Between 1935 and 1937, the recently independent nation of Lithuania purchased 5,000 Browning High Power pistols from FN. These were early pattern guns, with 500m tangent rear sights and stock slots, although Lithuania did not purchase holster stocks to go with them. The guns are also early enough...

In 1934 (just year before officially requesting that the Western world call his country “Iran” rather than “Persia”), the Shah of Iran ordered 4,000 Luger pistols form the Mauser company. These were to be divided between 3,000 standard P08 models and 1,000 LP08 artillery models (plus a handful o...

Having gained independence after World War One, Czechoslovakia looked to standardize and improve its armaments. Václav Holek went to work for the Zbrojovka Praga factory in Prague in 1918, and they introduced the Model 1919 pistol the next year. It was purchased by both Czech military and police ...

In 1903, Danish engineer Jens Schouboe began developing an automatic pistol for the Dansk Rekylriffel Syndikat in Copenhagen (later to become the Madsen company). He made the guns in both .32ACP and also in a proprietary Danish .45 caliber based (I believe) on the centerfire conversion of Denmark...

When SIG was developing the pistol that would ultimately be adopted as the m/49 by the Danish Army and the P49 by the Swiss Army (P210 commercially), they initially experimented with both single stack and double stack variations. Today, we will take a look at a SIG 44/16, the double stack version...

Star produced 1911-style pistols in a wide variety of calibers and configurations for more than 50 years, including several models with shoulder stocks. Two of the later such models were the MMS and MB. These were standard 5 inch barreled pistols shipped with wooden combination holster stocks and...

Switzerland was the First Nation to adopt the Luger as a service pistol, and they purchased them DWM in Germany from 1900 until 1914. World War One stopped deliveries, of course, and after the war the Swiss opted to begin their own production at Waffenfabrik Bern. These Swiss Lugers have become k...

In the late 1930s, Walther experimented with the idea of an Olympia target pistol in .32 ACP. They used the frame from a 1936 pattern standard (.22LR) Olympia with a .32 caliber barrel, increased mass slide, and magazine adapted from a Walther PP. The project never progressed beyond the toolroom ...

In the early 1930s, Walther began to experiment with changes to its Olympia target pistol in hopes of beating the Colt Woodsman out of its place as the most popular pistol of the type. The most distinctive difference between the Woodsman and the Olympia was in their grip angles; quite straight fo...

In the 1980s, the South African military and police were using substantial numbers of different handguns, and began looking for a way to consolidate to simply maintenance and logistics. Studying the different guns they had, they decided to pursue a copy of the Beretta Model 92. No foreign manufac...

Arne Boberg founded Boberg Arms in 2009 and released his first pistol in 2011, the XR9-S. This was followed by the longer XR9-L, and then the XR-45S in 2014. The conceit of the Boberg pistol is basically that of the Bullpup rifle: maximizing barrel length while minimizing overall length. To this ...

Designed by one Frank Thomas Jr. in the 1970s, this pistol was produced by the AJ Ordnance company of Covina California, and named after its creator. It was designed to be a concealed carry pistol chambered for .45 ACP ammunition without needing a manual safety. Thomas wanted to avoid exposed ham...

Engraved pistols are not just the domain of antiques; they are being made right now, on the most modern platforms. This is the "Arabesque", a project between Walther and Bottega Incisioni Giovanelli. The base gun is a Walther Q5 Match, and engraver Dario Cortini put nearly 140 hours of work into ...

The Calico family of firearms was developed in the late 1980s, and put on the market just in time to be squashed by the 1994 Omnibus Crime Act. The heart of the Calico system was a design for a double-stack helical magazine, which was made in 50- and 100-round versions in both ,22 rimfire and 9mm...

France was in an interesting position during World War One of being a primary supplier of rifles and machine guns to its allies, but a major importer of handguns. In addition to a great many Spanish pistols of several types, the French government purchased both revolvers and Government Model 1911...

The High Standard company only made on .45 caliber pistol, and it was an improvement on the Grant Hammond pistol tested by the US military during World War One. After his gun's rejection by the military, it appears that Grant Hammond took the design to his friend "Gus" Swebelius who ran High Stan...

The original "Hush Puppy" was a Smith & Wesson Model 39 pistol fitted with a suppressor for use by Special Forced in Vietnam. The name came back in the 1980s, when the US Air Force requested a suppressor for use with the M9 Beretta in its pilots' survival kits. Knight's Armament developed a desig...

The “MARS” pistols made in Czechoslovakia began with the “Slavia” line, designed by one Antonin Vilímec in 1920 or 1921. Those were basically simple copies of the vest-pocket Browning pistols, and were made until 1935. At that point the factory (shop?) was acquired by the Kohout & Spol company, w...

Llama was never the most prestigious of the three major Spanish pistol makers, and in the 1980s they decided to have a try at an upscale new pistol. The design was done by an American, Gary Wilhelm, who worked with the Stoeger company (which was Llama’s US importer). The gun was offered in both ....

When Mauser began development of the HSc pistol, it was intended to be a pair of guns - a simple blowback gun in .32 or .380 caliber for civilian and police use and a larger locked-breech type in 9x19mm for military use. Mauser had tried this before with their 1910 pocket pistol, but in that effo...

The model 1900 was a transitional pattern of Mannlicher pistol, intended to be an improvement over the somewhat clumsy and underpowered Mannlicher 1896. Only about 250 of them were made, with an eye towards military contracts (which they were unable to secure). The 1900 pattern has a large manual...

Everyone has an off day eventually, and for H&K one of those off days took the form of the P7M10. Introduced in 1991, the M10 was based on the frame and magazine body of the double-stack P7M13, with a .40 caliber barrel and a substantially increased slide mass. This extra mass was deemed necessar...

Even while the field trials of the Colt 1907 were ongoing, John Browning was improving his pistol. With the Model 1909 he designed the single-link barrel system that would prove to be the core of the final 1911 design. The 1909 model also included an enlarged grip safety, a slide release integrat...

In the immediate aftermath of World War One, it appears that the French government purchased 2,000 Mauser C96 pistols for use by occupation forces who were to be stationed in Germany. While the direct link to the French military is missing, a sale of 2,000 C96 pistols through German dealer Albrec...