The Cody Firearms Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West has announced that their respected Arsenals of History Symposium returns this year following a COVID-19 hiatus. The Symposium was established back in 2017 and features speakers from around the world and [Read More…]
If you’re looking for something to take your mind off of the craziness that is 2020 then the Cody Firearms Museum may have the event just for you. While there looks to be the second round of lockdowns on the horizon for some of us, the historians at the Cody [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 final day of the symposium continued with more conversations about the different aspects of maintaining firearms collections among curators. More important than some of the actual presentations and talks were the conversations that followed between the people [Read More…]
Held for the second time at the Cody Firearms Museum in Wyoming, the Arsenals of History Symposium is unique in that it is the first series of symposiums specifically devoted to the field of firearms museum curators. Attendees included chief curatorial staff from the [Read More…]
Although the first day of the symposium was free to the general public, the next two days required a $50 entrance fee (total) and was aimed at getting curators private time amongst themselves to discuss serious and legitimate issues that affected the care of their small [Read More…]
Immediately following the Winchester Arms Collectors Association Annual Show in Cody, Wyoming this weekend, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West’s Cody Firearms Museum will be hosting a firearms symposium that boasts an impressive cadre of presenters from the [Read More…]
The Cody Firearms Museum, located at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, is an icon. This incredible museum houses what they advertise as “the most comprehensive collection of American firearms in the world.” With the current count of more [Read More…]
I recently had the chance to visit Springfield, Massachusetts while giving a talk at the Arsenals of History Symposium at the Springfield Armory. While in Springfield, I checked out their local museum (technically 5 museums in one!), tucked away in the Lyman and Merrie [Read More…]
I met VK Integrated Systems at the last SHOT Show last January. They make a smart stock, called the SIOS-C, that connects to ATAK. Well, they recently donated two of their prototype firearms, the NGSW-R and NGSW-AR to the Cody Firearms Museum. Cody Firearms Museum @TFB [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…]
We here at TFB have been following the progress of the $12-million refurbishment of the Cody Firearms Museum in Cody, Wyoming since the major project began. We’re excited to see what the finished renovation looks like and the museum is finally due to open fully [Read More…]
As a result of the previous two symposiums held at the Cody Firearms Museum, both last year and this year, a new association of firearm museum curators will be formed. This association will specifically address the needs and issues that curators and historians that work [Read More…]
In Part 1 of this article, I talked about early Chinese AKs and the humble beginnings of Kalashnikov rifle manufacturing in China. By 1956, China was building new factories and improving old ones with the help of Soviet engineers, and it seemed like nothing can break [Read More…]
Belgium’s own Fabrique Nationale Herstal, known as FN Herstal or simply FN for short, has produced some phenomenal and highly successful guns over its 131 year history. From their contributions in the handgun market with pistols like the Hi-Power and Five-Seven, [Read More…]
I think we can all agree that for better or worse, outside of gunsmithing colleges there has been a poor representation of the study of firearms within any university certainly in the United States, possibly in the world as well. Again I say this emphasizing “for [Read More…]
In a surprise announcement at the 2018 SHOT Show, gunmaker Weatherby revealed that they will be leaving the state of California, where they have been based since their founding in 1945. The company’s new home will be Sheridan, Wyoming, the sixth largest city in [Read More…]
The NRA Whittington Center in Raton, New Mexico has long been established as one of the premier shooting locations within the United States. With everything from skeet, trap ranges to thousand yard and silhouette ranges, the center is truly an all encompassing [Read More…]
Despite using the arguably backward L85A2 (which Ian did a great series on that Nathan S. covered), after World War II, the British were one of the foremost thinkers in terms of individual small arms. Almost immediately after the war, the British Army and start [Read More…]
In the comments section of my 6.8mm SPC article last year, I was asked what I thought about future infantry small arms. This is a subject that has dominated my thinking over the past several years, and much of the historical research I have undertaken has been in [Read More…]
If Rock Island Auction Company claims this area of Illinois to be the ‘gun mecca’ of the United States (with 5 firearm companies within the immediate vicinity), then Rock Island Arsenal is certainly the beginning of that influx of that concentration of [Read More…]
Before this years SHOT show my list of questions was fairly short and at the top of that list was, will the Arsenal AF-1 Strike One be imported into the United States? They had a decent display at the show, so optimism is high. Starting with the obvious features, the [Read More…]