Light MGs
.303 Lewis Gun at the Range
I really enjoy the Lewis Gun, and it’s been a long time since I had a chance to put some rounds through one. This particular example is a Savage-made gun marked USN, and I think […]
United Kingdom
Submachine Guns
Sterling SMG at the Range
The L2A3 Sterling submachine gun was a staple of British and small arms after World War Two, until the L85 rifle was adopted. Designed by George Patchett during the war and produced by Sterling, it […]
Antiques
Manton’s Waterproof Flintlock
How does one keep a flintlock action reliable in wet, riany weather? Well, let’s have a look at a flintlock shotgun designed specifically to be waterproof! This is a Joseph Manton shotgun from about 1815. […]
Antiques
Maxim-Silverman .455 Caliber Behemoth of a Pistol
Hiram Maxim’s hired shop supervisor was a man named Louis Silverman. He was a skilled engineer, who was treated rather poorly by Maxim, and whose contributions were systematically understated. One of the most interesting projects […]
Conversion
L4: The Bren in 7.62mm NATO
When the British military transitioned form the .303 British cartridge to 7.62mm NATO in the 1950s, it replaced the Enfield rifles with the new L1A1 SLR (the FAL) but retained the Bren gun as a […]
Light MGs
Wartime Changes: The Bren MkI Modified and Bren MkII
The British lost some 90% of their stock of Bren light machine guns in the disastrous Dunkirk evacuation, and in the following months rushed to rearm. Part of this program was a two-tiered simplification of […]
Book review
Sneak Peek at Thorneycroft to SA80 with the Author, Jonathan Ferguson
Jonathan Ferguson, author of our newest Headstamp Publishing book “Thorneycroft to SA80: British Bullpup Firearms 1901-2020”, has just gotten his advance author’s copy of the book! Let’s join him to take a look through its […]
Accessories
Very Rare and Mostly Pointless: the Bren Fixed Line Sight
The very early production MkI Bren light machine guns were made with two dovetail brackets on the left side of the receiver. The rear one was for the standard rear sight, and the front one […]
Light MGs
Bren MkI: The Best Light Machine Gun of World War Two
In the years after World War One, the British military wanted a new machine gun, and they wanted it to replace both the Lewis and the Vickers. Through the 1920s the British would tinker with […]
Bolt Action Rifles
Prototype Jungle Carbine: A No1 MkV Becomes a No5 MkI
When the British began developing a shortened version of the No4 Lee Enfield in 1943 (which would become the No5 MkI “Jungle Carbine”), the development process included work with some rather older rifles. What we […]