Brownells has produced a substantial line of retro AR-15 pattern rifles, from the "Proto" with the trigger-shaped charging handle to the M16A1 and XM-177 rifles and carbines. Today I am joined by Paul Levy from Brownells at RIA to discuss how these rifles came to be, and what the future plans are...

Today I'm sitting down with Paul Levy from Brownells to talk about the development process for the BRN-10, their Retro copy of the original Armalite AR-10. Brownells is one of a small cadre of companies who have actually been able to successfully execute a project like this, and I wanted to pick ...

Note: Some explicit language in this video.

I am honored today to have a chance to interview Neil Vermillion about his experiences in Iraq, Kurdistan, and Ukraine. Neil is a US Army veteran (2002-2006) who served contracts in Kurdistan (2016) and Ukraine (2022) for the nonprofit PMC Sons of Li...

We interviewed Duncan McCollum, author of "Japanese Rifles of WWII". He showed us some interesting aspects of a Japanese Type 2 paratrooper takedown rifle. These guns are like regular Type 99 Arisakas, but can be quickly disassembled into two piece for carrying in a leg bag when parachuting.

Forgotten Weapons is joined by author Bin Shih, an expert on Chinese firearms of the second Sino-Japanese War (aka World War 2). We discuss the state of Chinese weapons manufacture in the 1930s and 40s, as well as several specific weapons including Mauser-type bolt action rifles, grenade launche...

While we were at SAR West this past weekend, we of course took some time to check in with Jeff from Apex Gun Parts. We've been buying goodies from Jeff long before we started up the blog, and his customer service is second to none.

At the SHOT Show last weekend, we has the opportunity to interview Charles St. George, designer of the Leader T2 rifle we have previously discussed. We ended up having to run this interview twice, as background noise made the first take unfortunately inaudible - but our second take came out quite...

Forgotten Weapons is joined by author Bin Shih, an expert on Chinese firearms of the second Sino-Japanese War (aka World War 2). We discuss the state of Chinese weapons manufacture in the 1930s and 40s, as well as several specific weapons including Mauser-type bolt action rifles, grenade launche...

We have another interview segment with Bin Shih today, this time discussing the commonly used bolt action rifles that were the backbone of the Chinese infantry during the war with Japan. Specifically, Hanyang rifle, the Manchurian Mauser, and the Chiang Kai-Shek rifle (aka Type 24).

We have another piece today from our interview with Dolf Goldsmith, this time on the subject of $5 Finnish mortars used for fun and profit. Well, actually just for fun. To clarify one of Dolf's comments, I believe these mortars were Soviet made, and Finnish captured - the Finns used mortars made ...

While I was visiting Galesburg, I had the pleasure of meeting Nicole Wiley. She is working on organizing a massive reference book on German .22 training rifles (like the Sportmodell and KKW), and was kind enough to give me a tour of Robert Simpson's collection of these guns. It was a very interes...

When I visited Biofire, I was able to spend several hours discussing the history of the gun with its creator, lead designer, and lead engineer. We also completely stripped one of the guns down to its component circuit boards and pins - but much of this information is still under NDA until the gun...

I am honored today to be able to bring you an interview with Christian Prouteau, the founder and original leader of GIGN. This is France's premier elite counter-terrorism force, who have been at the forefront of developing modern special operations techniques and standards. Prouteau led more than...

My interview with Christian Prouteau focused on the MR-73 revolver and how his men in GIGN trained with it. However, I did also ask him about the FR-F1 rifles, and figured I would separate that brief conversation out since it was on a different subject. Specifically, I asked why the FR-F1 used su...

The introductory clip was from my interview with Tony Neophytou, a talented and successful South African firearms designer (his work includes the Neostead 2000, Inkunzi PAW, and NTW-20 rifle). He doesn't mince words; it's a very difficult field to succeed in - and I regularly get inquiries from h...

Uli Wiegand is the President of InterOrdnance, and recently invited me to his facility to take a look at the first shipment from a huge batch of collectible firearms he spent 8 years working to import from central Africa. The cache includes all manner of models, including Enfields, Mausers, Carca...

Ralf Dieckmann is a German-born firearms designer who grew up as a small child in Berlin during World War II. His interest in firearms developed in the post-war years with war detritus literally lying about in the streets. He emigrated to Canada and enlisted in the Canadian military, where he fir...

Today we have a brief conversation with Mathieu Willemsen, Curator of the Dutch National Military Museum. This was shorter than I would have preferred, because it came right at the end of a long day of filming guns, and we only had a few minutes - but I would like to encourage anyone who happens ...

Tony Neophytou is the South African designer of several very interesting and innovative firearms: the Neostead 2000 pump shotgun, the NTW-20 anti-material rifle, the NeoPup/Inkunzi PAW, and most recently the NeoStrike/Inkunzi Strike machine gun. He was generous enough to spare some time to sit do...

I had a chance to spend a couple days filming at Movie Armaments Group up in Toronto, and took a minute to speak with Charlie Taylor, their Managing Director. MAG is has been around for 25 years supplying guns to the film and TV industry, and Charlie has immense experience working with blank-fire...

Today we are speaking with Bill Chase on the subject of restoration of collectible firearms. Mr. Chase is a very talented machinist and artisan, and has substantial experience in restoring firearms, including manufacturing new parts for some very rare and valuable guns. This video was promtped by...

We took part of our recent European excursion in England, and part of that time was spent at the National Firearms Centre in Leeds, formerly known as the Pattern Room. The gun collection there was started in 1631 as a repository for reference examples of British military equipment, in an effort t...

While we were at the SAR West show this year, we had the chance to chat with Teri, who runs NambuWorld.com. Teri is a Canadian collector who took a longtime interest in Japan and built a very impressive collection of Japanese firearms and militaria, and her web site is a great source of informati...

Dolf Goldsmith is a renowned author and machine gun expert, having written landmark books on the Maxim, Vickers, and Browning machine guns, and having been an avid shooter and gun collector for more than 60 years. We had the pleasure of speaking with him at the SAR West gun show last month, and d...