Jonathan Ferguson’s new book on British bullpup rifles is one I’ve been waiting a long time for. Five years ago I wrote my Master’s thesis on the development of the early Cold War British bullpup rifle, the E.M.2, and the politics which engulfed it. It’s [Read More…]
Looking like the bizarre lovechild of a bolt-action rifle, a boat oar, and those weird prop rifles from the original Planet of the Apes movie, the Thorneycroft Carbine is one of the unsung “firsts” of the 20th Century. Specifically, this British [Read More…]
Welcome everyone to the TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb below, this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this article, I decided to do another show-and-tell sort of Armorer’s Bench article. This one will [Read More…]
In 2015, the Royal Bermuda Regiment began to field the British L85A2 bullpup. Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory and is one of several territories to have its own British Army-affiliated home defence regiment. The regiment’s transition to the L85A2 was completed [Read More…]
Christopher Bartocci, the author of “Black Rifle II: The M16 Into the 21st Century” book has acquired the printing rights of the book and has announced its new edition which is retitled “America’s Rifle: M16/M4 late Cold War through Global War on [Read More…]
No matter if it is hunting, plinking, competition shooting, or just plain old fun, there is no doubt in my mind that .22LR is by far the most popular cartridge on the planet. The .22LR rimfire cartridges have been effectively used nearly everywhere on the planet for a [Read More…]
It is not every day you get the opportunity to review a book on the life and inventions of the grandfather of modern firearms or as the book refers to him,” the Thomas Edison of guns”. When I saw the chance to read all the way through the new book published by Simon [Read More…]
Headstamp Publishing has announced Ian McCollum, of Forgotten Weapons fame, new book ‘Pistols of the Warlords – Chinese Domestic Handguns, 1911 – 1949‘. The new book comes hot on the heels of the shipping of their latest book Thorneycroft to SA80: [Read More…]
Over the weekend Headstamp Publishing launched their second book – Thorneycroft to SA80: British Bullpup Firearms, 1901–2020, written by Jonathan Ferguson of the UK’s Royal Armouries. The new book launched its Kickstarter campaign on the 12th April, it [Read More…]
If I asked you what the first first bullpup rifle was, what would you answer? The Steyr AUG? British EM-2 from the 1950s? The Faucon ‘Balanced Rifle’ from 1911 or maybe the Thorneycroft carbine from the early 1900s? In fact the distinction goes to a much [Read More…]
Maxim Popenker, Russian small arms expert and author (and TFB contributor), has begun a three-part series of articles on the origins of the bullpup concept, one which many now believe represents the future of individual small arms: Traditionally, a firearm in the [Read More…]
10. Thorneycroft Carbine Some of you might be familiar with this gun, but few know that almost all available pictures of it are misleading, at best. The picture below is not of the original Thorneycroft Carbine, but of the later Thorneycroft-Farquhar rifle. The title [Read More…]
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