Bolt Action Rifles
Vintage Saturday: Harried
This guy has clearly been through a lot. Note the G41(W) or G43 in the background.
Rifles
Bolt Action Rifles
Mondragon 1894 Bolt Action Rifle (Video)
Manuel Mondragon was a talented lifelong gun designer born in Mexico. He worked extensively at the Swiss SIG factory, and was the man behind the first military-issue semiautomatic rifle. Before that, though, he designed this […]
Light MGs
A Soviet Look at Cold War Small Arms Development
I have covered various elements of small arms development during the Cold War more than a few times – usually involving the contentious process that led to the 7.62mm NATO cartridge being adopted, and the […]
Single Shot Rifles
Vintage Saturday: On Guard
Armed with a Trapdoor Springfield – with fixed spike bayonet – and a long-barreled Colt Single Action Army. Dated 1890s – back when “labor dispute” meant more guns and fewer negotiators than it does today. […]
Prototype
Swiss Prototype: N33 (Video)
The N33 is one of a series of Swiss prototype semiautomatic rifles developed between WWI and WWII (the “33” refers to 1933). This particular design is interesting because it fires from an open bolt, a […]
Light MGs
Israeli Dror LMG: Shooting & Disassembly (Video)
The Dror was an Israeli copy of the Johnson LMG, which was made domestically in Israel as part of Israel’s war of independence in the late 1940s. The design was developed through a combination of […]
Artillery
Vintage Saturday: Rifle Grenade
2nd Lieutenant L. J. Barley of the 1st Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), watching as a rifle grenade is prepared for firing from trenches at Grande Flamengrie Farm on the Bois Grenier sector of the line […]
Prototype
Mystery Japanese Semiauto
While in the Smithsonian gun room, I noticed a semi auto Japanese rifle of a type I have not seen reference to before. It is definitely Japanese, judging from elements like the split buttstock and […]
Bolt Action Rifles
Vintage Saturday: Policeman with a Rifle
The Remington-Keene was one of the many repeating rifles manufactured with hopes of US military contracts, which failed to get any. In total about 5,000 were made and sold commercially. It is a tube-magazine, bolt […]
Prototype
SIG Prototype 1924/1925 Semiauto Rifles (Video)
The Swiss SIG factory was one of the earliest producers of semiautomatic military rifles, having produced the M1908 Mondragon rifles for Mexico. They continued to experiment with self-loading rifle designs, and in the mid 1920s […]