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
At this year’s 100th Anniversary of the Azeri Army Parade in Baku, Azerbaijan we were able to get a glimpse of some of the recent developments within the Azeri Armed Forces while on parade. In terms of small arms the most significant observation is the recent [Read More…]
Since Jim Fuller founded Rifle Dynamics more than a decade ago, the company has risen to an extremely high standard of craftsmanship within the AK industry in the United States. Jim talks about the story of the company, starting with his very first introduction to the weapon system as an electrician [Read More…]
In a case of what might be severe firearms safety negligence on the part of six officers of the law in the Indian district of Mainpuri, one of their fellow officers was handling a service handgun when he accidentally discharged a single round into the room. An earlier [Read More…]
An image of the sidearm that has replaced the Beretta M9 in U.S. Army service has recently surfaced through DOD media outlets. The image is of a soldier from the “Brave Rifles” 3rd Cavalry Regiment that is currently deployed to Operation Inherent Resolve in [Read More…]
Although these photographs were published by at least mid-2014, the presence of an HK69A1 in the hands of any insurgent group is interesting enough to those of us at TFB. The pictures were taken by a Reuters photographer Goran Tomasevic while embedded with the then [Read More…]
Metravib, the defense wing of the European based ACOEM Group was recently in the news for displaying a Picatinny rail mounted variant of their acoustic gunshot detector and locator. The company must be revamping their publicity efforts because the device was displayed [Read More…]
Lynndon Schooler is an avid Kalashnikov enthusiast and works in the industry himself. He has visited numerous Kalashnikov collecting venues in Russia over several years, running a Facebook page called 907 KALASH that helps chronicle his finds. This is his first guest [Read More…]
Recently TFB was able to sit down with Rob from Cabot Arms and conduct an in-depth interview about the odd meteorite 1911 pair that they created, but also more about the founding the company itself. Nick C. was also present during this interview and was instrumental in [Read More…]
Taking the lead by the Cody Firearms Museum, a unique gathering of firearms museum curators took place in Cody, Wyoming. Representatives from museums such as the National Firearms Centre in Leeds, Springfield Armory National Historic Site, NRA Firearms Museum, Autry Museum of the West, the [Read More…]
In Part One of this series George Huang discussed the initial founding of the company and why the Battle Arms Development team excels at problem-solving. In this section, he talks to TFB about why the company wears lab coats at SHOT Show, duel meanings behind the [Read More…]
Recently we received an opportunity to sit down with one of the founders and current leader of Battle Arms Development, George Huang at the companies new location in Las Vegas. We discussed everything from the beginnings of the organization to how George applies his [Read More…]
A confidential source has revealed to TFB the current contestants that have passed the most recent phase of the Next Generation Squad Automatic Rifle Competition (NGSAR). This phase is less of an actual competition between small arms prototypes but more of a theoretical [Read More…]
21st Century Asian Arms Race spotted an image shared on the website of the Office of the Azeri President that is showing a rifle of Belarusian origins in a unit armory locker of the Azeri Armed Forces. The rifle in question was previously reported on by TFB in [Read More…]
Steel Targets can be an awesome addition to any training regime, whether it be for self-defense, long distance shooting, any sort of competition, or just plain bragging rights at the range with buddies. Due to their reactive “CLANG”, steel targets give shooters instant feedback on [Read More…]
At this year’s KADEX 2018 held in Astana, Kazakhstan, the Kazakh state-owned GIS Center had a virtual reality headset that is designed to work with a Kalashnikov-patterned service rifle. The headset portion integrates (and likely licenses) software from a Russian [Read More…]
A coordinated attack against the Afghan Ministry of Interior headquarters in Northern Kabul on May has shown a fair degree of sophistication when it comes to the small arms and tactics of the insurgents involved. Reportedly the planning was carried out by the Haqanni [Read More…]
A recent post on the DOD’s media release branch has shown elements of the 180th Cavalry Regiment (National Guard, based out of Oklahoma) on a security mission around the Afghan capital of Kabul. Unique to the quick-eyed observer would be the extensive use of [Read More…]
There certainly exist a large number of myths and misconceptions about small arms in Afghanistan. Everything from the names of certain firearms available to how they are perceived in the country has been over exaggerated or hyped up to the point of no return. Surprisingly there are almost as many [Read More…]
Available to those transiting through or vacationing in Dubai is the tucked away gem of the Dubai Museum and Al Faidi Fort. The museum tells the story of the pre-historic surroundings and the small hamlet that would eventually become the sprawling metropolis that is the [Read More…]
Jim Fuller of Rifle Dynamics recently shared this photograph of a cut down 91/30 Mosin Nagant that was recently taken to his shop by an officer of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department who needed some help identifying it. Apparently, the weapon was confiscated [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…]
Working with firearms channels on Youtube has constantly been a struggle to us at TFB with our Youtube subsidiary TFB TV, to the point where we have joked about it and been awestruck by such attempts by other channels to put their content on Pornhub. But when I first took a look at Bloke on [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…]
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…]
Last week we looked at the Stoner 86/ARES LMG-1 in depth while at the Institute of Military Technology in Florida. This week we are comparing the older design to the much more modern Knight’s Armament 5.56x45mm NATO Light Assualt Machine Gun (LAMG) that the company brought to SHOT Show last [Read More…]
Previously we looked at some of the very modern stores that sell numerous Turkish models in Kabul but in this episode, we look at some of the older small arms that are considered antiques but still legal to purchase (although ammunition is somewhat of a gray area). For that purpose, we went to one [Read More…]
Recent photographs have revealed that the Armed Forces of Senegal have acquired large amounts of 5.56x45mm NATO Tavor X95 rifles. Specifically, it appears that two distinct Senegalese forces are using the rifle at present. The first being a special operations component [Read More…]
Similar to many small arms in use by Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), the diversity of Soviet patterned Heavy Machine Guns is quite high among the ANSF forces of today. Almost to a point where every derivative and variant produced in other countries is [Read More…]
Conflict Armament Research has recently published a short but very comprehensive report detailing the craft produced anti-armor/personal launchers that we reported on in May of 2017. The findings that CAR has come up with are quite revealing about the launchers [Read More…]
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