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MAS 45 (aka Carabine D'Instruction Modèle 1945)
Chap does a show and tell covering the MAS45, a nice simple .22 universal traininer used by the French armed forces for 35+ years. Aside from the unique rear sight it shares many similarities to Mauser .22 rifles of the 1930s and 40s, including the KKW, and from it's interesting history it's clea...
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Sterling 7.62 NATO Lee-Enfield No.4 Conversion (.308 Winchester)
A commercial endeavour by the Sterling Armaments Company to make a cheap second-line rifle for 7.62mm NATO by converting existing .303 Lee-Enfield No.4's, this particular example is an all-singing-all-dancing conversion with all the bells and whistles.
Link to the Sterling patent: https://worl...
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SAKO TRG-22 In .308 Win Out To 500m
Matti takes Mike to the 500m range with his SAKO TRG-22 rifle in .308 Win / 7.62x51 with Delta Optical Stryker 4.5-30x56 scope on top!
A real point-and-click interface at that distance!
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Extra Video: Seth From AK Takes You Through A Mosin Out Of Battery Safety
Thanks to Seth from Alaska for this tour of a Mosin-Nagant out of battery safety as a follow-on
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[001a] BotR Strip Club bis: Bloke Jr Solves the 10 Round 7.62 NATO Problem!
So Bloke Jr. (age 9) finds the solution to the issue with the 10 round 7.62 NATO chargers in the Sterling Conversion Lee-Enfield No.4! And it's non-obvious!
And cos he found the solution, he got to run the camera!
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BMS CAM Rifle: A Turnbolt Built Around An AR15 Bolt Head And Barrel Extension!
Bloke takes a look at a BMS CAM rifle (specifically a CONCAM), a 5.56x45 / .223 Remington bolt action with an extremely small rotation angle of 22.5° and a very short bolt throw, kinda the ultimate "tactical" bolt action.
Uses NATO / STANAG magazines and... an AR15 bolt head and barrel extension!
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Tips On Shooting Lee-Enfields Fast. And Other Bolt-Action Rifles Too...
Bloke gives some coaching advice on shooting bolt action rifles fast, particularly Lee-Enfields but also applicable to other types. Featuring Frankenrifle.
Many thanks to Rob, Rowan, Kevin and Keith for the use of their footage!
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10 Round vs 5 Round Magazines: Lee-Enfield No.4 One Gun Action Challenge
With thanks to Guy & Lesley Field of The Yeaveley Estate https://yeaveley-estate.co.uk/ BotR and The Wirksworth Gunroom bring you the definitive, and quite obvious, answer to this strangely contentious conundrum. Simply by shooting the same course of fire in three different manners, with .303 Lee...
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Enfield P14 vs US M1917 Rifles: What Are The Differences?
Might seem to be a silly question given that they're the same basic rifle in two different calibres (.303 British for the P14 and .30-06 for the M1917), but what were the adaptations for this and what are the other nonobvious and perhaps invisible changes?
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The Vetterli Rifle Story Pt.1
In 1866 Switzerland takes the bold step to universally adopt a breachloading repeating rifle. Why the sudden transition? What was their first choice? All this is explaining in this very nerdy video which contains NO SHOOTING!
We also take a very very deep dive into the mechanics of the rifle d...
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The Vetterli Story Part 2
In part 2 we take a look at each of the main infantry rifle patterns, the variations in military ammo and take my trusty M1878 to the range.
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Schmeisser SP-15 Straight Pull AR-15 .223 Rem
Schmeisser now make mass-produced straight-pull AR15's under the moniker SP-15. Bloke takes a look at one at Armurerie WYN in Ecublens near Lausanne. Such rifles are popular in the UK for Civilian Service Rifle (CSR) shooting and other type things.
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Terrible 2-Gun: Lebel, 1892 Revolver, and a WW1 Gas Mask
Today, I thought it would be fun (or at least interesting) to shoot a 2-gun match in a reproduction World War One gas mask and helmet. Specifically, a
French M2 pattern, which was used extensively by French, British, and American troops. I paired this with an Adrian helmet, a Lebel rifle, and a... -
Experimental Gras-Vetterli Repeating Rifle
In the 1870s and 1880s, France experimented with a huge variety of repeating rifle designs, including tube magazines hopper magazines, box magazines, and all sorts of other unique systems (more than 40 different types in total). These experimental rifles appear from time to time, but only a small...
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Finnish Brutality Practice: 2-Gun with a Finnish M39
As practice for Finnish Brutality, I ran a 2-Gun match with the Finnish M39 Mosin Nagant I am planning to use over in Finland. The M39 is the final iteration of the Mosin in Finnish service, and has very good sights, a great trigger, and a nice smooth action (for a Mosin, anyway). I was using PPU...
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SMLE MkIII: The Iconic Smelly of World War One
In 1907, the British adopted the final major pattern in the evolution of the Short, Magazine, Lee Enfield. Designated the ShtLE MkIII (Short Lee Enfield) at the time, it would be retroactively renamed Rifle No1 MkIII in the 1920s. This new design was simpler and more durable than its predecessors...
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Wait, Go Back! The SMLE MkIII* Wartime Simplification
The British entered World War One with a technically excellent rifle, with lots of bells and whistles. By 1916, the war was taking a previously unimaginable toll on the industrial capacity of the Empire and rifle production had to be economized. This led to the adoption of the MkIII* pattern of t...
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Prototype Jungle Carbine: A No1 MkV Becomes a No5 MkI
When the British began developing a shortened version of the No4 Lee Enfield in 1943 (which would become the No5 MkI "Jungle Carbine"), the development process included work with some rather older rifles. What we have here is a 1922 production No1 MkV rifle cut down as a trials prototype for the ...
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Mannlicher 88/95 - A Rare World War One Update
The Austro-Hungarian Empire went into World War One with the Steyr M95 straight-pull rifle as its standard infantry arm. Heavy losses in just the first few months of the war made it clear that the existing stockpiles of those M95 rifles would not suffice, however. Older guns were pulled out of in...
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Rifles of Simo Häyhä: The World's Greatest Sniper (w/ 9 Hole Reviews)
In light of the approaching Finnish Brutality: The Winter War match, I though we could take a look at the two rifles associated with the world's most successful sniper: Simo Häyhä. Häyhä was born in 1905, joined the Civil Guard at the age of 17, and did his mandatory military service from 1925 to...
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Prototype Ross "H5" from 1909
The Ross MkII (aka Ross 1905) was a reasonably successful rifle design, but it lacked a few elements that the Canadian military would have preferred. Most significantly, it was not compatible with the charger clip that was introduced for the Lee Enfield rifles in 1907. The rifle we have today is ...
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Lee-Enfield No.4 7.62 Conversions: Sterling vs L8
A while back I made this video about my full-fat Sterling No.4 Lee-Enfield conversion to 7.62 NATO.
Well, the Enfield L8 conversions are a little different. But why though? Here we've got an L39A1 doing stand-in duty, and we'll explain it with reference to Sterling's patent...
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Finnish Brutality 2021: Winter War 2-Gun with a Finnish M39 Mosin
Brought to you by Varusteleka and Sako, Finnish Brutality 2021 was run as a much-reduced private event to meet Finnish Covid-19 event size regulations. We only had three stages and 7 shooters, but the full public match has been rescheduled for October 22-24 of 2021!
http://www.Varusteleka.com
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M39 Snow Test in Finland
While in Finland for Finnish Brutality 2021, the question naturally arose of how bolt action rifles would fare in the snow. Bloke and Chap from Bloke on the Range decided to find out, and peer-pressured me into doing the same thing with my M39 Finnish Mosin. Thanks to Sako for sponsoring the matc...