After the success of the Glock 17 in Austrian military trials, the company chose two specific markets to target for expansion. One was competition shooters, for whom the Glock 17L was released. The other was the international law enforcement and military market, for whom they decided to make a ma...

Beretta's first machine pistol was actually a full-auto variant of the Model 1923, complete with shoulder stock - but that did not sell well. They tried again in the 1950s with an automatic model of the new Beretta Model 51 (aka M951). This was a 9x19mm pistol using a P38 style locking wedge, and...

The Beretta 93R ("Raffica") was developed in the 1970s by Beretta engineer Paolo Parola at the request of Italian military special forces. It took the basic Beretta 92 pistol design and added a well-thought-out burst mechanism under the right-side grip panel. It does not have a plain full-auto se...

I've fired a number of different machine pistols, but until today never a Glock 18. So, we're going to give it a try! This is an original factory example, not a conversion.

So often arms designers get automatic pistols wrong. But, there's a lot right about Beretta's M93R Raffica. Despite receiving Jonathan's seal of approval, the M93R never really went anywhere, other than featuring in one of our Keeper of Firearms and Artillery's favourite cult films: RoboCop.

Thi...

In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, CZ started exploring more commercial export options for its guns. In addition to resurrecting (well, attempting to) the vz.64 Skorpion in 9x19mm, they also developed a selective fire version of their landmark CZ-75 pistol. Production began in 1995,...

Contrary to what you might expect, Mauser was actually the last company to produce a fully automatic model of the C96 "broomhandle" pistol. The C96 was very popular in China (Mauser sent hundreds of thousands of them to China) and Spanish firms like Bestigui Hermanos and Astra jumped at the chanc...

In this episode Vic examines an Israeli Micro UZI submachine gun, chambered in 9x19mm, made by Israel Weapon Industries (IWI). The Micro UZI was the first of the family of Weapons to be developed from a semi auto, not full auto gun. Check out our website https://armourersbench.com/2018/04/23/the-...

Whilst Matt is off enjoying himself (and working) in Vegas at the SHOT Show, Vic looks at an interesting piece he finds in one of the surplus dealers he visits in Germany. The Czech Small Arms SA vz61 'Skorpion' blank firing pistol in 9mm knall (blank). A pistol manufactured for the reenactor and...

Vic takes a look at Steyr's little known submachine gun, the MPi 81. An Uzi-like SMG with a telescoped bolt. Be sure to check out our full video & the accompanying article on the MPi 81 here - http://armourersbench.com/2020/05/01/steyr-mpi-81 Check out our friend Miles' video on the MPi here - ht...

The Khyber region of Pakistan and Afghanistan is famed for its production of a variety of small arms ranging from the recognisable to the outright odd. This machine pistol was brought to the UK for analysis by the Pattern Room as it incorporates a number of interesting features that at first glan...

In many ways, the VP70 was a pistol ahead of its time, with an all-polymer frame and futuristic look. Anticipations were high for large sales across the Atlantic. Despite substantial adoption, the pistol was largely overshadowed by the Glock which followed it 10 years later.

An Antipodean entry with some extremely extremely rare features, but like so many weapons of this series, this week's entry was destined to be a footnote in the annals of firearms history. Created by Australian, Russell Robinson, inventor of other extremely odd looking firearms, the SR-11 had an ...

While many think the first Schnellfeuer originated in 1928 with Spanish arms manufacturer Astra, this example, produced in 1926 by Mauser was the original select-fire, fully-automatic example.

The Astra Model F was the final evolution of the Astra 900, a C96 Mauser lookalike. The Model F used detachable magazines and was select-fire, with a very effective rate reducing mechanism in the grip. It was adopted by the Guardia Civil in 1934, and 1,126 of the guns were produced in 1935.

O...

The Schnellfeuer, or Model 712, was Mauser's answer to the Spanish production of selective fire C96 lookalikes. Just over 100,000 of these pistols were made by Mauser in the 1930s, mostly going to China (although some did see use in other countries, and also with the SS). They use 10- and 20-roun...

Made by Señor Osorio in Nicaragua, this is a .22 rimfire caliber machine pistol with several clever design elements. It fires from an open bolt, using a .22-round Italian magazine of indeterminate origin. It has a selective trigger, with the top firing in full automatic (sliding rearward) and the...

After the commercial failure of Gordon Ingram’s M6 submachine gun in the early 50s, we would radically change the layout of his designs. Instead of a Thompson lookalike Ingram’s M10 (the M7, M8, and M9 doing experimental prototypes only) would be a boxy and compact affair with a Czech-style teles...

If a swanky outfit like H&K can make an “Operational Briefcase” with a submachine gun hidden inside it, then you can bet Military Armament Corporation is going to do the same! MAC made these briefcases for both the M10 and M11 submachine guns, and made a shortened suppressor for the M10 pattern g...

I've been promising this range video for a while now, and here it is. We took all three configurations of the C96 Broomhandle Mauser - a pistol, a carbine, and a machine pistol - out to the range for some comparisons.

After encountering Italian Villar Perosa machine pistols in the field, Austro-Hungarian troops requested a similar weapon. The project was given to FÉG to work on, and the result was the Pistolen-MG Model 1917: a pair of Frommer Stop pistols with long barrels and 25-round magazines, redesigned to...

The original Scorpion was adopted in .32 ACP caliber as the vz.61 by the Czechoslovakian military – but development of the Scorpion did not end there. Prototypes were also developed in .380, 9×18 Makarov, and 9x19mm. In particular, the 9x19mm version, designated vz.68, got as far as field trials ...

The Trejo pistols were made by a small family company in Puebla, Mexico from the late 1940s until the early 1970s. They made primarily .22 LR rimfire pistols, in both small (Model 1) and large (Model 2) frame sizes. They were basically styled after the Colt 1911, but with a more aggressive grip a...

The Spanish Astra firm introduced its C96 Mauser lookalike, the Model 900, in 1927 to take advantage of the strong Chinese demand for that type of handgun. When Bestigui Hermanos introduced a select-fire machine pistol to the Chinese market, Astra quickly followed suit with their Model 910 and 90...