Semiauto Rifles
The Original CETME Mars Importation
RIA’s catalog page for this rifle The CETME Model C would be the basis for the wildly successful H&K 91 / G3 rifle, and a small batch of CETME rifles was brought into the United […]
Semiauto Rifles
Prototype
Garand Primer-Activated 1924 Trials Rifle
RIA’s catalog page for this rifle The first successful iteration of John Garand’s rifle was developed in 1921 and refined through 1924. A small batch were made for US military testing in 1924, where it […]
Semiauto Rifles
Rhodesian Cobra SMG/Carbine
The Cobra was one of a variety of semiautomatic compact carbines designed and manufactured in Rhodesia in the latter half of the 1970s for sale as civilian self-defense weapons (primarily for rural farming families). Unlike […]
Select-fire Rifles
South African Galils: The R4, R5, R6, and LM Series
When South Africa decided to replace the R1 rifle (a metric FAL), they chose to adopt the Israeli Galil. Both nations had similar environmental issues with blowing sand (in northwestern South Africa particularly), and Israel […]
Semiauto pistol
Rhodesia’s First Production: Northwood Developments R76 & M77
In the mid to late 1970s, several different Rhodesian arms designers were basically racing to be the first to come to market with a domestically produced civilian carbine type weapon. Northwood Developments would be the […]
Semiauto Rifles
Demro XF-7 Wasp – An Open Bolt Semiauto From the 70s
The carbine in this video is selling at auction here. Designed by Gerry Fox in the early 1970s, this carbine saw production sequentially as the Fox Carbine, the TAC-1, and the XF-7 Wasp, as it […]
Semiauto Rifles
Romania Doesn’t Make the Dragunov: The PSL
This rifle is available at Rock Island’s next auction here. When Romania vocally objected to the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, it lost some of its opportunities for technology transfer form the Soviet Union. […]
Semiauto Rifles
Gevarm A6: An Open Bolt Semiauto .22 Sporting Rifle
Gevarm, a gunmaking offshoot of the Gevelot cartridge company, produced a line of open-bolt semiautomatic rimfire sporting rifles from the early 1960s until 1995. This is an A6 model, the base type. It is chambered […]
Semiauto Rifles
Madsen M1896 Flaadens Rekylgevær: The First Military Semiauto
After losing out in the 1888 trials, Madsen and Rasmussen continued to refine their rifle. They reduced the overall length and weight, and replaced the feeding clip with a more modern enclosed magazine (although it […]
Commentary
Ken Hackathorn on the M1 Carbine: Reputation vs Reality
The M1 Carbine has long been a bit of an enigma to me, because I have never had really good luck with the design, and yet they were extremely popular with Americna soldiers, German soldiers, […]