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.
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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!

The Bloke, with the help of the chap's handy hands, takes a detailed look at the Swiss Karabiner 93, a Mannlicher straight-pull with basically the same action as an M95 Steyr. This is the only Swiss straight-pull that is Austrian rather than Swiss.

Chambered in 7.5x53.5 GP90 - a smokeless (not...

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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Contrary to popular belief, the official WW1 doctrine of use of the .303" Lee-Enfield SMLE magazine wasn't to stuff it full to bursting. Bet most people on active service did though, despite what the Musketry Regulations 1909 said.

As a followup to an earlier vid (link below) where I showed that milspec .303 doesn't actually suffer rimjams / rimlock due to the design of the rim, here's some commercial ammo (S&B) that suffers it badly. And how to deal with it. As demonstrated with a very nice 1915 dated Lee-Enfield SMLE Mk.III.

The bloke makes an awful gag that's not even in the slightest bit funny to introduce his shiny new hundred-year old Steyr M95 Mannlicher, the main rifle with which Austria-Hungary went to war in WW1. It's probably in Battlefield 1 and all or something...

Problem is, he can't shoot it yet - wha...

In which I make a screwup of the words of command due to tiredness, but I think nobody notices.......

Many thanks to Rob of Britishmuzzleloaders.

And we move ever onwards with the Schmidt-Rubin straight pull rifle series. This time, the Model 1900 Kurzgewehr, or "short rifle". This one is a complete unicorn, as the Bloke explains.

But that's unpossible! How can someone shoot straight with that great big ghost ring 0.2" / 5.1mm battle aperture on a Lee-Enfield No.4! Let alone at 300m! Inconceivable!

Music Created By : EternalSushi
Song Title: Undertale - Megalovania Elevator Jazz
Credit link: https://goo.gl/PrF6MA
Lic...

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!