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The FG-42 as a Sniper Rifle?
The FG-42 was specifically made with a scope attachment on every rifle, and intended to serve as a marksman's or sniper's rifle. But how much of that actually happened during World War Two? And was the FG-42 actually suited to a sniper role?
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Max Popenker on Russian Pistols and Ammunition: 7N21, 9x21mm, 9x18mm, and more
Today I am again joined by Max Popenker, Russian small arms historian and researcher. Max is explaining the basic history of Russian handguns and ammunition, starting with the adoption of the 7.62x25mm Tokarev cartridge to replace the Nagant revolver. This was satisfactory until the end of World ...
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Ian's Customs: Remington Auto-8
I have a number of interesting custom guns, and I figured it would be fun to do videos on a couple of them...let me know if you enjoys this and would like to see more like this!
Today's example is what I call my Remington Auto-8. It's a recreation of the FN Police Model Auto-5. Those guns were...
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Ian's Customs: Left-Handed G3
I used to say that one really common and popular rifle that I really didn't like was the H&K G3. Well, putting together this rifle for myself really changed my opinion. The roller locking system is accurate, simple, and reliable - you just have to fix all the ergonomic problems with the G3 in ord...
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Ian's Customs: Tanker M1 Scout
Today we are looking at the Tanker M1 rig I put together about 15 years ago. This is an original WW2 production receiver rebuilt with an 18" 7.62mm NATO barrel in the 1980s by Arlington Ordnance. In pursuit of a universal do-it-all practical rifle, I then added a forward scope mount with a Burris...
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Ian's Customs: Lage Max11A1/15 Light Machine Gun
I bought an M11A1 machine pistol several years ago, when I first heard about the Lage Max11/15 project (I chose the M11A1 because I wanted the shortest registered receiver possible). Well, the M11A1 version of that upper sat in ATF purgatory for more than two years, but it is finally out! (Note: ...
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Modernizing the G3
Of all the classic 7.62mm battle rifles of the Cold War, only the G3 remains in modern military service updated to serve alongside the more recent 5.56mm rifles (no, the M14 DMR rifles don't count). Why the G3, and how? Today we will take a look at a clone of a Norwegian AG3F2 and a sort-of clone...
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Yes, the AR-14 is a Real Gun...Sort Of
The AR-14 was the subject of a widely-seen political gaffe a while back - but what was the real AR-14? Because yes, there was one! It was one of many firearms planned by Armalite, but not put into production...
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Göring's Platinum Lugers
There are a lot of guns out there attributed to German leaders and politicians of the Second World War. Many of these are completely specious, and many more are true simply because these men had a lot of guns. What we are looking at today is an exception; one of the rather small number of guns wh...
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What's Up With Norway and Military Scout Scopes?
Aside from the German widespread issue of the ZF-41 type scope, I have only come across three other military uses of long eye relief optics - and they are all Norwegian! One is simply Norwegian reuse of surrendered German K98k-ZF41 scopes, including updating them to .30-06 in the 1950s (these wer...
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Interested in Gun Law Issues? Check out FuddBusters
I don't cover politics here, but I know many of you folks are interested or invested in gun law current events. I recently found the FuddBusters channel, and it was a real breath of fresh air in this realm - and I figured many of you would also appreciate it.
Matt Larosiere is a gun rights att...
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Astra 700 Special: Failed Copy of the FN 1910
The Model 700 Special was an attempt by Astra to piggyback on the popularity of the FN Model 1910 automatic pistol. Astra took their Model 100 (a renamed Ruby pistol of WWI lineage) and changed the styling to resemble the FN gun, including adding a rotating mainspring cap around the barrel, as th...
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American Mosin Nagant Rifles
Everyone is aware of the Mosin Nagant rifle, but not everyone realizes that about 2 million of them were actually manufactured in the United States. Russia had been producing M91 Mosin Nagant rifles in their three major arsenals (Tula, Izhevsk, and Sestroyesk) since the mid 1890s, but when World ...
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Afghan Martini Carbines: The Kabul Arsenal
In the late 1880 or early 1890s, a British engineer and adventurer settled himself in Kabul, Afghanistan and at the request of Emir Abdul Rahman organized and build a rifle factory for the Afghan government. This factory would operate for nearly 30 years, producing a series of different types of ...
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1867 Werndl Military Rifle
The first new breech-loading cartridge rifle adopted by the Austro-Hungarian military was the Model 1867 Werndl, firing the 11x42R black powder cartridge. It used an interesting rotating breech locking system, and replaced the Lorenz muzzleloading muskets and the Wanzl breechloading conversions o...
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Wilson's Lorenzoni Repeating Flintlock Musket
The Wilson family was a gunmaking dynasty in London that began in 1730 when Richard Wilson was accepted as a Master Gunmaker by the Gunmakers' Company. Wilson's eldest son William Wilson would receive the same recognition in 1755, and William's son William (junior) completed his apprenticeship in...
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American Viven-Bessières WW1 Grenade Launcher
The standard American grenade launching system in World War One was the Vivien-Bessiere, borrowed directly form the French. It had been adopted by France in 1916, replacing copies of the British Martin-Hale rod grenades. The V-B was a cup type launcher using a pass-through type of grenade and sta...
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Valmet M62/S: The AK in Finland
After the Winter War and Continuation War, Finland settled a peace treaty with the Soviet Union, and started looking to modernize its infantry rifles - something semiautomatic was needed to replace the Mosin Nagants it was still using. A variety of rifles were tested, including the AR-10, Sig AM-...
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Japan's Type 90 3-Barreled Naval Flare Pistol
The Japanese Navy used several different types of flare pistols during World War Two (and in the decades before), but the most impressive looking of the bunch was the three-barreled Type 90 (not to be confused with the two-barreled model also designated Type 90). The three barrels were not simply...
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Japanese Army 35mm Type 10 Flare Pistol
The Japanese Army and Navy of the 1920s and 30s often used quite different equipment, and had a substantial interservice rivalry. Flare guns were one example of this separation, with the services using not just different flare pistols, but totally different flare cartridges. The Navy used a 28mm ...
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Steyr M30S Prototype: A Repurposed WW1 Improved Mauser
This rifle, as best I can tell, is a prototype model made by Steyr in Switzerland in the early 1930s for use in Hungarian military trials. The Hungarians were looking to replace their old 1895 straight-pull Mannlicher rifles with something more modern. They wanted to keep their Mannlicher en bloc...
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PIAT: Britain's Answer to the Anti-Tank Rifle Problem
The British began World War Two with the Boys antitank rifle, but like all antitank rifles it rather quickly became obsolete. The replacement for it was adopted in 1942 as the PIAT - Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank. This was a unique sort of weapon which fired a 3 pound (~1.35kg) hollow charge pro...
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Parisian Needlefire Knife-Pistol Combination
Combination knife/gun weapons have been popular gadgets for literally hundreds of years, and this is one of the nicest examples I have yet seen. This sort of thing is usually very flimsy, and not particularly well made. This one, however, has a blade which locks in place securely and would seem t...
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The Most Ornate Knife-Gun You Will Ever See: CM-1 "Dragon"
Combination knife-gun devices have been popular for hundreds of years, spurred initially by the single-shot nature of early firearms. The designs evolved to incorporate revolver cylinders when the revolver was invented, and remain interesting to people even to the present day. Global Research And...