When the intercepted Jameson Raid made it clear to the governments of the ZAR (Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek; South African Republic) and the Orange Free State that war with Britain was imminent, a hasty armaments program was undertaken by both countries. The ZAR went looking for small arms, and wo...

Astute audience members will have noted that I described the "1903 Springfield Stripped for Air Service" as being intended as a pilot's survival weapon, because it would be a laughably poor gun to actually use from the cockpit in flight. In his very recent 1903 Springfield episode, Othais of C&Rs...

In the aftermath of World War One, France would face the need to replace virtually all of its small arms, because nearly everything it had been using was either a wartime stopgap (like the Ruby, Chauchat, and Berthier 07/15) or had been obsolete before the war began (like the Lebel and Mle 1892 r...

The Cuirassier carbine is one of the very scarcest versions of the Berthier in the world, yet Patrick here is going to let me shoot a few rounds through his. My target is a steel plate at 300 meters, with a "feldgrau" silhouette - not visible through the camera, unfortunately.

Thanks, Patrick!

This is a rather mysterious - or at least poorly documented - Mosin Nagant carbine variation. Made from an assortment of rifles dated from 1896 through 1920, these carbines were designed to fit Gulkevich folding bayonets. They have a barrel just slightly longer than a 1907 carbine, but were fitte...

In 1943, the British government began a program to develop a shortened and lightened version of the No1 SMLE rifle, for production in India and Australia - where the national ordnance factories had not converted to production of the No4 rifle. This prototype is the first pattern produced by the I...

The Mauser Karabiner 98k began production as an excellent quality rifle, with every nuance of fine fit and finish one would have expected form the Mauser company. World War Two had barely begun by the time a few compromises began to be made to maintain production, however - and by the end of the ...

The Liao Type 13 was produced at what would become known as the Mukden Arsenal in Manchuria starting in 1924, with production facilitated by the Steyr company of Austria. Late in World War One, Steyr developed an improved pattern of Mauser rifle, with a shrouded firing pin, shrouded striker, gas ...

The Swiss replaced their Vetterli rifles in the late 1880s with the new Schmidt-Rubin pattern, and this eventually trickled down to the cadet corps. These youth programs had been using short single-shot 1870 Vetterli carbines, but as those became obsolete and in need of replacement, the 1897 Kade...

Normally in big game rifles, one has the choice of either a double barrel or a bolt action (semi autos being generally eschewed as not reliable enough). After the surely unnerving experience of being charged by three elephants simultaneously, however, Hungarian hunter Joseph Szecsei decided he wa...

The first repeating rifle adopted by the British military was the Lee-Metford MkI, or as it was later redesigned, the Magazine Rifle MkI. This design combined the cock on closing action and detachable box magazine of James Paris Lee with the rounded-land Metford rifling pattern. Formally adopted ...

After about 2 years or working and waiting, my FR-F1 has arrived from France - so it's time to get it zeroed! I am using the only commercial ammo available in the us; PPU 139gr FMJ (caliber 7.5x54mm). To properly show the accuracy this rifle is capable of, I will need to handload the ammo, and fi...

The Ambidex was a rifle developed by the Musgrave company in South Africa in the late 1980s. It was a straight-pull bolt action rifle inspired by the Browning T-Bolt, but with the ability to have the bolt swapped to either the left or right side for ambidextrous use. They were chambered for the ....

During WWII, the Turkish government wound up in possession of several thousand (between 5k and 10k) French Berthier rifles, mostly 1907/15 models, but also some Mle 1916s. There is some question as to exactly how, but the most likely explanation appears to be a shipment of arms from Syria to Iraq...

Siam, now known as Thailand, was one of the few independent south Asian nations around the turn of the 20th century. Looking to modernize its military to protect against colonial imposition, is decided in 1903 to adopt a copy of the Mauser Gewehr 98 rifle. Siam (which changed its name to Thailand...

The Blake was one of many rifle designs submitted to the US Army trials that would ultimately result in the adoption of the Krag-Jorgensen as the US Army's standard rifle. The main innovation of Blake's design was a unique ammunition "packet" system which held 7 cartridges. The rifle would be loa...

When the SMLE was adopted by the British, it was to be the new universal rifle for all branches of service, including the Royal Navy. This suited the Navy just fine; they like the features of the new design. However, the Army quickly moved to update their rifles for the new MkVII Spitzer ammuniti...

The Bloke, briefly beardless, receives a package in the post. What could be more YouTuberish than an unboxing video? What could possibly be hiding in the box?

Well, it's a private series M1889/96 Schmidt-Rubin, his rarest and most expensive straight-pull to date! No, it's not an M1889, nor is ...

In an Internet First, Bloke takes his shiny new hundred year and extremely rare old private-purchase Schmidt-Rubin 1889/96 to the range, and actually manages to find some 7.5x53.5mm GP90/03 that goes bang! Well, click-bang, anyway. And only about 3 of them... But anyway, he does it all the same. ...

Bloke got lucky at a gunshow recently and managed to pick up one of his favourite Lee-Enfield rifles - a No.7 Mk.1, a .22 lr smallbore training rifle. These are the peak of development of the .22 rimfire trainers, and replicate the .303 No.4 as far as possible, and even have a 5 round magazine.
...

A philosophical episode, this one - on the many lives lived by milsurp rifles. This one is a Schmidt-Rubin K00/11, a K11 converted from an earlier model 1900 short rifle. The rifle lived a number of lives, and we have a bit of the human history behind the last one.

I promised someone I'd do th...

As the start of a looooong series looking at each of the Swiss straight-pulls from the 1889 to the K31, The Bloke gives a short (ha!) overview of the series, and the context of the Swiss militia system in which they existed.

Yeah, there's a couple of ad breaks. Sorry. But it helps to support w...

Bloke takes a trip through the history of the straight-pull Schmidt-Rubin 1889 rifle in 7.5x53.5 mm GP90 calibre. This video was going to be complete with a mechanical description, but a last-minute executive decision was taken to split it in a humorous way. Or, if not humorous, at least bizarre....

As mentioned in the previous video, The Bloke had to split what would have been a massive single episode into two. So this is the second part. Schmidt-Rubin striaght-pull 1889 rifle mechanics. Have at it!