In this fourteenth installment of Personal Defense Weapon Calibers, we’ll be looking at a highly minimalist incarnation of the PDW/SMG round: The 7.65x20mm French Longue. The story of the French Longue begins with the US entry to World War I and the brilliant [Read More…]
Remington has just informed purchasers of the original R51 pistol that the second model – which aims to fix the issues of the initial production version – is now ready to be shipped. Remington has taken the extra step for initial buyers of the R51 of not [Read More…]
The Remington Model 51 is an example of how added complexity results in additional benefits to the shooter without compromising reliability. These .380 or .32acp pistols sold reasonably well over the course of about a decade, and is arguably one of the most interesting pistols ever made (sharing [Read More…]
A retarded blowback rifle extracts cases from the chamber while they are still under considerable pressure – over 35,000 PSI. Because of this pressure, the walls of the cartridge cases adhere strongly to the barrel’s chamber walls, while the head is forced [Read More…]
Expos like the 2016 NRA Annual Meeting or the SHOT Show are usually places to find the latest and greatest in the firearms world. Sometimes, however, exhibitors bring along relics of the past, forgotten firearms that haven’t seen the public spotlight in decades [Read More…]
Is it Toggle Month, or what? Readers of TFB have so far been treated to several posts in April on the famous toggle-locked Luger pistol, but the fun’s not over yet! In the 1930s, the Japanese were – like many major powers at the time – looking to [Read More…]
The P.08 Luger is hands down one of the most well-recognized and distinctive firearms in the world. It’s distinctive profile, timeless legacy as one of the first truly successful semiautomatics, and intriguing reputation as the weapon of choice for both Imperial [Read More…]
The US trials that led to the adoption of the first standard issue military selfloading rifle are together one of my favorite parts of small arms history. Recently, Forgotten Weapons’ van Dyked and ponytailed founder and host Ian McCollum got a chance to handle [Read More…]
The Type 4 (sometimes also called the Type 5) was a clone of the US M1 Garand rifle developed by the Japanese Navy towards the very end of World War II. It’s a fascinating rifle for its combination of American engineering and Japanese style. Forgotten Weapons [Read More…]
(This is Part 2 of the TFB Rifle Weight Omnibus. You can read Part 1 here.) In October, I traveled out to see my co-writer Alex C. to collect data on the weights of different long guns and some of their components. Over that weekend, I weighed 58 rifles and submachine [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…]
Below are some photos of my personal Remington 51, made between 1921 and 1923. It’s in remarkably good shape for a gun that’s over 90 years old, and is definitely the best condition Model 51 I’ve ever seen in person or in photographs (so, naturally, I [Read More…]
About a month and a half ago, Ryan Michad of the Firearms Radio Network reached out to ask me to do a segment for the Gun Guy Radio show. He wanted to tackle the subject of the selfloading rifle trials that led to the US adoption of the first standard-issue [Read More…]
With special guests Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons and Nathaniel F. of our own TFB, Alex and Patrick take a look at a rare Pedersen model PB Autoloader. This rifle almost beat the Garand to become the US military service rifle of WWII, and would have changed the evolution of military firearms for [Read More…]
My favorite firearms designer of all time is James Paris Lee, because of his sheer inventiveness and forward-thinking edge that was still grounded in what was practical at the time. My second-favorite firearms designer is David Marshall Williams, because he was totally [Read More…]
Following on the heels of another clone of John Garand’s M1 rifle, was the Type 4 (ambiguously synonymous with the designation “Type 5”) another product-improved copy. Compatible with existing 7.7mm ammunition and stripper clips, the Type 4 fed from a [Read More…]
Rock Island Auction seems to always have something special, but this particular item is exceptional even by those standards. Forgotten Weapons has a video overview of an extremely rare Pedersen GY rifle. This rifle was a Pedersen design from the late 1930s that copied [Read More…]
With the introduction of the successful metallic cartridge in the 1840s, an explosion of innovation directed towards rapid-firing infantry weapons rocked the world. The culmination of this would be the mass-produced self-loading rifle, realized with the adoption of [Read More…]
Pedersen designed a device to caliber convert a Springfield M1903 from a 5 round bolt action rifle into a semi auto 40 rd 30cal rifle. Jerry Miculek took a look at one at the Institute of Military Technology. Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons has a video of a [Read More…]
[ This guest post was written by Michael. ] The Pedersen Automatic, or Remington model 51, found little favor in its life between the Great War and the following depression, though not for its lack of mechanical merit. John Pedersen, also known for the Pedersen device [Read More…]
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