Othais is practically useless with modern firearms. That’s OK though, because he specializes in Curio and Relic military pieces and has agreed to decorate The Firearm Blog with a little history. He maintains his own site, C&Rsenal, with the help of his friends and the collector community.
It appears that TFB might have momentarily forgotten it has some exclusive access to my creative process, often being years ahead of the rest. But that’s OK, because I’m here now to share the next version of the POV project. Here we’ve taken the time [Read More…]
I’ve already posted my P38 Anatomy image but let’s get a little deeper into this revolutionary German WWII classic. The shortest possible story of the Walther P38 goes like this: Before WWI Walther was known for its high quality, blowback operated, small [Read More…]
All right, I should probably clarify that the Japanese Type 94 isn’t the worst military pistol I can think of. There are a few Chinese contenders right out front. But it certainly had a cumbersome appearance and a fatal flaw. A quick history, Kijiro Nambu had [Read More…]
I know a lot of you are thinking “No such thing” but it’s true. There is a carbine form of the U.S. Rifle Model 1917. For those of you unfamiliar with this dog-leg, Mauser-derived, cock-on-close bolt action of British design and American [Read More…]
Browning’s FN-licensed Model 1900 pocket .32ACP was a world first and defined the general shape and layout of a slide operated handgun. It’s popularity led to “Browning” serving as the word for a semi-automatic pistol in many regions, like we [Read More…]
I covered a number of WWII handguns in my last article and the associated poster project has been very successful. So as a “thank you” to the community I finally sat down and mastered the basics of some more advanced animation. This is my first attempt [Read More…]
Alright, we’ve covered some rifles before. We’ve been pushing further at C&Rsenal and now have cleared enough pieces to release the corresponding eight pistols! A second line of rifles and pistols has begun, along with SMGs and even a few LMGs, so [Read More…]
Siam was unique in South East Asia for its avoidance of Western colonization. Its sovereignty was guaranteed by politically deft royals and a Japanese-modeled system of aggressive modernization. At the turn of the century, Siam sought to rearm its soldiers with a [Read More…]
Before the outbreak of WWI, France had not prioritized the adoption of a reliable pistol. The Model 1892 service revolver was found adequate in those pre-modern engagements. With the onset of trench warfare, however, the advantages of a larger capacity, faster [Read More…]
Fellow C&R firearms enthusiast Oelund has undertaken a rather extreme experiment. He has given us permission to display the results here: Some of you might have heard the term “Garand-Thumb” or “M1-Thumb”. That is the name for when the bolt [Read More…]
With Chiappa bringing back the overall look of the M6, I thought it prudent to review the original. Learning from downed pilots during WWII, the U.S. Air Force sought out a simple survival rifle with which to equip their crews in rugged or hostile territory. While the [Read More…]
Canada’s western coast was sparsely populated and the concern was that the Japanese would take advantage of so much untamed wilderness to invade. The citizens of British Columbia and the Yukon territory were convinced that they would be the best defense against the [Read More…]
Most people recognize the name “Victory” revolver, but the history is just a smidge complicated. Let’s go over just how this .38 six shooter made it into WWII. Early in WWII the UK contracted with S&W, and paid a large advance, to develop a light [Read More…]
Browning’s Model 1900 pistol was an icon and reasonably simple to manufacture. So when soldiers went looking for pistols in China, this one was an obvious choice.
The Carcano rifle often evokes only two reactions in people. First, most remember the Kennedy Assassination. This is usually followed by a murmuring of how Oswald could have done the deed with such a sloppy, inaccurate, unreliable, rifle that has just as much a [Read More…]
With the 100 year anniversary of WWI fast approaching, I had more than a few people asking me what was I planning to do. Truth be told, I couldn’t think of anything we could handle that would do credit to the occasion. Luckily, we have a large community of [Read More…]
The Lahti pistol was the brainchild of Aimo Johannes Lahti, a Finnish soldier turned arms inventor. While there is some dispute it’s hard to ignore the fact that Lahti’s pistol uses a very similar locking block to the earlier Bergmann-Bayard pistols. The [Read More…]
The Charlton Automatic Rifle sums up the adage “necessity is the mother of invention.” These LMGs were produced for the New Zealand home defense forces beginning in 1941 from old Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield bolt action rifles. For those familiar with the [Read More…]
The crew at C&Rsenal has been lugging tools and cameras around for months getting the ground work in place for a collection of disassembled small arms from WWII. Well, we’ve set the scope of the project for the eight major powers and hope to eventually [Read More…]
In our efforts to document as many historical small arms as possible we realized that one of the first things anyone does with a newly encountered firearm is look down the sights. However, this view is so often omitted from any documentation of a firearm. We set out [Read More…]
Given the growing fascination with crude 3D printed firearms, it may be worth looking into the original “Liberator” pistol. During WWII the Joint Psychological Warfare Committee sought a means to arm civilians in occupied territory, sowing panic and tying [Read More…]
Those beautiful K31 bolts are incredibly smooth compared to other straight pull rifles. They’re also much simpler than the competition. This next paragraph is going to have a lot of words about just how this works but hopefully the animation I whipped up will [Read More…]
Back in 1892 the U.S. Army held trials for a new service rifle with entrants from around the world. The ultimate victor was the Krag-Jørgensen but some of the best rifles in the most rapid period of small arms development made an appearance. One humble entry from a [Read More…]
With the US firmly in the fight of WWII and Russia turning the tide on the Eastern Front, the British finally had a chance to properly reinforce their former holdings in the Far East. Part of this effort was the lightening and shortening of the Short, Magazine [Read More…]
We have been enjoying a spirited debate over the use or misuse of the term “clip” for generations. I firmly believe that we can blame this entire argument on the adoption of the M1 Garand rifle as it was the last of the clip loaders. Former soldiers and [Read More…]
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