Today we are looking at a second Chinese Warlord-Era C96 Mauser carbine. These were made as fancy sporting or presentation arms for important people - just as the original Mauser-made C96 carbines were. This example was made at the Taku Naval Dockyard, a facility initially set up to maintain the ...

In 1970 and 1971, China experimented with a stamped-receiver version of the SKS. About 6,000 of these rifles were made each of the two years, and a number of them have come into the US as commercial exports.

We don't have any official records from China about this program, but it seems clear t...

My favorite pattern of domestic Chinese pistol form he Warlord Era is the one I have termed the "Luger Grip Type". The Luger was not a very common pistol in this period in China, and it is rare to see elements of it copied on Chinese designs. This pattern, however, very specifically uses the grip...

In the course of researching Chinese domestic pistols of the Warlord Era, I sorted through several hundred examples, and was able to identify six distinct patterns of uniquely Chinese designs. Once of these I have designated the Horn Grip Type, as almost all the examples identified use horn (some...

The Shanghai Arsenal was founded in 1865 as a joint venture between British and Chinese customs officers. They bought a defunct American ironworking company and rebuilt it as an arsenal. In 1884 they began production of a copy of the Remington Rolling Block, and by 1891 copies of Mannlicher 1888 ...

Today I am going to actually do some shooting with a Chinese Warlord Era pistol - a Shanghai Model 1900 Pistol-Carbine. As I described in yesterday's video, these were well-made guns produced by a large and legitimate factory arsenal. I only have a single magazine (and sadly no shoulder stock) fo...

The best known and most highly valued of the Warlord Era Chinese pistols is undoubtedly the .45 ACP copy of the C96 Mauser. These were made at the Taiyuan Arsenal in Shanxi Province between 1928 and 1931, with more than 8,000 made in total. They were the product of a proper Western-style producti...

Today we are looking at a Chinese Type 56 RPD, but we will be focusing on the basic design and why it was adopted in the Soviet Union rather than the details of its use in China. The RPD was the result of research into reduced-power cartridges to replace the 7.62x54R for infantry use. While that ...

I am excited to take an RPD out to the range today - I've wanted to try one for quite a while. The RPD is a very light and compact weapon for a squad automatic, and I'm curious how it will actually handle. This particular example is a Chinese Type 56, with many of the improvements that were made ...

The Chang Feng is named for the company that developed it, the Chongqing Chang Feng Company Ltd in (you guessed it) Chongqing. It was designed by one Qing Shangsheng, who had ample prior firearms design experience (including the Type 64 and 67 pistols and Type 80 SMG). The design is based around ...

"Arming the Dragon" by Dolf Goldsmith is now available and shipping:
https://www.headstamppublishing.com/purchase/arming-the-dragon-by-dolf-l-goldsmith

One of the most common rifles in Warlord-era China was the Mauser Model 98 short rifle. Various Chinese armies bought large numbers of them from...

It was no secret in the international arms market that Mauser was doing a tremendous business selling C96 pistols into Warlord-era China in the 1920s. The C96 was an imposing and powerful handgun that was highly regarded in China. Spanish companies including Bestigui Hermanos took note, and start...

The North China Type 19 pistol (not to be confused with the North China Type 19 rifle) is an improvement on the Type 14 Nambu pistol design which was manufactured in very small numbers in Japanese-occupied China late in World War Two. With shipping connections between Japanese troops in China and...

The Chinese military introduced a new 5.8x42mm cartridge in 1987, and then developed a new bullpup rifle to use it. The rifle was the QBZ Type 95, and it was a bullpup rifle with a rotating bolt and short-stroke gas piston operating system. Shortly thereafter, a commercial export version was rele...

Today it's time to take the Norinco QBZ-97 - aka Type 97 NSR - out to the range for some shooting! This is the Canadian semiautomatic-only legal version of China's new military rifle, and it is chambered for the 5.56mm NATO cartridge (the Chinese military models use their 5.8x42mm cartridge).

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The SVD Dragunov was the Soviet marksman's rifle that finally replaced the failed attempt to issue the SVT-40 as a precision rifle. It was introduced in 1963, after about 5 years of development, and its scarcity in the United States has led to the development of a loyal and dedicated group of adm...

Norinco is a huge consortium of manufacturing plants in China that make all manner of goods for export, including military hardware. One of Norinco's factories has been making copies of the American M14 rifle for export for some time, although they are not seen in the United States because Chines...

The Liao Type 13 was produced at what would become known as the Mukden Arsenal in Manchuria starting in 1924, with production facilitated by the Steyr company of Austria. Late in World War One, Steyr developed an improved pattern of Mauser rifle, with a shrouded firing pin, shrouded striker, gas ...

During the 1920s and 1930s, a combination of civil wars and international arms embargoes led to a lot of domestic firearms production in China. The size and quality of manufacturing facilities varied widely - everything from massive factories established with European technical assistance to one-...

During the Chinese civil war in the 1920s and 30s, international arms embargoes made rifles difficult to acquire - which led to a lot of popularity for pistols with shoulder stocks. The C96 "broomhandle" Mauser in particular was popular, and it was copied by a number of Spanish firms for sale in ...

China adopted this pistol in 1998 in a domestic 5.8x21mm cartridge, and also manufactured examples like this one in 9x19mm Parabellum for export. It is a design built around a sheet metal skeleton holding the fire control parts, with a polymer grip assembly that can be changed out. A rotating bar...

Bloke takes his mint 1963 dated Chinese Type 56 Carbine / SKS out to 300m to see how well it is zeroed, and how well it shoots. The first shot you see here is genuinely his first ever shot with this rifle at any distance.

It is surprisingly well zeroed with S&B 123gn FMJ out the box, and shoot...