Of all the classic 7.62mm battle rifles of the Cold War, only the G3 remains in modern military service updated to serve alongside the more recent 5.56mm rifles (no, the M14 DMR rifles don't count). Why the G3, and how? Today we will take a look at a clone of a Norwegian AG3F2 and a sort-of clone...

Thanks to the owner (who wishes to remain anonymous), we got to take the factory semi-auto Enfield SA80 / L85A1 to the range to have another session, this time with iron sights.

How did it fare compared to with a SUSAT optic and with an M16A1?

2003 Pamphlet / Manual: https://drive.google.co...

Dale takes us yet further through the theory and use of Stgw. 57 rifle grenades. 3/3.

0:00 Intro
4:13 Static Tank Targets
5:15 Moving Tank Targets (Pz Attr)
13:06 Training Principles
24:00 Training Session Examples and Execution
28:34 Skill Assessment and Performance Standard Exercises
3...

Dale takes us through the theory and use of Stgw. 57 rifle grenades. 1/3.
Dale's channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9zNvngfqqZIASarWVYvqyw

Dale takes us yet further through the theory and use of Stgw. 57 rifle grenades. 2/3.
Dale's channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9zNvngfqqZIASarWVYvqyw

0:00 Intro
1:14 Direct Fire Intro
2:15 1960-1983 Firing Technique Demo
12:48 Analysis of Firing Demo
18:33 1960-1983 Technique Iss...

The FG-42 was specifically made with a scope attachment on every rifle, and intended to serve as a marksman's or sniper's rifle. But how much of that actually happened during World War Two? And was the FG-42 actually suited to a sniper role?

Here's an interesting thought - what if they made the FG-42 in 8x33mm Kurz? Well, they actually did, in very small numbers. The rifle's designer, Louis Stange, actually thought it was a really good idea, and the Heereswaffenamt office converted a handful of first model FG42s for testing, although...

Many the nations that adopted the FAL (or L1A1, in Commonwealth terminology) opted to also use a heavy-barreled variant of the same rifle as a light support weapon. In the Commonwealth, this was designated L2A1 and it was used by Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The Australian model was buil...

Beretta in Italy developed the BM-59 after World War Two as an improvement on the M1 Garand - lightened, shortened, and given a box magazine, bipod, and selector switch. And the did this in a whole lot less time that the US took to finalize the M14. So how does the BM-59 handle? Well, sorry Sprin...

The FN CAL (Carabine Automatique Legere) was Fabrique Nationale's first attempt at a 5.56mm rifle, and it was not successful. They replaced it with the FNC, which saw much wider success. The CAL is quite scarce today, and it was a very cool opportunity to take one out to the range! It performed r...

The first production version of the FG42 used a fantastically complex milled receiver and a distinctive sharply swept-back pistol grip. A contract to make 5,000 of them was awarded to Krieghoff in late spring of 1943, but by the fall its replacement was already well into development. The milled r...

I am excited to have a chance today to take a trip to the range with a proper, factory L85A1 rifle (it's in the United States as a post-1986 dealer sample). I had a chance a while back to shoot one of these in the U.K., but I only had 10 cartridges to work with at that time. Today, I have several...

Yesterday we took a look at the history and the design of the Polish wz.88 Tantal, and today we are taking it out to the range. Let's see how that unique Polish 3-round-burst works!

As part of the Warsaw Pact, Poland anticipated adopting the AK-74 after it was developed by the Soviet Union. However, the eventual Soviet terms for license fees and export restrictions were too severe for Polish taste. Instead, Poland opted to develop its own new rifle to use the 5.45x39mm cartr...

Since I happen to have simultaneous access to both a military-pattern F1 FAMAS and also a civilian semiautomatic MAS-223, I figured it would be nice to compare them side by side and see how they differ. A number of changes were made for the civilian semiauto rifles, including:

- Rifle grenade...

The Spitfire is a firearm with an interesting importance in legal history. Originally designed and marketed as an open-bolt semiautomatic-only carbine, it was determined to be a machine gun under the law in 1968, and all examples were required to be registered or destroyed. The reason was not its...

Yesterday we took a look at the inner workings of the VHS-2, and today we are going to put some rounds through it. I am trying out both a short-barreled VHS-K2 that was limited to 2-round burst (for French police trials) and a full-length VHS-F2 from French military trials.

Overall, I quite l...

The Valmet company in Finland made excellent AK-type rifles for the Finnish Defense Forces, but also offered a variety of designs on the international commercial market. The Valmet was a very expensive rifle for a AK, however, and only a few significant commercial sales were made. One of these wa...

HS Produkt of Croatia makes an interesting modern bullpup rifle, the VHS. The rifle has gone through several major design iterations in the past two decades or so, and the most recent version (the VHS-2) was part of the competition to replace the FAMAS in French military service. It ultimately pl...

Huzzah! I finally have a chance to take a proper full-auto FAMAS F1 out to the range. My conclusions? It's very nice, just like the semiauto civilian model. It has a limited 3-round-burst option for those who need it, but also unrestricted automatic for those with enough practice to use it. The g...

With Poland's entry into NATO in the 1990s, a new service rifles was needed, chambered for the 5.56mm NATO cartridge. Initial development work had been done in 1990/91 to adapt the wz.88 Tantal to 5.56mm, and this project was dusted off in 1995 to create the Beryl. Essentially a Tantal in 5.56mm,...

In the early 1970s, Poland wanted to replace their 7.62x39mm Kalashnikov rifles. The Soviet Union was developing the 5.45mm AK-74, but the Poles wanted to make a more ambitious advance in small arms systems. They launched Project Lantan (Polish small arms programs were code named after minerals a...

Yesterday we looked at the standard Polish service rifle, the wz.96 Beryl. Today we have the carbine version, the Mini-Beryl. Specifically, we have an early example, predating several of the mid-life improvements that were made by the time the first major contract for the Mini-Beryl was placed.

The Madsen LAR (light automatic rifle) was an attempt by the main Danish arms manufacturer to get into the military rifle market after World War Two (they also released a bolt action rifle around the same time, the Model 47). The first version of the LAR was chambered for 7.62x39mm and submitted ...