Yesterday we took a look at the internals of Ruger’s select-fire AC-556, and today we have it out at the range. The main question for me was, how does it compare to the M16/AR-15? And […]
Ruger introduced their semiauto Mini-14 rifle in 1973, and followed it in 1979 with the AC-556, a select-fire version intended for military and police sales. Offered with either an 18.5 inch barrel and solid wood […]
For a long time, Russian small arms were patterned closely after French designs – the Russian 1809 family was based on the French 1777 muskets, and the Russian 1828 model – like this one – […]
When the German Tankgewehr was introduced in May 1918, the first 300 or so guns were of a different pattern than the standard production that would follow (and of which about 16,000 would be made). […]
In 1904, a man named Orlando Scott from Ontario filed a patent application for a safety device for breechloading rifles and shotguns. His idea was basically a spring loaded grip safety in the fore-end of […]
Spain adopted the CETME Modelo B rifle for service in 1958. These early rifles were chambered for the reduced-pressure 7.62mm CETME cartridge, and had a few other unique features. Some of these were made with […]
The final production version of the Hall was Simeon North’s Model 1843 Carbine, of which 10,500 were made between 1844 and 1853. It used North’s percussion update to the design, and a cleverly simple calming […]
The first semiauto commercial AK rifles to enter the US were Finnish Valmets. These established a US collector interested but while excellent in quality, they did not quite fit the visual pattern of the classic […]
In 1863, the Bilharz, Hall, & Co firm of Pittsylvania Court House, Virginia (now Chatham VA) received a contract to make 1,000 examples of a simple percussion cavalry carbine modeled after the US Model 1855 […]
After the failure of the SIG 530 rifle (a gas operated, roller locked design), SIG looked for a much simpler rifle design, in both operation and manufacture. Wheat they came up with was fundamentally AK-like, […]
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