Mike was lucky enough to go to a school with a 25 yard smallbore range, only 25 minutes from the centre of British shooting at Bisley, and had a firearms certificate before he had a driver’s license. Moving to a more gun-friendly country has allowed him to service his milsurp habit. He lives up in the mountains in Switzerland and vlogs at YouTube as Bloke on the Range. He can be reached at mike@tfb.tv.
While out in Canada filming with Britishmuzzleloaders, Mike had a Chinese Type 97 bullpup rifle in .223 Remington shoved bodily into his hands. What else to do than make a video about the rifle that is so uncommon in the USA due to import restrictions? This little bullpup rifle is, however, [Read More…]
Mike was recently in Canada as the guest of Rob of the channel British Muzzleloaders https://www.youtube.com/user/britishmuzzleloaders and got the opportunity to set up a WW2-themed run and gun with Rob’s Canadian-made Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk.1*, putting into action some late WW2 techniques from [Read More…]
Mike takes a look at the FN 1922 service pistol, built by Fabrique Nationale in Belgium in both 9x17mm/.380 ACP and 7.65x17mm/.32 ACP. A widely successful, but little known service pistol from the inter-war years, which nevertheless served until the 1970’s and 1980’s in various roles in [Read More…]
In this video, Mike takes a look at an 8x50R M1895 Austrian Mannlicher straight-pull long rifle, and takes it out to 300m for a shoot. In the discussion, he talks about how you can keep an 8x50R fed despite there being no ammo available (hint – trimmed 7.62x54R brass), and describes how the [Read More…]
Mike takes a look at the main differences between the .303 Lee-Enfield SMLE of WW1 fame and the later No.4 rifles. What makes the No.4 better and cheaper than its predecessor? ««« GUNS IN THIS VIDEO »»» Lee-Enfield SMLE No.1 Mk.3 Mk.III .303 Lee-Enfield No.4 .303 Lee-Enfield No.7 .22 ««« [Read More…]
Mike takes a look at the wierd and wonderful model 1895 Nagant revolver. This overly-complicated Russian, later Soviet, gas seal revolver was made in its millions in caliber 7.62x38R, and served from 1895 until fairly recently. What’s the deal with this piece? ««« GUNS IN THIS VIDEO »»» [Read More…]
By popular request in the comments to his earlier video on the No.4 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huh7kEKS3xY Mike takes you through what he looks for when buying a Lee-Enfield SMLE (AKA Rifle Number 1 Mark III), and why the stocking up is how it is. 🔫🔫 GUNS IN THIS VIDEO 🔫🔫 Lee [Read More…]
In a follow-up to an earlier video in which he compared reloading the last military gate-loading revolver with his Smith and Wesson, Mike returns by popular request to pit his Smith against a British break-open revolver. Is either of them significantly faster to reload? Many THANKS to: Ventura [Read More…]
Mosin-Nagant sniper rifles, both real and fake, are the most common WW2-era sniper rifles on the market – and you can even buy cheap mounts and repro PU scopes to convert any Mosin-Nagant to a fake sniper! But how do the mounts work? How can you set them up to get the best out of […] [Read More…]
Mike (aka “Bloke on the Range”) takes his 7.5mm Swiss M82/29 revolver, the last military “Abadie”-type gateloading revolver, to the range and pits it against a 1940’s Smith and Wesson M&P in .38 S&W to see just how much worse gateloading is than a swing out [Read More…]
Mike answers the age-old question of what on earth is the point of a magazine release on the heel of a pistol rather than the more usual push button? Guns in this video: SIG P210 Tokarev TT33 FN 1910 FN 1910/22 / 1922 Erma EP 552 (similar to a Walther TPH) SIG-Sauer P226 Thanks to […] [Read More…]
Mike takes a look at the Swiss 7.5mm M82 cartridge, which served from the 1880’s until the 1970’s, production ending in the 1960’s. But you’ll be amazed by the most shoking bit of info about this rather weedy little number! Guns in this video: Swiss M82 revolver Swiss M82/29 [Read More…]
There are plenty of fake Mosin-Nagant snipers out there being passed off as genuine. Mike takes a look at 6 little tells that a particular sniper rifle might not be what it claims to be. Guns in this video: Hungarian Mosin-Nagant M1891/30 sniper Thanks to our sponsors: Proxibid – Track Down [Read More…]
Mike takes a look at a very old Swiss favourite, about which much incorrect information abounds – the Schmidt-Rubin M1889 rifle in 7.5×53.5mm GP90 calibre. A smokeless calibre. Yes, you heard that right – smokeless. Turns out all the books that say “semismokeless” are [Read More…]
Mike takes a look at another early Euro semiautomatic pistol, with which he has a bit of a love-hate relationship: the FN 1903, more specifically the Husqvana m/07, which is the Swedish version used by their army as late as the 1980’s together with its oddball 9x20SR ammunition. Possibly the [Read More…]
Everyone loves a bit of slick .303 action. But what are the pitfalls specific to buying a Lee-Enfield No.4 that are unique to this particular rifle? What are the options, and what should you look out for to avoid getting a dud? UPDATE: The idiot Producer accidentally created a thumbnail with a [Read More…]
Mike B managed to secure a press pas to the annual gun collector’s show in Luzern, Switzerland, at the end of March 2017. Here are his impressions of the gun-filled event. Thanks to our sponsors: Proxibid – Track Down Your Perfect Rifle On Proxibid.com Ventura Munitions – Retailer [Read More…]
A brief introduction to one of the most accurate, over-built service pistols of all time – the 9mm SIG P210. This particular one is a very early pre-commercial P49 version, issued to the Swiss Army from about 1950 until the mid-70’s when it started to be displaced by the P220 / P75. [Read More…]
A great part of living in the Internet age is that we have far more information at our fingertips than we ever have before. Until recently we had to rely exclusively on books and magazine articles, researched with varying degrees of thoroughness. Some of the information [Read More…]
The FN 1910 was an extremely common pocket pistol in Europe, and was produced in both .32 ACP and .380 ACP. Around 700,000 were produced over about 70 years, and yet it is little known in the US, where it was largely eclipsed by the Walther PPK. In this video, we take a look at […] Read [Read More…]
TFBTV has gone international. We are pleased to we welcome Mike to the channel, bringing us gun history all the way from Europe. Often mistaken for a Webley, the much maligned Enfield No.2 revolver was one of the last newly-designed revolvers adopted by a major power. But were they as bad as their [Read More…]
Legal arguments from the ATF about the definition of a pistol arm brace might seem sometimes to be rather pointless, but this news from England might just take the cake for wasting everybody’s time. The British National Smallbore Rifle Association (NSRA) reports [Read More…]
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