For a long time, Russian small arms were patterned closely after French designs - the Russian 1809 family was based on the French 1777 muskets, and the Russian 1828 model - like this one - were taken from the French 1822 model. This is a .69 caliber (7-line) smoothbore musket, manufactured at the...

I normally want to have something specific to demonstrate what I take a gun to the range, but today I don't. What I have today is and FN-D, the very best iteration of the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) - and I just wanted an excuse to take it out to enjoy. Specifically, the is a Luxembourg contr...

Yesterday we took a look at the internals of Ruger's select-fire AC-556, and today we have it out at the range. The main question for me was, how does it compare to the M16/AR-15? And the answer is, not all that well. The AR is definitely a softer shooting platform in full auto. The AC-556, despi...

The rarest variation of the Webley-Fosbery automatic revolver is the .38 ACP model. Only 341 of these were made by Webley, in an attempt to compete with the new semiautomatic pistols appearing on the market - most notably the Colt Model 1900 and Model 1902. The Colt was chambered for .38 ACP, a r...

Submachine guns have gone through a distinct evolution over the past one hundred years. Today we will look at these changes, specifically identifying:

- 1st Generation guns from World War One and through the 1930s
- 2nd Generation guns of World War Two
- 2nd Generation guns after World Wa...

The MP-18,I was most likely the first true submachine gun to see combat use, issued in the final months of World War One to German Sturmtruppen. These guns were originally fitted with 32-round drum magazines form the Artillery Luger, but they were almost all quickly changed to standard System Sch...

Having taken a close look at this original Erma EMP submachine gun yesterday, we are out at the range with it today. Like several of the interwar SMGs, the Erma was designed with a magazine well long enough to accommodate 9mm Steyr (9x23mm) ammunition, and it was offered in several different cali...

When the German Tankgewehr was introduced in May 1918, the first 300 or so guns were of a different pattern than the standard production that would follow (and of which about 16,000 would be made). The Kurz model had a barrel about 4 inches shorter than the standard, and was about 2 pounds heavie...

In 1961, Heckler & Koch introduced a new light machine gun based on their roller-delayed blowback system as a companion piece to the G3/HK91 rifle. While the German military was quite happy with its MG3 machine guns, H&K expected that other, smaller nations adopting the G3 would be interested in ...

In 1904, a man named Orlando Scott from Ontario filed a patent application for a safety device for breechloading rifles and shotguns. His idea was basically a spring loaded grip safety in the fore-end of the stock, which would have to be depressed in order to either cock or fire the weapon. His p...

Developed by Heinrich Vollmer in the 1920s, this quite distinctive submachine guns was marketed by the Erma company starting in 1932 and sold quite well internationally. This particular example was used by the German police and is chambered for 9x19mm. Many of these guns were also sold to Spain w...

On the eve of World War One, the Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Flying Corps had both adopted the Webley Self-Loading Pistol, chambered for a special .455 caliber semi-rimmed cartridge. With the needs of wartime, Webley deliveries of these pistols were too slow, and alternatives were sought. The...

The MP-34 was made by Steyr-Solothurn in four different calibers - 9x19 for the Germany army, 9x25 for the Austrian army, 9x23 for the Austrian police, and .45 ACP for the export market. This is one of the .45 caliber examples, of which only about 500 were made, all for South American countries (...

Today we are out at the range with the .45 ACP Steyr-Solothurn MP-34. I was curious to see how this submachine gun, much more commonly found in 9mm, would handle with the big .45 caliber cartridge. The answer? Quite nicely! It has a slightly lower rate of fire than the same gun chambered for 9x23...

My MAS 38 submachine gun is finally running properly and with the 7.65mm French Long ammunition now being made by Steinel Ammo, I can finally take this out to the range! What to shoot at?

A spinner, naturally.

The model 1900 was a transitional pattern of Mannlicher pistol, intended to be an improvement over the somewhat clumsy and underpowered Mannlicher 1896. Only about 250 of them were made, with an eye towards military contracts (which they were unable to secure). The 1900 pattern has a large manual...

Combat experience with the bazooka rocket launcher in World War Two and its larger versions in the Korean War convinced the US military that a better weapon was needed to give front-line troops a direct-fire way to attack enemy strong points. The bazooka was bulky, not particularly accurate, and ...

Edit: I said 100 yards in the video; this was all shot at 200 yards. Sorry!

Time to compare the Zastava over-sized AKs! Today I'm out at the range for a comparison shutoff between a Yugoslav M76 and a Serbian M91, both Kalashnikov-based DMRs made by the Zastava factory. The M76 is chambered fo...

Yesterday we looked at the history and mechanics of this Yugoslav M76; today we are taking it out to the range...

Courtesy of The Mosin Crate, we have a Soviet "M44L" today. This was an intermediate length (24 inch barrel) pattern of the Mosin Nagant rifle with an M44-style permanently attached folding spike bayonet. Developed in 1944, it was intended to serve as a universal replacement for the Mosin Nagant ...

The M40 was the final and largest iteration of the recoilless rifle in American military service. Designed to fix the shortcomings of the 105mm M27 that preceded it, the M40 was light and powerful, and added a .50 caliber spotting rifle to assist in being able to make first-round hits. The massiv...

The United States developed the M1 carbine very quickly at the beginning of World War Two, once the German "blitzkrieg" made it clear that highly mobile enemy forces could threaten rear echelon troops in a modern war. The M1911 pistol was seen as a difficult weapon to use well, and a light carbin...

The military of Luxembourg chose to purchase Nagant revolvers in the 1880s, and they got three different models. The most interesting of these was the Model 1884 for the Gendarmerie, which was chambered for the black powder 9.4x22mm cartridge and fitted with a long barrel so it could mount a tiny...

Courtesy of Legacy Collectibles, we have a pair of Luftwaffe-issue Walther pistols to look at today, one PP and one PPK. The Luftwaffe bought more than 500,000 pistols during World War Two, including not only Walthers but also the Luger, P38, HSc, CZ38, Femaru 37, and FN 1922. Identifying Luftwaf...