Semiauto Rifles
Czech vz. 52/57: The SKS We Have At Home
We don’t need the SKS, we have gun designers at home! In the early days of the Cold War, the Czechoslovak communist party was on very good terms with Josef Stalin, and were able to […]
Video
Aircraft MGs
Beltfed Madsen LMG: When the Weird Gets Weirder
First produced in 1902, the Madsen was one of the first practical light machine guns, and it remained in production for nearly 5 decades. The Madsen system is a rather unusual recoil-operated mechanism with a […]
Semiauto pistol
Colt 1903 in US Military Service (and for the OSS)
The Colt Model 1903, aka Pocket Hammerless, aka Model M, was a massively successful design for Colt on the commercial market. It was chambered for the .32ACP cartridge, with a .380 model introduced in 1908. […]
Medium MGs
Breda 37: Italy’s Forgotten Heavy Machine Gun
The Breda Model 37 was Italy’s standard heavy machine gun (which meant a rifle-caliber gun fired only from a tripod) during World War Two. It was chambered for the 8x59mm cartridge, as Italy used a […]
Commentary
Madsens in the Favelas: The LMG Still Going Strong With Rio’s Military Police
The Madsen LMG was first introduced in 1902, and it is still in use with police forces in Brazil today. The Madsen was not very popular with major European armies, but it sold extensively in […]
Semiauto pistol
Adventures in Surplus: From German Imperial Navy to Ethiopia
I really enjoy finding guns that can be positively traced through multiple different parts of history, and Lugers can be a great source for that sort of story. Today I have a Luger from Royal […]
Commentary
The Most Expensive Machine Gun Ever Sold
Morphy’s recently took the world record for the most expensive machine gun ever sold at public auction – with a transferrable FN Minimi. It sold for a winning bid of $490,000, which became a total […]
Machine pistol
Mauser Schnellfeuer: The Official Full Auto C96 Broomhandle
Contrary to what you might expect, Mauser was actually the last company to produce a fully automatic model of the C96 “broomhandle” pistol. The C96 was very popular in China (Mauser sent hundreds of thousands […]
Semiauto Rifles
The Sexy Retro Shorty: Original AR-180 Police Carbine
When Armalite designed the AR-180, they needed a factory to produce it, as their own production capacity was limited. Initially a license was granted to How in Japan, but this only lasted a few years […]
Video
Gas Delayed Blowback Pistols: A Tour of the System
Today we are taking a look at an assortment of gas-delayed pistols, from South Africa to China to Europe. There is one predominant style of gas-delay execution, but also some variations and some substantially different […]