Nathaniel is a history enthusiast and firearms hobbyist whose primary interest lies in military small arms technological developments beginning with the smokeless powder era. He can be reached via email at nathaniel.f@staff.thefirearmblog.com.
News from IWA 2016, Lithgow Arms, the small arms division of Australian defense conglomerate Thales, and former government arsenal, has announced that they will be offering a semiautomatic version of their F90 military rifle for the law enforcement/police market, as a [Read More…]
Earlier this week, we reported about the Pakistani Army seeking a new rifle to replace its aging license-produced Heckler & Koch G3 and Chinese Type 56 rifles, and now new details – and most excitingly, new images – have come to light. First, it seems [Read More…]
The concept of a stockless – or “bullpup” – rifle has been around since the very dawn of the 20th Century. It was invented in the United Kingdom, the country with which it still is most closely associated. After World War II, the concept began [Read More…]
The Polish government is expected to have signed a contract Wednesday for the first MSBS rifles, specifically for the MSBS-R variant, which will replace the venerable Russian SKS rifle in ceremonial/guard units. The MSBS-R will be the first indigenous design to be [Read More…]
The latest country to seek an upgrade to their aging fleet of small arms is Pakistan, according to statements made last week by military officials from that country. The current Pakistani rifle suite consists of license-produced Heckler & Koch G3 rifles, and Chinese [Read More…]
The United States has some of the least restrictive firearms laws in the world, so it’s natural that Americans would assume that almost every other country in the world has draconian firearms laws that prevent almost everyone from getting guns. To help clarify [Read More…]
After criticizing the Army’s Modular Handgun System program last week, Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley spoke again about the program, further refining his desire to select not just any new pistol, but specifically to piggyback Army purchases of new handguns [Read More…]
We’ve seen AKs fitted with all manner of 1913 pattern rail farms, but what about the other way around? AR-15s with Soviet-style side rails, would anyone really do that? For years now, one of the major modernization efforts for the Kalashnikov series of rifles has [Read More…]
Often seen, but rarely in person, the Techno Arms MAG-7 was one of the firearms fixtures of my childhood, appearing in seemingly every compendium and encyclopedia of small arms I could get my hands on growing up. It’s an extremely strange gun, sort of a hybrid of [Read More…]
How many people really are “average”? Is it possible to design a system to fit the average person, and if not, what’s the alternative? A recent article published on thestar.com examines this question, excerpting the work of L. Todd Rose from his recent [Read More…]
I received this email from a reader a little less than a week ago: Hi! I’d love to see a series of articles on the advantages and disadvantages of the various pistol calibers from the perspective of the concealed carrier. There’s a lot of conflicting [Read More…]
One of the lesser-known offspring of the M1 Carbine was designed by Gordon Ingram, ironically also the designer of the world-famous MAC-10 submachine gun. This was the SAM, sometimes also called the Ingram Police Rifle, a rifle designed in the mid-1970s with multiple [Read More…]
In the wake of the shifting zero scandal, EOTech has released an email asking law enforcement customers to acknowledge the point-of-impact shift issue before the company will ship out new sights. EOTech holographic optics were the subject of a recent USSOCOM warning, [Read More…]
The Taurus Judge is not the first .410 caliber revolving shotgun-handgun hybrid, but it has been by far the most successful pistol of its kind. Despite being a heavy, bulky weapon that holds a mere 5 rounds, the Judge can be found in most well-stocked gun stores, and [Read More…]
Do piston guns handle heat better than DI guns? If so, why? If not what shortcomings do they have? The video from the popular YouTube channel IraqVeteran8888 embedded below doesn’t quite answer these questions, but it’s still very interesting: The end [Read More…]
The Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley spoke yesterday at the Future of War Conference, and criticized the Modular Handgun System program for the degree of bureaucracy and red tape it takes for the Pentagon to select a new pistol for the Army. Milley rightly [Read More…]
Before the famous Tokarev SVT-38 and -40 rifles of World War II, a Soviet engineer who would later become famous in the West for another of his designs developed a light weight select-fire infantry weapon in the standard full-power 7.62x54R caliber. That engineer was [Read More…]
Steyr has introduced a new rimfire pistol to the European shooting market at IWA 2016. The pistol, aptly dubbed the “RFP” (which I imagine stands for Rim Fire Pistol), shares similar styling and its polymer framed construction with Steyr’s M9 and M40 [Read More…]
Why do some cartridges burn barrels more than others? What makes a smaller-caliber, higher velocity round toastier to your bore, and how can you compare one caliber to another in this respect? While it’s not the whole answer to this question, today we’re [Read More…]
For me, one of the great joys of being a firearms hobbyist is introducing someone new to the community. I have never been a professional instructor, but I consider it a public service to give my time to a new shooter to help them safely and accurately use the weapons [Read More…]
Today, the lightweight pocket 9mm handgun market is flooded with options, with that configuration being one of the major “weapons of choice” for the contemporary concealed handgun carrier. However, in the 1980s, it was a different world. Those few who [Read More…]
Yesterday, we discussed the past, present, and future of infantry small arms calibers. That post was a highly introductory one, and there’s much, much more ground to cover on that subject. Today, we’ll talk about a technology that didn’t quite make it [Read More…]
This post was written as a companion to an upcoming Gun Guy Radio podcast, hosted by Ryan Michad. The discussion below will be expanded upon in the show when it’s released later this month, but for now, read on to learn more about the past, present, and future of [Read More…]
UPDATE: Just to be clear, Hi-Point Customs, a group of enthusiasts on Facebook, is in no way related to Hi-Point the firearm brand (manufactured by Beemiller in Ohio and distributed by MKS Supply). This post and the pistol in question are satire. It seems not everyone [Read More…]
To a lot of gun people, “action star” brings to mind flashy but impractical firearms, one-liners, and unfortunately often a painfully phony relationship between the actor and his weapons. However, as the shooting sports have exploded in popularity since [Read More…]
The next few installments of my Light Rifle series of articles will cover in detail the development of the two calibers that shaped the NATO rifle trials until 1953: The .280 British and the .30 Light Rifle, the latter of which – spoiler alert – subsequently [Read More…]
In the comments section of my 6.8mm SPC article last year, I was asked what I thought about future infantry small arms. This is a subject that has dominated my thinking over the past several years, and much of the historical research I have undertaken has been in [Read More…]
Kramer Defense, the company that introduced the 6.8x45mm UCC cartridge based on the .378″/9.6mm diameter case head of 5.56mm, filed a patent on Aug 14, 2014 (approved Sept. 1, 2015) that has recently sent shockwaves through the 6.5 Grendel and cartridge [Read More…]
Debris testing has been done to death. Here at TFB, we’ve covered mud and sand tests conducted by InRange TV, Guns & Ammo TV, and the Military Arms Channel on everything from the AK, AR-15 to the Vz. 58. So what about ice, instead? Tim of the Military [Read More…]
By the mid 1860s, the British had been using a rifle of the same basic pattern (with the proverbial lock, stock, and barrel) for over one hundred and forty years. The famous Brown Bess, having been largely supplanted by the 1853 Enfield, was obsolete, but the basic [Read More…]
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