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…]
So you want to buy an AK, but don’t know where to start, eh? Well, don’t worry about it because as the kids say these days “there’s an app for that”. The famous Soviet Kalashnikov rifle has become something of a redheaded stepchild on the [Read More…]
Remington, America’s oldest gun company, and also several of its newest, since the Freedom Group consolidation, had a massive presence at the 2016 SHOT Show. Its booth was seemingly an avatar incarnated of the true nature of the company itself: A conglomerate of [Read More…]
The little M1 Carbine really is a timeless classic. Made in huge numbers for only a few years during WWII, original Carbines have steadily become scarcer and more expensive as the surplus reservoir accordingly declined. The Carbine, though, has proven to be an easily [Read More…]
Gun blogger superstar Eric of the Iraqveteran8888 YouTube channel is happy to once again get behind a rifle going cyclic until failure. This time, Eric’s victim is a Vepr 7.62×39 AK rifle made by Molot and modified by Copper Custom. Those who watch these [Read More…]
If you’ve spent any time at all in military history circles, you will have probably witnessed or been a participant in an argument about what, exactly, an “assault rifle” is, or whether a particular weapon qualifies as one. I, personally, have [Read More…]
The Remington 700, a favorite of US hunters and sportsmen for decades, is once again gripped in the jaws of a scandal surrounding its trigger mechanism. CNBC recently released a detailed article outlining several recently disclosed company documents, allegedly hidden [Read More…]
For this fifth installment of our series on unusual, strange, or remarkable magazines, we’ll be talking about a Czech weapon designed in Britain in the 1940s for the war effort against Nazi Germany. Joseph Vesely was a Czech migrant to the UK in the late [Read More…]
In the previous previous installment, we looked at how to assemble our eligibility package for the Civilian Marksmanship Program. In this installment, we will look at how to actually order a rifle from the Program. Ordering is not a particularly difficult process, so [Read More…]
Ever since the news broke that the CMP would be able to sell M1911 handguns to the shooting public, thanks to a provision in the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, I have received a lot of emails and comments asking me “how do I qualify for the CMP?” [Read More…]
When researching historical weapons and ammunition, it is sometimes helpful to know what sort of ballistics a round produces. However unfortunately not every cartridge in history comes to the historian complete with a set of period ballistics tables, and in some cases [Read More…]
To the first-time AK builder, the task in front of him or her can seen daunting, or even impossible. Unlike AR-15s that easily go together virtually like a LEGO set, the Kalashnikov rifle requires a bit more effort – and more expensive tools – to put [Read More…]
Let it not be said that when provoked, Paris won’t respond in kind. Following the cowardly attacks on the city last week, the French National Police came out in force armed with several different kinds of firearms, some fairly old but still very capable in the [Read More…]
Some of John Browning’s contributions to the effort of the First World War – like the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle and the M1917 Browning Machine Gun – are well-known, but there’s one that never made it to production, or even any substantial [Read More…]
The submachine gun had been perfected by the end of World War II as a dirt cheap, nearly disposable weapon for arming large numbers of men to fight the largest war of economy in history. However, despite this, post-war submachine gun designers would seek to push the [Read More…]
During World War I, manufacturers on both sides, including sporting arms manufacturers, lent their material support for the war effort. One of the more mysterious instances of this has come to be known simply as the “Beholla”, after its primary producer, the [Read More…]
MVD agent KardeN gives us another look into an elusive piece of Russian equipment, this time the Russian rotary GSh-18 pistol: The box it came in is very plain, and lacks a carry handle like most boxes pistols on the American market ship in: Accessories are sparing, [Read More…]
The subject of armor penetration previously was largely confined to the realm of big bore rifles or cannons intended to tackle tanks and other kinds of armored vehicles, but as the popularity of steel and composite body armor increases, it has become more and more [Read More…]
Light? Strong? Tough? Cheap? A new material developed in Korea promises all of the above, and could throw open wide doors in many industries, including small arms development. The weight and efficacy of small arms is highly dependent on the materials used to make them. [Read More…]
Paul Mauser, the person who with his brother was chiefly responsible for the excellent line of Mauser bolt-action rifles that even today are the pattern for almost all modern bolt-action designs, lost an eye in 1901 during testing of a self-loading rifle which had an [Read More…]
The Spencer Carbine was one of the first successful repeating rifles ever fielded by the US Army, seeing use in the Civil War. Despite being a very advanced design for the period offering firepower well above what muzzleloading rifled-muskets of the period were [Read More…]
Via his Facebook page, Larry Vickers shares with us some photos of a prototype upgraded AK-74 rifle, made by Kalashnikov Concern and adopted by the Russian [Read More…]
Last month, I featured a couple of photos from British gun author Anthony Williams, which showcased some of the major developments in PDW ammunition in the last century. While his collection certainly beats mine for completeness, I still figured it would be worthwhile [Read More…]
The Taiwanese small arms industry has been showing off its most recent developments at press events and expos recently, including the new XT104 9mm submachine gun. From Two Birds Flying: The state-owned 205th Arsenal of the Material Production Centre (MPC) unveiled its [Read More…]
Old promotional videos and literature aren’t just entertaining for their nostalgic qualities, but also as important tools for the historian. Features being marketed in a video or pamphlet give the viewer decades later a marker for when those had been introduced, [Read More…]
Anthony Williams, small arms theorist and co-author of the book Assault Rifle with Maxim Popenker, wrote an article in February of 2006 on the development of the Personal Defense Weapon and its ammunition, which he amended in late 2013. He includes in the article two [Read More…]
The period from 1945-1970 did not represent the figurative finest hour in US small arms design. From the problematic M60, to too little too late M14, to the disastrous initial fielding of the M16, US small arms design during the time seemed to simultaneously reach to [Read More…]
What sort of mistake could possibly take the top spot of “worst decisions in firearms history”? It would have to be a decision that not only in retrospect but at the time was one of the worst possible decisions a company could make, and it would have to [Read More…]
The MP-44, also known as the “Sturmgewehr”, was a very influential weapon to post-war thinking. Even the Americans – who at the time rejected the “assault rifle” concept as we now know it – took notice and immediately began [Read More…]
So you’ve just bought a MAS 36, and you’ve heard a lot about how it was too little, too late, how it shoots a weird, hard-to-find caliber, has no safety, and you can’t adjust the sight for windage. On the other hand, you like that the action is short [Read More…]