This pistol is something of a mystery - its design comes from the experimental Mauser HsP of the mid 1970s. It uses a short recoil system with a pivoting locking block vaguely like a P38, and was an unsuccessful competitor to the H&K P7 in German police trials. The design was dropped by Mauser by...

I have been waiting for a long time to have a chance to make this video - the Heckler & Koch G11! Specifically, a G11K2, the final version approved for use by the West German Bundeswehr, before being cancelled for political and economic reasons.

The G11 was a combined effort by H&K and Dynamit...

When the G11 program was cancelled and German reunified, the West German military was still using the 7.62mm G3 rifle, while the East German forces had AK-74 variants. Neither of these were suitable for a new unified German NATO-member Bundeswehr - a rifle in 5.56mm NATO was needed. Heckler & Koc...

The H&K G41 was developed for the NATO trials of the early 1980s, which were set up to look at both rifles and cartridges for NATO standardization (although they did not end up choosing a rifle). The gun is a basically an HK33 roller-delayed system set up to use standard M16 magazines and with a ...

Thanks to my friends at Bear Arms in Scottsdale, we have an H&K P8A1 to take a look at today - the current Bundeswehr issue version of the USP. Chambered for 9x19mm and adopted in 1994, only a few things differentiate the P8/P8A1 from the standard commercial USP. Most notably is the safety, which...

August Coenders was an independent arms designer in Germany. During the 1930s he spent several years working in England and at the French Puteaux Arsenal, which contributed to a general lack of trust and interest in his designs by the German high command (the man's generally adversarial nature di...

Thanks to the generosity of a collector in the Association of Maltese Arms Collectors and Shooters, we have a chance today to take a look at a pre-production FG-42, serial number 015. This is one of the guns manufactured by Rheinmetall (the series production would be handed over to Krieghoff) in ...

Sport Systeme Dittrich in Germany is a manufacturer of a remarkably wide range of reproduction German World War Two small arms (including the FG42, StG-44, G43, MP-3008, MP-35, and VG1-5 as well as the MP-38). They have a mixed reputation, as they are magnificently accurate looking reproductions,...

We have another experimental German WWII piece for you today, Mauser's last-ditch "Volkspistole". It was developed at the end of the war as an extremely inexpensive home guard weapon, although how much use a pistol would have been in fighting off the Red Army and US Army is pretty questionable. T...

We had the opportunity to take a look at a PTR-44 semiauto reproduction of a German Sturmgewehr today, and it's a gorgeous rifle. There were some issues reported by early owners (including miscut chambers due, actually, to incorrect dimensions on the original German blueprints) so we're eager to ...

The Volksturmgewehr Gustloff (commonly and incorrectly called the VG1-5) was a last-ditch rifle developed by Germany at the end of World War II. Only a few thousand were made, and they did not make a significant impact on the war. The rifle was intended to are the Volksturm, the German equivalent...

The German military establishment during WWII has a reputation for innovation and excellence, which is pretty well deserved. But even they produced some real goose eggs, and the Gewehr 41 is one of them. That the G41 was even remotely successful is a tribute to the creativity of the Walther and M...

Here we take up the mad minute challenge with the two main belligerents of the Franco-Prussian war, both needle-fire and both using what we now call caseless ammunition. Not ejector needed and no need to pick up your brass. Who will win this epic dual?

A tutorial for the new chassepot cartidge ...

"I remember the first rifle ever given to me by my grandfather. It was a Werder's Original, and I was four"...

The Chap takes his Bavarian 1869 Werder in 11x50R out to the range for a shoot, and then takes it back to the workshop to give its insides a good look-over.

The Werder is rather th...

Following a helpful suggestion, The Chap takes his GoPro and makes a plexiglass sideplate for his Bavarian 1869 Werder rifle, and gets another chance to talk about it. It is his favourite rifle, after all.

In this video, he goes through the entire operating cycle. The Bloke, while editing this...

As part of an ongoing series comparing each aspect of the design and use of the last of the WW2 mainstream Lee-Enfield rifles (No. 4 Mk.1* in .303 British) and of the Mauser rifles (Kar98k in 7.92x57mm), here we take a look at basic accuracy off the bench, and make some comments on the sights.

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Since the Manky Mauser Kar98k had a somewhat extreme extractor that was giving him problems, Bloke took a file and a stone to it. Here's the whys and wherefores of what he did, and a discussion on controlled vs push feed.

There's a Lindybeige cameo in this vid too!

The Bloke takes a deep look into the mechanical differences between a German 7.92x57mm Mauser 98 action (specifically a Kar98k) and a British .303" Enfield Pattern 14 (P14) rifle.

A bit long this one, but I thought some people might like to see the whole process, and how some rifles will really like some ammo and not others.

Here's Bloke's "Minty Mauser", which is a Spanish M43 (kinda almost VZ24 / Kar98k configuration), with a scope mount and turned down bolt handle do...

The Chap presents a very good, neat way to make paper tubes for your Dreyse or Chassepot needlefire rifle!

Earlier videos on the topic:

Full luxury Chassepot version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iahThVlF7QI
Simple Chassepot version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr1cN9FXA9E

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In this video we look at Military Mauser 98 (Gewehr 98, Kar98AZ / Kar98a, Kar98k) accuracy based on figures from German the 1909 and pre-WW2 Schiessvorschrift. We also look at the WW2 era K98k acceptance standard, including the 300m test for the Japanese 98k contract, and a 1901 Hythe test of two...