Infantry Marine, based in the Midwest. Specifically interested in small arms history, development, and usage within the MENA region and Central Asia. To that end, I run Silah Report, a website dedicated to analyzing small arms history and news out of MENA and Central Asia.
Please feel free to get in touch with me about something I can add to a post, an error I’ve made, or if you just want to talk guns. I can be reached at miles@tfb.tv
Starting a firearms book collection isn’t for every shooter or firearms enthusiast. Not everyone reads a lot these days (offline that is), and the price alone is a strong deterrent. You can’t really attach the Collector Grade Publications “The Black [Read More…]
Soldier of Fortune has a post that links to a recent video montage of French forces in Afghanistan. The country’s forces have all since left the country but the video shows an interesting portrayal of how the 1970s technology FAMAS has entered the 21st century [Read More…]
Earlier on TFB we covered the Hi Point parody made by Dynamic Pie Concept on Youtube, and on Facebook. They have come out with a number of videos poking fun at various training procedures and other nuances in the firearms world, in addition to just being plain silly. [Read More…]
In 2012 TFB published an extensive post about a homemade rifle being used by the PKK in their fight against Turkey. Recently, a photo has surfaced of the same rifle but with a few upgrades and thus I’m calling it the Gen 2. The additions seem to be the removal of [Read More…]
Back in the 1990s, Heckler & Koch USA decided to put together a working reference collection of the company’s products. This collection was put together at their Sterling facility in Virginia (Here are some pictures from the previous facility), but has since [Read More…]
The U.S. Armed Forces have alot of guns. Let me correct myself, the military has A TON of guns. Where are all these kept and stored though? In armories of course. But these mysterious enclaves filled to the brim with boy toys must be an absolute joy to even step inside [Read More…]
Trench Art has always fascinated historians and collectors alive because it makes us have a personal connection with the curators of the various equipment it is displayed upon. But from an administrative standpoint, cutting up issued gear is no interesting manner, it is [Read More…]
A man in Texas is being charged with wire fraud after going on a spending spree and spending over 300,000 dollars on a company credit card, over 20,000 dollars was on seventeen firearms. Taking a look at the list of the firearms purchased, at least he had taste… [Read More…]
It seems that every time an event occurs that receives a massive amount of media attention and has multiple law enforcement agencies involved, all the interesting small arms in use come out of the woodwork and make themselves available to the viewers around the world. [Read More…]
Recently, The Firearm Blog received the opportunity to interview Timothy Michetti from Conflict Armament Research. The organization is a relatively new one, but works overseas in direct collaboration with various governments and rebel groups, to track and record the [Read More…]
Using the internet to search for firearms online can be a great tool to find firearms in your local area or even across the country for a good price. As we move further into the digital age and online scams become increasingly widespread, this unfortunately affects our [Read More…]
Beretta has come out with their answer to the U.S. Army’s service handgun competition (discussed in much detail at TFB here), and it is the currently named M9A3. This is a confusing name because the Army hasn’t even begun trials but Beretta is going ahead [Read More…]
A number of news sources (BBC, The Guardian, Moscow Times, and RT) have reported that arms maker Kalashnikov, Baikal, and Izhmash, sub divisions of Kalashnikov Group, have changed their brand logos as unveiled at an industrial meeting in Moscow. The change seems to be [Read More…]
An article on Marine Times talks about how Marines from 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines using blindfolds to increase weapon manipulation skills during training. Putting a blindfold on enhances the senses,” James said. “It teaches Marines to keep their head up and [Read More…]
This is an ongoing product review series that the I’m writing about my commemorative 1911 project, the custom grips were covered in an earlier TFB post and the frame and process of completing the 1911 will be in ensuing posts. This one will cover the custom Kydex [Read More…]
Recently the author embarked on heavily modifying a Kimber Custom II Series 80 style 1911. In the process he ordered custom parts, some of which will be reviewed on TFB. Some of the parts he ordered were from proven companies such as Ed Brown and Wilson Combat. Other [Read More…]
An article on Fox News talks about a majority of the agencies service M4s recalled for maintenance issues . Apparently a good 40 percent or 2,000 of their weapons are being taken back for rear echelon maintenance and some officers are weary of not having their service [Read More…]
An article that came out in The Smithsonian talks about a device made by Yardarm Technologies that once placed and activated in the backstrap of a handgun, allows a real time feed back to a Police headquarters that shows if the gun has been fired, or how many times it [Read More…]
Kaboom! Bang! Explosions downrange, machine guns going off, helicopters flying overhead, entire belts of tracers stitching their way across the range in the darkness. You’ve all seen it, the famous Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot through Youtube videos or various [Read More…]
During the fall Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot, TFB got the opportunity to catch up with Robert Landies II of Ohio Ordnance Works Inc, and talked to him about his interesting new rifle, the HCAR (Heavy Counter Assault Rifle), an updated BAR for the modern era. He is the [Read More…]
The sport of benchrest shooting, wherein there are no shooting positions but the rifles are firmly supported by some type of media has become quite popular in the past few decades. It truly is wringing out the most in rifle accuracy between 100 and 500 yards. But where [Read More…]
This diagram shows the relationships of some of the larger companies within the gun industry and how they’re connected to whom, and what comprises different groups of companies. In other words the “Big Picture” of the origins of the firearms we all [Read More…]
“The gun has to work, and it has to work well” is a guiding principle that Dave Walls sets his companies standard to. And as well he should, because as one of the founders of Accuracy International, he co designed and brought into production the L96, [Read More…]
The Durrand Line has divided the countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan since 1893 when the British Empire created it with the king of Afghanistan. More for territorial reasons than ethnic, the line literally splits the Pashtun tribe in two, half of it’s people in [Read More…]
This invention is several months old but is notable because I’ve never seen it until now. It’s a box like device made by Maglula where you place an AR15 30 round magazine inside, and load up 30 rounds in the loader and the contraption automatically loads [Read More…]
Thanks to arrangements by The Firearm Blog and NRA, the author recieved the pleasure of touring the National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, VA with a personal commentary on the collection by the Senior Curator Doug Wicklund. Mr. Wicklund has been with the NRA [Read More…]
Recently, World Conflict Films promoted some combat footage from a Ukrainian infantry battalion named the “Donbass Battalion” in action against rebels in the Ukraine. Some of the Youtube movie is very revealing as to what the Ukrainan forces are actually [Read More…]
The city of London does an excellent job of maintaining it’s medieval heritage even unto the 21st century. The streets are spontaneous and winding, just as Jack the Ripper wanted them to be. Tower of London is still as ominous, except instead of slicing heads, [Read More…]
Beretta USA just posted this video on their page of some instructors explaining the equations necessary to make a long range shot from a handgun. They are using a Beretta PX4 Storm. Although engaging targets at anything beyond 50 meters with a handgun is well beyond [Read More…]
Whenever a conflict occurs, whether it be war, police related, or terrorism, the politics aside it is always interesting from a shooting perspective to view what the concerned parties are using. Sometimes it is extremely revealing in the case of the SAS using MP5s in [Read More…]
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