Toggle actions are a relatively exotic locking system that are relatively common and well-known because the system was used in a pair of particularly successful early guns: the Luger and Maxim/Vickers. There have also been toggle-action shotguns, military rifles, sporting rifles, and submachine g...

Today we are looking at clips and how they work. There are two different types; Mannlicher-style and Mauser-style.

Mannlicher clips were introduced circa 1885, and are also known as en bloc or packet loading clips. They include a set of feed lips, and are inserted completely into a gun. Once t...

When World War One began, German armies roared through Belgium, occupying all but a small corner of the nation. Belgium still had an army to defend that last bit of territory, but it no longer had any of its manufacturing base. The Belgian State Arsenal was evacuated, but took several years to re...

When Italy surrendered in late 1943, German troops disarmed the Italian forces in areas under German control, and came away with nearly 400,000 Carcano rifles. These would form the core armaments of the Volkssturm forces in 1944 and 1945. Most were simply left as captured and issued with capture...

John L. Hill was a World War One fighter pilot who went into the oil and gas industry, and enjoyed tinkering with guns in his free time. In 1949 he got an idea for a new style of magazine and feed system, which he developed and patented in the early 1950s. Hill’s intention was to create a submach...

Iliff Richardson was a US Navy Lieutenant assigned to PT 34 during the campaign in the Philippines. His boat was sunk in April 1942, and he ended up spending more than two years fighting with Philippine guerrillas against the Japanese occupation. He was decorated with the Silver Star and also giv...

In the 1870s and 1880s, France experimented with a huge variety of repeating rifle designs, including tube magazines hopper magazines, box magazines, and all sorts of other unique systems (more than 40 different types in total). These experimental rifles appear from time to time, but only a small...

Today we have the Gepárd M6 Lynx out at the range to try out! My impression is that mechanically, the gun is very well constructed. Everything operated cleanly and smoothly, and there were no malfunctions of any kind. The magazine design in particular seemed very well thought out and built - and ...

The Gepárd M6 is the result of nearly 3 decades of development. The Hungarian military first requested a .50-caliber anti-materiel rifle circa 1987, and the M1 design submitted was a single-shot rifle chambered for the 12.7x108mm Russian cartridge. This was an accurate gun, but slow to reload, an...

Today I've taken the FR-F2 to the range to try it out. I'm using the early French Army scope, an APX L806-04. This is a 3.85x optic basically modeled on the German WW2 ZF-4. It has a big simple German post reticle, and the -04 variation indicated that the BDC cam has been calibrated for 7.62mm NATO.

In 1986, the French Army adopted the FR-F2 (Fusil à Répétition F2) as its standard sniper rifle. The F2 was never manufactured new; it was an improvement made on existing FR-F1 rifle by giving them new 7.62mm NATO barrels, new flexible bipods, and thermal sleeves over the barrels. Of 6,000 FR-F1 ...

Finnish Brutality took place on October 23 and 24 of this year, at the Loppi shooting range north of Helsinki. It was run by Varusteleka, the largest and definitely the awesomest military and outdoor supplier in Europe - in collaboration with Sako, Mil-Safarit, Sisu, InRangeTV, Bloke on the Range...

Finnish Brutality took place on October 23 and 24 of this year, at the Loppi shooting range northeast of Helsinki. It was run by Varusteleka, the largest and definitely the awesomest military and outdoor supplier in Europe - in collaboration with Sako, Mil-Safarit, Sisu, InRangeTV, Bloke on the R...

Today's Ethiopian Oddity is a rifle that appears to be a Vetterli action with a distinctly Mauser flair. The bolt is styled after the Vetterli system (including rear locking lugs) but has a non-functional Mauser flag safety lookalike instead of a functional Vetterli safety. The stock, sights, and...

Today's Ethiopian Oddity is a Gewehr 1871 carbine - remarkably still with its matching bolt - rechambered for a small bore, smokeless powder cartridge. It is a quite interesting example of an Ethiopian armorer's work...

Among all the standard rifles that are coming into the US from Ethiopia through InterOrdnance, there are a handful of really unusual oddballs, and we are going to look at several of them. We have the first one today; a single shot adaptation of a French Mle 1878 Marine Kropatschek. Only a small n...

Today's Ethiopian Oddity appears to be a factory-built Mauser short rifle, but embellished with a couple replacement parts (nosecap retainer, stock, bayonet lug) and some truly mysterious markings. The top of the receiver has been milled down flat, and hand-engraved with a quite odd crest, along ...

Today's Ethiopian Oddity is a rifle that began its like as an early Lee Enfield MkI made by London Small Arms. It has the original buttstock, early style safety, volley sights, and magazine cutoff from that configuration. However, at some point it appears to have been reworked by an Ethiopian arm...

The Beaumont was one of the early European breechloading metallic-cartridge rifles, adopted in 1871. The rifle is a combination of elements form the Chassepot, the Mauser-Norris, and a unique V-spring firing pin system invented by John Claes of Liege. The rifle was submitted to Dutch testing by E...

The DS-39 is an air-cooled heavy machine gun designed by Degtyarev, which was intended to replace the 1910 Maxim as the standard Soviet HMG. It was lighter and more mobile than the Maxim, and also offered two rates of fire for ground and anti-aircraft use. Testing all seemed to go well, and produ...

The A&W Diverter was designed by Clifford Ashbrook and Wilson Wing to change a shotgun's circular pattern into a horizontal linear one. They applied for a patent in 1967, and it was granted in 1970 (US Patent #3,492,750). Their invention was similar in purpose to the "duckbill" chokes tried out b...

Long associated with Parisian street gangs called "Apaches" (after the American Indian tribe), there were two main patterns of combination knife/knuckle/firearm made in the mid/late 1800s in France. This one was designed by J. Delhaxhe, and features a solid frame set up as brass knuckles. The fir...

It's time for Desert Brutality 2021! This match is a bit different form previous Brutality matches; it required three guns: pistol, rifle, and precision rifle. I chose to enter the Cold War division (all guns dating form 1946-1991) using a couple of French classics: my FAMAS and new FR-F2. For a ...

When we left off yesterday, I had a perfect streak going with my FR-F2, but the choice of a .357 revolver for a Brutality match was looking pretty questionable. Well, we've got our more stages today to round out the match. I'll be shooting out to 550 yards, shooting weak-handed, charging up hills...