The MP40/I was an experimental modification of the MP-40 submachine gun developed by the Erma company (we think) in late 1942. It was presumably developed in response to complaints of Soviet fire superiority with SMGs because of their large drum magazines (and also the larger number of SMGs used ...

After yesterday's history and disassembly, I had a chance to take the Hyde/Marlin M2 submachine gun out to the range today for some test firing. It is a remarkably nice gun to use - with a good in-line stock design and low rate of fire, it was extremely controllable. Better than both the Thompson...

The United States went into World War Two with the Thompsons submachine gun - a weapon far too heavy and too expensive for its role. The British went to the other extreme with the Sten and while the US did not want a gun quite that crude, the Sten did spur a desire for something cheaper than the ...

Before and during World War Two, the Japanese used a variety of training rifles and machine guns in both formal military instruction and technical schools to teach basic military drill. These guns were used for teaching basic drill skills, and were built to use wooden-bullet blank ammunition inst...

The Deer Gun is a covert CIA pistol inspired by the Liberator. In fact, the initial desire was to pull Liberators out of storage to use in the 1950s, but out was found that they had all been scrapped in 1947/8. So instead, a new gun was designed with the same criteria of simplicity and low cost. ...

Yesterday we looked at the short-lived Bernardelli VB submachine gun made a few years after World War 2, and compared it to the post-war Beretta Model 4 SMG. Having seen how different the two guns really are, it's time to take them to the shooting range and see how they compare in actual firing...

The Bernardelli company, known mostly for sporting arms, made an effort to break into the law enforcement/military/security market in the year after World War Two. This Model UB submachine gun was manufactured in 1948 and 1949, with a total of about 500 made. While it looks like a copy of the Ber...

The US Congress passed a Militia Act in 1808 to provide funding for military supplies, and one of the immediate resulting contracts was to Simeon North for 1000 pairs of Model 1808 Navy pistols. These were the first pistols contracted by the fledgling US Navy, and they specified a .64 caliber fli...

Today at the Kessler auction house in Kreuzlingen Switzerland (direct link prohibited by YouTube), we are looking at an exquisitely made miniature model of an MG08 Maxim machine gun. This was probably made by a watchmaker in military service, but there is not specific evidence to point to who the...

The USMC adopted the Milkor USA M32A1 rotary multiple grenade launcher (MGL) in 2012. The history of this weapon goes back to South Africa, where designer Andries Piek was inspired to create it after building the 37mm "Stopper" for the South African police and then seeing a Manville 25mm gas laun...

In 1889, Emperor Menelik II ascended to power in Ethiopia, and would rule for 20 years, moving Ethiopia (aka Abyssinia) forward into the modern age. He brought railways, sewer systems, telegraph lines, and other modern amenities to the country, particularly the capital of Addis Ababa. In addition...

Hiram Maxim was the first person to create a truly practical and functional machine gun, based on a patent he filed in 1883. He pioneered the recoil operating system - the concept of harnessing the recoil generated by a firearm to perform the actions of reloading that firearm. His patent was base...

Today we welcome back Max Popenker of ModernFirearms.net to discuss the Soviet and Russian development of the 9x39mm suppressed rifle cartridge. From the early unsuccessful and sidetracked efforts to replace the PBS suppressor through the AMB-17 currently in development by the Kalashnikov Concern...

Today we are looking at one of the rarest and earliest rifles built by Paul and Wilhelm Mauser, a design which would set in motion all the events that led to the Mauser company becoming one of the great world leaders in small arms. The Mauser brothers were born in Oberndorf am Necker in the Kingd...

Mauser had been at the forefront of military self-loading pistol design with its C96 pistol, but by the 1930s it had lost major market share to Sauer and Walther in police and commercial guns. The Mauser 1910/1914/1934 line of compact pistols was getting a bit old, and the Sauer 38H and Walther P...

Courtesy of the Paul Mauser Archive, we have a very cool opportunity to look at the documentation and paperwork behind a production pistol design, from beginning to commercial sales. This sort of documentation is rare for pre-WW1 German small arms in general, and the Mauser Model 1910 pistol is a...

After the adoption of the MAT 49 as the standard French military submachine gun, elements of the French security services also adopted it to replace the 7.65mm MAS 38 submachine guns. These included the Paris Police, who developed a special variation of the MAT 49 for their use, designated the MA...

At the end of World War Two, the Paris Police decided that they needed a few different features on a police submachine gun than the then-standard MAS 38 offered. A few hundred were converted to the new police requirements, interestingly mirroring the characteristics that would be used a few years...

The CR39 ("crosse repliable", or folding stock) is the paratrooper version of the MAS 36. The need for a more compact and transportable pattern was recognized almost as soon as the MAS 36 was finalized, originally for paratroops but in practice also for alpine troops. Two years were spent devisin...

When Britain entered the First World War, it had no formal sniper program. Germany was the first combatant to train and utilize snipers, and their effectiveness quickly convinced the British military that a similar program was necessary. Initially a wide variety of rifles were put into service, i...

Sir Charles Ross was really a jerk sometimes. Not the sort of guy you would want to go into business with.

The new Star Wars TV series "The Mandalorian" does, in fact, feature a sidearm based on the Bergmann No1 / 1894 semiauto pistol. These are extremely rare today (probably only 5 or 6 still exist), and I am quite sure the prop was built from scratch and is not an actual original gun. However, the p...

Continuing our periodic series discussing gun laws around the world, I am joined today by Stephen Patroni of the Association of Maltese Arms Collectors and Shooters to discuss the laws on Malta. Malta is one of the smallest countries in the European Union, and has some rather remarkable laws by c...

The Malaysian factory SMOE (Syarikat Malaysia Explosives Ltd) is the only ammunition producer in Malaysia, and produces a variety of calibers for small arms and light weapons. The factory was established in 1969 with the partnership of Oerlikon and Dynamit Nobel, and became wholly owned by the Ma...