At the IWA trade show earlier this year, a representative from the Polish KGM Consortium gave me a sample of a new AK optics rail to try out. This idea here was to create a universal optics mount for basically any AK/AKM/AK74 rifle that would be light, not require permanent modification, and not ...

At SHOT Show this year Ian took some time to speak with Mike Branson of Gideon Optics (formerly of Primary Arms and Swampfox). Mike's a friend and a true optics nerd, and I figured he could help give folks an understanding of some of the fundamentals of modern firearms optics. Today the topic of...

In the 1970s and 80s, Colt offered a 4x20 fixed power scope for its commercial AR (the SP-1). These replaced the earlier 3x scopes, and were designed to fit directly to the rifle's carry handle. They are a simple design, with a duplex reticle, BDC calibrated out to 500 yards in 100 yard increment...

At SHOT Show this year I took some time to speak with Mike Branson of Gideon Optics (formerly of Primary Arms and Swampfox). Mike's a friend and a true optics nerd, and I figured he could help give folks an understanding of some of the fundamentals of modern firearms optics. Today, we are talkin...

At SHOT Show this year I took some time to speak with Mike Branson of Gideon Optics (formerly of Primary ands and Swampfox). Mike's a friend and a true optics nerd, and I figured he could help give folks an understanding of some of the fundamentals of modern firearms optics. Today, we are going ...

At SHOT Show this year I took some time to speak with Mike Branson of Gideon Optics (formerly of Primary ands and Swampfox). Mike's a friend and a true optics nerd, and I figured he could help give folks an understanding of some of the fundamentals of modern firearms optics. Today, we are going ...

In my opinion, the SIG Romeo-M17 red dot is a really good piece of gear, but substantially overpriced. This is a red dot that SIG has developed specifically for the M17 and M18 military pistols, and is not compatible with any other platform. By using a proprietary mounting setup, SIG is able to m...

Jonathan explores H&K's strange decision to plonk a low-power optic on a HK33, removing the excellent H&K iron sites in the mid-1980s.

This specific weapon is shrouded in a host of strange quirks, as our Keeper of Firearms and Artillery explains.

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It's not using a magnifier behind a red dot / EoTech. It's an ACOG or a prism optic. This was a "high speed" practice for the early 2000's era oper...

Vic continues his Surplus Zone series with a look at the British SUSAT sight, principally used by Britain on the SA80 and by Spain with the CETME Model LV & AMELI. In this episode Vic shows us how to refit a SUSAT with new Tritium elements. Check out the accompanying blog for this video over at: ...

The Lee-Speed rifle we looked at yesterday came with a set of really neat sight protectors, which I think are worth a separate video on their own. Quite a lot of work went into these, for something as simple as a sight protector!

The first British sharpshooters on the Western Front relied solely on their iron sights, with tubular scopes not coming to prominence in the British Army until the penultimate year of the war. But, inroads were made towards giving sharpshooters magnified optics to improve marksmanship. The Lattey...

It's Jonathan's week off so join our Curator of Firearms Christian Wellard as he explores the bulky M3 Carbine. Developed at the end of the Second World War, the M3 was trialled by British forces in Korea and Malaya and despite its hefty size and weight, was well liked by troops.

In a followup to an earlier video, Bloke takes his 7.62mm L1A1 SLR to the range with his L2A2 SUIT (Sight Unit, Infantry, Trilux) on it in order to demonstrate how it makes the rifle group worse and doesn't hold zero.

In the process, it self-destructed and gave him a nice Glasgow kiss, which wil...

When the FN FAL was first being sold, many militaries that bought it opted to mount optics on a small percentage of their rifles. These military setups used a variety of different optics and mounts, and led FN to develop their own OEM solution. By the 1970s, the FN industrial conglomerate includi...

Most of the significant wartime simplifications we see on rifles from World War Two are from Germany and Japan, but the rear sight of the No4 Lee Enfield is a good example of a similar action taken by Britain. By 1942, the finely-made milled rear sight assembly of the rifle had become a limiting ...

Germany, Britain, and France all introduced luminous night sights for their service rifles in 1916. Today we are looking at a Gewehr 98 and an SMLE that have detachable WW1 night sights fitted (and the SMLE also has a metal muzzle cover device).

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The first US military night vision system used in active combat was the T3 Carbine system - an infrared light-amplifying scope and IR floodlight mounted on an M1 Carbine. About 150 of these were used on Okinawa, and were quite effective. The system was refined over time, and by the Korean War thi...

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I have been thinking about machine gun optics for a while, as I am on the waiting list for a Lage Max 11/15A1 5.56mm upper for my M11A1 (registered and legal) machine pistol. I am fitting the Lage upper with a BlkLbl bipod/handguard, and that leaves the question of what sighting system to put on ...

The Spanish military used the CETME-L rifle as its standard rifle in the 1980s and 1990s. In addition to the standard model, they also had two versions of marksman's CETME-Ls. These were designated the LV ("V" for "visor", or scope). The Army used a domestic 4x scope of tradition design made by E...

We regularly see the MP43/44/StG44 portrayed with an optical sight (a ZF-4). But was this really something that the German Army actually issued? Well, in a word...no.

The first iteration of the Sturmgewehr, the MKb-42(H), was designed to potentially fit a ZF-41 long eye relief optic on its rea...

The FAMAS was originally designed for iron sights only, as it predates the trend of issuing optics on standard infantry rifles (the marksman's rifle at the time of its development was the FR-F1). However, adaptations were made to mount optics, primarily the PGMP updated handguard, which locked mo...