Prototype & Trials Weapons

Prototype & Trials Weapons

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Prototype & Trials Weapons
  • Thorpe EM-1: A Bullpup Take on the Roller Locked Gerat 06

    The EM-1 was one of the British post-WWII rifle development projects with the ambitious goal of replacing both the infantry rifle and the submachine gun with a single select-fire weapon optimized for combat within 600 meters (as opposed to the prior doctrine of 1000m effective ranges). The design...

  • British EM-2: The Best Cold War Battle Rifle that Never Was

    The EM-2 was the rifle that the British pushed for NATO trials in 1950. It was a rifle well ahead of its time in several areas - as a select-fire bullpup rifle, it was intended to replace both the infantry rifle and the submachine gun. Its .280 caliber cartridge was designed with combat ranges of...

  • Shooting the EM-2 in .280 British

    I had 10 rounds of .280 British ammunition to work with today, so I opted for several rounds in semiauto (including some slow motion shots) and then one burst at the end. The .280 cartridge is less powerful than the 7.62mm NATO, but in my opinion the EM-2 remains a rifle much better used in semia...

  • Major Fosbery's Breechloading Prototype Rifle

    George Fosbery was the British officer (Major, at the time of this particular design) responsible for the quite famous Webley-Fosbery self-cocking revolver, as well as the Paradox system for shotgun slugs and many other lesser known firearms inventions. This rifle was his entry into British trial...

  • Hudson H9 Prototypes & Development (with Cy Hudson)

    I am joined today by Cy Hudson, to take a look at the early prototypes of the Hudson H9 pistol - nicknamed the Brick and the Boat Anchor - and to discuss the development process of the gun from the initial sketch in MS Paint to the final production guns that are coming off the production line now...

  • Ribeyrolles 1918 - France's First Assault Rifle or a Failed Prototype?

    Paul Ribeyrolles was the manager of the Gladiator bicycle factory, and by 1918 he had significant experience in small arms design, having been a core member of the team that designed and built the 1915 CSRG Chauchat automatic rifle and the RSC-1917 semiautomatic rifle. These were forward-looking ...

  • Prototype Mauser 1917 Trench Carbine

    In the latter stages of World War One, the German military was looking for new arms for its Sturmtruppen. Without a reliable self-loading rifle design to use, they instead focused on pistil caliber arms. The first to be used was the existing lP08 artillery Luger, fitted with a drum magazine. At t...

  • Prairie Gun Works Timberwolf: British Trials Sniper Rifle

    The Timberwolf is a bolt action precision rifle made by Prarie Gun Works of Manitoba, Canada. It was initially made as a commercial rifle in a number of different calibers, and in 2001 it won Canadian trials to become the C14 Timberwolf Medium Range Sniper Weapon System (replacing the C3A1 Parker...

  • Prototype Gustloff MKb-42(G) aka Model 206

    This is a reposting of a video from September 2016 with a new introduction. The recent publication of the new and expanded edition of Hans-Dieter Handrich's book "Sturmgewehr!" has revealed new information about the history of this rifle which I wanted to put into the video.

    German arms develo...

  • Bern Prototype Carbine: Intermediate Cartridges in the 1920s

    Designed by Adolf Furrer, this carbine represents a very early experiment with intermediate power ammunition. It is a long recoil semiautomatic carbine with an under barrel tube magazine - quite the interesting combination of 19th and 20th centuries! The cartridge used was the experimental Swiss ...

  • Experimental Lightweight Browning High Power

    One of the handguns that resulted from the post-WW2 interest in standardizing arms among the future members of NATO was a lightweight version of the Canadian produced Browning High Power. Experiments began in 1947 to create first a lightened slide by milling out unnecessary material, and then add...

  • The Mexican Luger

    Mexico’s President for nearly 30 years, Porfirio Diaz was very interested in modernizing the Mexican Army. He invested in new artillery, magazine guns, and small arms - such as the Mondragon semiautomatic rifle. In addition, Mexico tested the Luger pistol circa 1903-1905. They found it to be quit...

  • Maxim Silverman Model 1896 Automatic Pistol

    Hiram Maxim is obviously best known for the Maxim Machine Gun, but he and (most significantly) his assistant Louis Silverman also dabbled in handgun design. It appears that the work was primarily Silverman's, done with the tacit support of the Maxim company. A followup version was made with more ...

  • Meunier A6: France's First Semiauto Battle Rifle

    France began experimenting with self-loading rifle designs in the late 1890s, although most of this work is mostly unknown today. The work was done by the State arsenals, and kept as military secrets, without patents being filed or commercial sales considered. All sorts of systems were developed ...

  • The American FAL: Harrington & Richardson T48 (w/ Larry Vickers)

    Today I am joined by Larry Vickers to take a look at his original H&R T48 FAL. The Harrington & Richardson company was awarded a contract to produce a pre-production series of 500 of these rifles in the mid 1950s when the United States was conduction trials to choose a new combat rifle. The Belgi...

  • Swiss Prototype von Steiger Auto-Ejecting Revolvers

    In the 1870s, Switzerland was looking for a new military revolver, and they were particularly interested in finding a system which would allow faster reloading than the standard loading gate and manual ejection rod. A military veteran and gunsmith by the name of von Steiger in Thun submitted a de...

  • Walther's .45ACP MP (P38 Precursor)

    During the process of developing the pistol which would become the German army's P38, the Walther company was also interested in potential export contracts (like the one they actually did get from Sweden). One potential contract briefly explored was to the United States, and a few prototype MP pi...

  • Vickers-Berthier 1919 US Trials Rifle (Second Type)

    After designing the bolt action rifle that bears his name, Andre Berthier went on to experiment with self-loading designs. He developed a light machine gun in the years before World War One, but was not able to interest the French government in it. He also submitted that gun for US military consi...

  • Weird Slide Action Prototype Rifles

    These two slide action rifles came form the same collection, and are pretty clearly related - one is a toolroom type of early prototype and the other is a refined pre-production sort of example. However, we have no idea who made them, or when or where. They look well made enough to have been the ...

  • British 1942 Prototype Simplified...Enfield?

    In 1942, the British government instituted a development program to design a new simplified rifle to replace the No4 MkI Lee Enfield. The CSAD (Central Small Arms Department) came up with a design using a quite simple receiver machined form a small steel billet. It was a rifle wholly distinct for...

  • Thompson's .30-06 1923 Autorifle: Blish Strikes Again

    This is a Model 1923 Thompson Autoloading Rifle, one of a batch of 20 made by Colt for US military testing in 1924. The system is designed on the same basic Blish principle as the Thompsons submachine gun; the idea that two sliding surfaces will lock solidly together under enough pressure, and no...

  • Australian Prototype Jungle Carbine Enfields

    In 1943, experimentation began in Great Britain, Canada, and Australia into developing a shortened and lightened version of the Lee Enfield rifle. In Australia, the work was done on the No1 Mk3* rifle, as the Lithgow Arsenal had never switched over to production of the No4 rifle.

    We have thre...

  • Canadian Experimental Lightweight No4 Enfield

    In 1943 the need for a lighter and handier version of the Lee Enfield rifle became clear throughout the British Commonwealth, and experimentation began in Canada, Britain, and Australia. The work in Britain would culminate in the No5 Mk1 rifle, but the Canadian arsenal at Long Branch would try so...

  • Bergmann 1920s Experimental Military Trials Pistol

    This was, as far as I can tell, the final iteration of the Bergmann pistols, developed by AEP in Liege for potential military contracts. It retains the locking system of the 1910 pattern pistol, but with a simplified disassembly method reminiscent of the C96 Mauser. The barrel was lengthened, the...