Polish gun magazine Broń i Amunicja posted two photos of the elusive AN-94 rifle in use with Russian forces recently. The 5.45mm hyperburst rifles are seen equipped with optics mounted via rails to the Soviet-era dovetail scope mount integral to the receiver of the [Read More…]
After the decision to create a new family of infantry weapons for the then-new intermediate 7.62x41mm obr.1943 cartridge (the precursor to 7.62×39), Soviet designers were tasked with creating new kinds of weapons in this chambering, including machine guns, [Read More…]
Russia’s next-generation infantry modernization program is in full swing, and while here at TFB we’ve covered two of the rifles, the AEK-571/A545 and AK-12, competing for orders as part of the program, but the program as a whole is more extensive than [Read More…]
I stumped upon this photo on a Google image search earlier this week. Ian at Forgotten Weapons blogged it a few ago. This young Russian is carrying two M1895 revolvers, a PPsh, six hand grenades and a belt of ammunition… and that is just what is on the outside of [Read More…]
Photographer Konstantin Lazarev is a reliable source for photos of the latest and greatest small arms to come out of Russia. His latest batch of photos shows several different Pecheneg and PK machine guns, configured with night vision and holographic optics. Some of the [Read More…]
An older design for an AK bullpup has surfaced from a trade show in the Ukraine, named the “Malyuk” and coming from a company called Interproinvest. Work was started on it in 2005. Essentially it appears to be an AK bullpupized, with the addition of a [Read More…]
A week ago, Alex C. and Miles Vining pitted the Russian Mosin-Nagant against the German Mauser Gewehr 98 in a battle royale shootout to see which was the best rifle. Unsurprising to some, and outrageous to others, Paul Mauser’s masterpiece took home the gold and [Read More…]
The AK has been copied and cloned so long that there are clones (Vektor R4) of copies (IWI Galil) of copies (Valmet Rk 62) of the original design. Kalashnikov wants to avoid this going forward and a press release sent out yesterday can be interpreted as a clear [Read More…]
Our good friend Max Popenker sent us this photo from a recent trip to the range with a selection of Kalashnikov manufactured rifles. On the far left is the AK-105. This is the modern ultra short carbine version of the AK that replaced the AK-74U in Russian service. [Read More…]
This guest post was written by Lindy Y. Let’s start this with full disclosure: I used to be one of those guys that mocked people for making “tacticool” AKs. The eternal debate of classical versus modernized seems to have pervaded the AK community to a greater [Read More…]
While I am one of the last people to condone the conversion of what are often valuable historical artifacts to a “sporting” configuration, in some cases these conversions themselves add value (both monetary and historical) to the firearm in question. Is the [Read More…]
There’s nothing like a mystery round to pique the interest of gun aficionados all around the internet, and thanks to Taofledermaus, of Youtube fame, there’s a new one. A viewer apparently sent Taofledermaus two mystery shotgun slugs, so he took a close look [Read More…]
Kalashnikov Concern has been hard at work improving the AK-12 rifle, which – although its status has waffled between “adopted” and “not” – is expected to be adopted and standardized by the Russian armed forces. The YouTube channel of [Read More…]
Russian ammo maker Techkrim (small company specializing mostly in less-lethal and sporting ammunition) has introduced a new shotgun round, called the .366 TKM It is based on the 7.62×39 M43 case necked out to .366 (9.5mm), with taper but no neck. Its main intent [Read More…]
I heard on the grapevine that Hornady’s steel cased V-Max 5.45×39 and 7.62×39 ammunition has since the beginning of this year been loaded in lacquered steel cases, versus the polymer-coated steel cases that had been the basis for Hornady’s [Read More…]
Our friend Gabor Vass of Kaliber Info sent us this photo of a prototype flare pistol convention. The pistol is a Soviet SPSh-2 Flare Pistol converted to 9 mm R Knall (.38 blank ammo) + 28 mm rubber bullet. The original SPSh Flare Pistol dates back to WWII and was [Read More…]
Now I’m no knowledgable business guru, but Jane’s is reporting that the state owned company that had a stake in Izhevsk, Rostec (which by the way, did you know Kalashnikov Concern also makes boats?) has now sold 51% to a company called Ural Mining and [Read More…]
Retiv sends us this follow up image of an AN-94 mockup/demilled gun in 7.62×39, at an expo. He writes: Mr. Nathaniel, here is additional photo for you from Russian forum where i got first photo of that thing. Did they just attach 7.62×39 mag to it? It does [Read More…]
These pictures and video were published on War History Online in two separate articles over the course of the past six months. The images and video are absolutely astounding. It seems that a duo of treasure hunters or artifact seekers, using commercial metal detectors [Read More…]
Russian special forces were spotted recently in the Russian republic of Dagestan, which has been experiencing an insurgency recently. The commandos were equipped with at least two foreign weapons, an HK417 7.62x51mm rifle with an impressively large suppressor, and an [Read More…]
The pictures are a couple of years old (prior 2009), but interesting nonetheless. Apparently it is a picture from a seized weapons cache in Iraq, later in the war due to the ACU helmet cover on the kevlar laying on the floor. The gas tube is completely removed so [Read More…]
Today’s POTD is a photo taken by Russian shooter Irina Mareeva of the new Kalashnikov Concern PL-14 Pistol. This photo shows the ergonomics of the new pistol with its Glock-like grip angle. Here is a comparison with the Glock that I put together. The Glock is [Read More…]
A good friend of TFB, Val, who is also one of our Russian translators, sent us photos of his new Mosin. He wrote … Though i could share the project which i’ve finished for myself, a totally rebuilt 1944 Mosin-Nagant Rifle. I did all the work myself. The [Read More…]
A prominent Russian blogger has published an extensive photo essay of the stages of production in Izhevsk on her blog. The article gives a full description of the various process’s the AKs go through in their production, but it is all in Russian and Google [Read More…]
An article that came out on Fox News has a picture of an odd SVD contraption captured by the Peshmerga in action against Daesh in northern Syria. The article had this to say- In a dusty outpost near the Kurdish-held northern city of Kirkuk, a Peshmerga commander [Read More…]
Kalashnikov Concern has made an effort to rebrand itself following its consolidation, and spurred by the US sanctions of 2014, that prevent the importation of the Concern’s products to the lucrative American civilian market. VICE News, online offshoot of VICE [Read More…]
Posted a few days ago, apparently someone accidentally left a solid gold AK-47 behind in a taxi cab in St. Petersburg, Russia. Taxi cab company from St. Petersburg is in search of a customer who has left a solid gold AK-47 in a special slim case that was left behind in [Read More…]
Chuck is feeding the beast with his most recent post of a cutaway TT-33 Tokarev over at GunLab.If you’re like me, you just can’t get enough of cutaway firearms! Pictures are embedded below, but please click through to Chuck’s site to see more: [Read More…]
This 3D animation by Victor Dolzhenkov of Gun Animation shows how the Soviet-era DShK 1938 12.7mm heavy machine gun's rotary-style belt feeding mechanism works.
Check out this new video of Russian Special Forces training underwater in Crimea posted by the state funded news agency Russia Today. It looks like they’re using an underwater SPP-1 pistol and APS underwater rifle. The SPP-1 pistol has a max of range of just 56 [Read More…]
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