What was the first true semiautomatic pistol? Let's take a look...

Before there were self-loading pistols, there were manually operated repeating pistols with magazines - like the 1850s Volcanics. A surprising number of this type of pistol were developed in Austria in the 1880s, and they led d...

I am kicking off a long series of videos from the Rock Island Auction Company, and my backdrop this time is a set of deer antler mounts called the "Imperial Twins". These two deer were from a joint hunt with Kaiser Wilhelm I and Emperor Franz Joseph in 1873. The antlers are original, but the orig...

The Guycot chain pistol was the development of two Frenchmen, Henri Guenot and Paulin Gay in 1879. It is chambered for a unique 6.5mm caseless rocket ball type cartridge in which the base of the projectile is hollowed out and contains the propellant powder and a primer. Upon firing, the entirely ...

Now that the February 2016 Regional auction at Rock Island Auction Company is complete, we can take a look at the final prices realized for each of the guns that I looked at in videos!

Final prices from the September 2016 Rock Island Premier auction - these include the 15% buyer's premium on top of the auctioneer's hammer price.

Germany was one of the first nations to really get into the sniping business during World War I, and this is an example of their sniper rifle of the period. The base rifle is a standard Gewehr 98 in 8mm Mauser. Optics form a multitude of different commercial manufacturers were used, mostly 3x and...

A brief Christmas reading, as translated from the original ancient manuscripts by Fr. Frog (http://www.frfrogspad.com/jmb.htm).

This is a 4-Bore single-barrel rifle built on an Army Navy Supply frame by J.J. Perodeau of Enid Oklahoma. I am firing 1750 grain lead bullets over charges of 325gr of Goex Fg. Muzzle velocity is approximately 1340fps, generating about 7,000 ftlb of muzzle energy.

This is the largest rifle eve...

Well, another Rock Island Premier auction is finished, so it's time to check out the hammer prices for the pieces that we looked at in videos. Hang on to your wallets... :)

Now that the June 2016 Regional auction at Rock Island Auction Company is complete, we can take a look at the final prices realized for each of the guns that I looked at in videos. Most of the guns in this auction were sold in batches, so the prices don't generally reflect the value of individual...

The Astra Model F was the final evolution of the Astra 900, a C96 Mauser lookalike. The Model F used detachable magazines and was select-fire, with a very effective rate reducing mechanism in the grip. It was adopted by the Guardia Civil in 1934, and 1,126 of the guns were produced in 1935.

O...

Most people assume that the AR15/M16 safety/selector lever was designed specifically to be very ergonomic and shooter-friendly, with the "safe" position putting the lever right under the thumb to allow a quick and easy snap into semiauto mode. Well, that's not actually the way Eugene Stoner initi...

It's that time again! The March 2016 James D. Julia auction is all finished, and it's time to look at the final sale prices on the guns we saw videos on. The Confederate revolvers in this auction brought some pretty impressive prices - as did the gorgeous Holland & Holland 4-bore double rifle!

Final prices from the October 2016 James D Julia auction - these include the 15% buyer's premium on top of the auctioneer's hammer price.

Guy and Leonard A-R-West have published their third book about black powder military breechloaders, "Development of the Podewils & Werder Rifles of the Bavarian Army". It follows the same format at their previous books on the Chassepot and Dreyse systems, including the hand-drawn illustrations. T...

Let me preface this by saying that I remain a big fan of the Scout Rifle concept and the Steyr Scout in particular. When I ordered a copy of Richard Mann's "The Scout Rifle Study", I was hoping to find a critical assessment of the concept. I was hoping to see pros and cons of the forward-mounted ...

Rory Reynoldson has recently published a small Pocket Reference for the Savage 99 lever-action rifles. This is a collector's resource that includes the particularly important tabular sort of data for keeping on hand at gun shows and the like - serial number ranges, model designations, calibers, b...

I am very excited to finally be able to formally present to you Chassepot to FAMAS: French Military Rifles 1866-2016! After about 3 years of work, it's finally here and shipping. My goal with this book was to create a reference guide that would allow someone to identify any French military rifle ...

Anthony Vanderlinden is a noted FN collector and author of a book on FN Mauser rifle as well as this volume on FN's Browning pistols. Both are excellent reference works, with a remarkable amount of contextual information in addition to the very specific detail that appeal to the collector. This w...

Dieter Marschall originally published his book on Walther Pistols in German, but it was translated into English to meet demand form the collector market here in the US. This is the third English edition, expanded form previous ones. Unlike most books on Walther, this one covers all of Walther's p...

Joel Black partnered with several coauthors (Joseph L. Davis and Roger G. Michaud for the first and Homer Ficken and Frank Michaels for the second) to produce two volumes cataloging an immense variety of Webley solid-frame revolvers. These books include only small and scattered text segments, wit...

I initially put off getting a copy of Jan Balcar and Ron Clarin's book on the Spreewerk P38 because, well, I assumed it was just about Spreewerk. Upon finally reading it, I discovered that it is actually a very well-rounded history of the P38 as a whole, with particular extra attention given to S...

"The Ross Rifle Story" is the Bible of Ross rifle collecting - it is the only substantial reference work on the subject and it has a tremendous amount of information about the development of the Ross. However, it is also one of the worst-edited firearms reference books I am aware of. It has a sec...