle for the Canadian military and the commercial market, Sir Charles Ross also experimented with self-loading rifles. Starting with a standard Ross Mk III, […]
Prototype
The Prototype .280 FAL from 1950s NATO Trials
After World War Two, the new NATO defense alliance held a series of trials to adopt a standard cartridge and infantry rifle. This would eventually devolve and the goal of a standardized rifle would be […]
Prototype
FN Grand Browning: The European 1911 that Never Happened
When John Browning licensed his handgun patents, the North American rights were granted to Colt, and the Western European rights to FN in Belgium. Browning provided the patents and patent model guns to the companies, […]
Prototype
SIG 44/16: The Best Service Pistol, But The Road Not Traveled
When SIG was developing the pistol that would ultimately be adopted as the m/49 by the Danish Army and the P49 by the Swiss Army (P210 commercially), they initially experimented with both single stack and […]
Prototype
Mauser-Norris Prototype: Origins of the Mauser Legacy
Today we are looking at one of the rarest and earliest rifles built by Paul and Wilhelm Mauser, a design which would set in motion all the events that led to the Mauser company becoming […]
bullpup
Experimental Bullpup Over/Under Shotgun with a Secret
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 […]
Light MGs
Bill Ruger’s Prototype WW2 Light Machine Gun
In April 1940, the US Ordnance Department circulated a request for a new light machine gun to replace the Browning M1919A4. It was to be shorter and lighter than the Browning, and was not to […]
Light MGs
Before the Lewis Gun was the McClean Automatic Rifle
This is Lot 1158 in the upcoming October Morphy Extraordinary auction. Samuel McClean was a medical doctor from Iowa who began tinkering with firearms designs in 1889, and formed the McClean Arms Company in 1896. […]