Infantry Marine, based in the Midwest. Specifically interested in small arms history, development, and usage within the MENA region and Central Asia. To that end, I run Silah Report, a website dedicated to analyzing small arms history and news out of MENA and Central Asia.
Please feel free to get in touch with me about something I can add to a post, an error I’ve made, or if you just want to talk guns. I can be reached at miles@tfb.tv
Taurus received a good reception on their G2C handguns from last year, now the company is producing a larger-framed handgun, the G3. While the G2C was intended as a carry gun, the G3 is intended as a full-size handgun. It will fit in G2C holsters as long as the holsters have an open bottom, allowing [Read More…]
This year Steyr upgraded their hunting rifle line with different finishes, chamberings, and styles such as a Mannlicher walnut stock addition. These are aimed at the ‘Blue Collar’ customer to get an affordable rifle out in the field. On the Steyr AUG end of things, Steyr partnered with a [Read More…]
Barrett is bringing their multi-caliber MK22 ASR entry to the US civilian market! The rifle will come with three interchangeable barrels and a complete kit that shooters can purchase through their distributor. The MK 22 is significant because it won the latest round of SOCOM rifle trials, concluding [Read More…]
Marcolmar is bringing a couple new variants of their CETME-L reproduction rifles to market this year, specifically optics equipped rifles such as the SUSAT version that saw service with Spanish Marines. They also have a CETME-LV with folding stock that comes in both pinned barrel and SBR versions. [Read More…]
Kalashnikov USA had a number of different offerings this year, everything from an all-American 7.62x39mm AKM rifle to competition entries from Decedent Arms who are putting their competition modifications to the AK-patterned platforms. Probably the most important point that readers are interested in [Read More…]
Walther’s 9x19mm Q4 SF steel-framed handgun is based on their earlier Q5 Match, except with an optics-ready plate that allows users to mount an optic of their choice to the handgun. The pistol is intended as a carry version of the Q5 which was received with much fanfare last year but many [Read More…]
Franklin Armory is coming out with a Binary trigger for the Ruger 10/22 platform. The trigger will have ambidextrous controls with a safe, semi, and binary option, allowing shooters to fire a round when the trigger is pressed and then another round when the trigger is depressed from the trigger [Read More…]
Springfield Armory is bringing their Hellcat to market, a striker-fired handgun that comes in both optics ready and optics dedicated platforms with the Shield red dot sight. Optic-equipped handguns have slowly been taking mainstream handguns by storm and this is certainly a major step forward with [Read More…]
The AKS74U is perhaps one of the more interesting Kalashnikov variants that has spawned a following all over the world due to its compact size and effects as a status symbol in the United States, Middle East, and Central Asia. The name itself is one such example of that following that continues [Read More…]
Kyrgyzstan is one of the former Soviet Republics that is not on the firearms media radar too much today, but there is certainly a civilian firearm following in the capital of Bishkek where we went to talk to shop owners, shooters, and instructors about some of the trends and interests in Kyrgyzstan. [Read More…]
The 9mm Tariq is unique among Beretta enthusiasts because of its scarcity outside of Iraq. It is certainly one of the least studied due to the lack of primary sources and information in the firearms research community. But we try to take a crack at breaking down the Tariq’s history and [Read More…]
Essentially the Soviet response to the H&K MP5 covert briefcase, the KGB invented this briefcase in response to a need to covertly carry an AKS74U while guarding high-level dignitaries. Unlike the MP5 briefcase, the AKSU case is designed so that it simply camouflages the rifle in plain sight, [Read More…]
In this episode, Miles goes to a local gun shop in Amman to check out what the local laws, trends, and interests are in the legal firearms market in Jordan. He interviews the store owner and is able to really get some hands-on time with the various handguns and shotguns in the store, seeing what [Read More…]
While at the Cody Firearms Museum symposium Arsenals of History, an interesting thought experiment was brought up after a presentation by Scott Gausen, of the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, on 3D printing and scanning in museums. While discussing this, [Read More…]
The second day of the Arsenals of History Symposium held at the Cody Firearms Museum brought about new discussions that ranged from developing a common lexicon to categorize small arms terms to how do museums work with guns in video games and drawing visitors in through [Read More…]
This year the Cody Firearms Museum hosted the third annual Kurt Swanson Bucholz Arsenals of History Symposium in Cody, Wyoming. We saw the gathering of many historians, researchers, and representatives from a wide range of museums throughout the world. All congregating [Read More…]
The 5.56x45mm Carmel was introduced recently by IWI Israel. We haven’t really gotten a chance to get our hands on one until now when we caught up to IWI in Tel Aviv, Israel. No word yet on whether or not the rifle would be introduced to the U.S. commercial market but it does look like [Read More…]
The Fobus APN holster is the company’s latest IWB offering and is currently for sale in the United States. It is designed as an ambidextrous all polymer IWB holster with a sweat guard and comes in three different configurations; the APN26 for the Glock 26, APN365 for the SIG P365, and the [Read More…]
Israeli start-up ReCover Tactical was displaying some of their new Glock 43 components on a massive, scaled up handgun which drew the attention of almost every passerby. But the best announcement from the company is the confirmation that their Hi-Power grips are finally available for order in the [Read More…]
Backpack feed systems are nothing new to light machine gun design, these examples dating to the early days of the AR10 and AR15, in addition to modern Russian concepts, and even a Libyan take on the idea. The Prime ManPack/ Machine Gun Backpack from Aleppo Systems is a [Read More…]
A.C.S Industries is an Israeli startup that has been successful in producing and selling a quick-deploy polymer grenade pouch wherein users simply unlatch and rip a grenade out of a polymer casing to immediately deploy it. At ISDEF 2019 they were demonstrating a similar [Read More…]
Dongrun Safety is a Chinese company that presented an armored dress-vest that could be ordered in various ballistic ratings up to the Chinese GA141-2010 Level 3, or roughly equivalent to an NIJ IIIA. Incorporating Kevlar ballistic material into dress attire has existed [Read More…]
Orsis was at ISDEF 2019 with the relatively new to U.S. readers .308 Win ‘Bro’ semiautomatic precision rifle. Known more for their T-5000 manually repeating rifles in use throughout the world, the K15 is the company’s entry into the semiautomatic [Read More…]
Flex Force Enterprises (formerly Radio Hill) is more widely known for their counter UAV handheld DroneBuster device but the company also makes machine gun mounts that are currently in use by the U.S. Government. Their ASP-Land and ASP-Maritime are gyrostabilized mounts [Read More…]
The Japanese 7.7mm Type 99 took after its predecessor the 6.5mm Type 96, both machine guns forming the basis of mobile fire support during the Second World War. Type 99 was a magazine fed, gas operated, light machine gun with a removable barrel that began production in 1941 and continuing until the [Read More…]
TFB TV takes a look at one of the famous gun shops in Erbil, a city in northern Iraq. Wasta Bakhtiar has had his gunsmithing business for a number of years, starting in his own father’s shop as a child in Kurdistan. Today he fixes both Peshmerga and civilian small arms alike, sometimes even [Read More…]
The Bren light machine gun was one of the more robust and successful light machine gun designs to see service in the Second World War among the Allied forces. During the war, it was even produced full scale not only in Britain but also in Canada and Australia where it saw extensive service with the [Read More…]
There were several new news items to keep track of while at the CZ-USA booth this year during SHOT 2019. First off the bat were some modifications to the new Bren pistol. The Bren 2MS now has a modular forend where owners can swap out forends to change the length of the handguards. This includes [Read More…]
Although certainly not covert in any sort of way, Surgeon Rifles quietly goes about their work of custom precision rifle work without too much fanfare in the public sphere. The company works with a number of different configurations such as chassis systems, traditional stocks, and others for [Read More…]
Barrett has taken the 5.56x45mm REC7 rifle and upgraded it to a 7.62x51mm package which is now the REC10. The REC10 was a product development of a foreign military solicitation program in which Barrett was successful in acquiring and winning. We don’t know what exact country this was, but we [Read More…]
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