Book review
Book Review: Great Britain – The Tommy Gun Story
I recently got a copy of Tom Davis Jr’s brand new book on the history of British use of the Thompson SMG. This is very much a history book rather than a technical book, and […]
United Kingdom
Percussion
Colt 1862 Police Pocket Revolver (Cased) at James D Julia
The 1862 Police Pocket was the last of Colt’s percussion revolvers. It was a combination of the small 1849 model frame (intended for .31 caliber) and a 5-shot .36 caliber cylinder. The frame was stepped […]
Prototype
BSA Prototype .45ACP Pistol at James D Julia
BSA (Birmingham Small Arms) was the largest private arms maker in the UK during World War One, and when the war ended it of course saw its huge military contracts evaporate. One of BSA’s efforts […]
Semiauto pistol
Mars Automatic Pistols at James D. Julia
The Mars pistol was designed by Sir Hugh Gabbett-Fairfax in England in 1898, and only 81 were produced by the time manufacturing ended in 1907. These pistols were chambered for several different cartridges, all of […]
Needlefire
Dreyse/Kufahl Needlefire Revolver at James D Julia
Needlefire rifles were developed in the 1830s and represented and early effective type of breechloading rifle. As such, they were adopted by both German and French armies – but only in rifle form. Needlefire handguns […]
Semiauto pistol
Two Prototype Webley Automatic Pistols at James D Julia
So, I may have gone a bit overboard and filmed more video at this upcoming Julia auction than I actually had time to publish before the auction takes place (but there were so many amazing […]
Belt-fed
Vickers Semiauto Conversion at RIA (Video)
The Vickers machine gun was an evolution of the Maxim, the world’s first successful machine gun. The Vickers was adopted by the British armed forces shortly before World War I and remained in active service […]
Handgun
Khyber Pass Martini Pistol at RIA (Video)
The Khyber Pass is a well known center of arms production, with gunmaking there going back at least 100 years. The quality of craftsmanship varies greatly, from excellent and safe weapons to thoroughly unsafe guns […]
Bolt Action Rifles
Enfield No5 “Jungle Carbine” Video
The No.5 MkI Enfield, commonly called the “jungle carbine” is nearly the shortest-lived rifle in British military service (second to the Rifle No.9, aka EM-2). Introduced in 1944, they were declared obsolete in 1947 as […]
Light MGs
Hefah Machine Gun
The Hefah machine gun was a wartime expedient British light machine gun design. It was created by a private company (the Ductile Steel Company) in 1940, in response to a generalized concern that all LMG […]