Semiauto Rifles
RIA: Soviet SVT-38 Self-Loading Rifle
A lot of people think that the US was the only country in World War II to mass-issue a semiautomatic infantry rifle, but that isn’t true. While the US was the only country to issue […]
Russia
Revolver
RIA: Polish Ng30 Nagant Revolver
The Model 1895 Nagant revolver is pretty common in the US thanks to large imports of Russian revolvers, but we rarely see Polish Nagants. These were adopted as a sidearms for police organizations under the […]
Bolt Action Rifles
RIA: Predecessor to the Mosin – the Russian Berdan II
Before adopting the M1891 Mosin-Nagant, the Russian Empire (like most major militaries) used a large-bore single-shot rifle as its standard infantry rifle. In this case, a .42-caliber rifle designed by American General Hiram Berdan (yes, […]
Lever Action Rifles
RIA: Russian Winchester 1895 in 7.62x54R
The Winchester 1895 was the last of Winchester’s lever-action rifles, and has an interesting place in a couple different parts of world history. On the one hand, the 1895 in .405 Winchester caliber is known […]
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 […]
Prototype
StG-45 Horn Prototypes
Herr Horn (I have seen his name given as both N.V. Horn and V.G. Horn; not sure which is correct) was an engineer working in the R&D department of Mauser at the end of WWII, and […]
Rocket launcher
Vintage Saturday: Seeds of an Idea
Point at Panzer, press button…
Rocket launcher
The Ubiquitous RPG-7 (Video)
The RPG-7 is pretty far from being a forgotten weapon, but I was not going to pass up an opportunity to take a closer look at a live one. This example is one of the […]
Bolt Action Rifles
Belgian 1886 Rifle Trials Report (Translated to English)
Our friend Thibaud has spent some time translating a report from the Belgian 1886 rifle trials into English – thank you, Thibaud! He notes that the text has a lot of specifically Belgian terminology and […]
Handgun
RIA: Stocked FN Model 1903
The FN Model 1903 was a Belgian-made scaled-up version of John Browning’s model 1903 pocket hammerless pistol. The pocket hammerless was made in .32 ACP and .380 calibers for (primarily) the civilian market in the […]