As a kid, I used a large donut-shaped magnet that I found in the garage, attached it to a length of rope and scoured under brackish water bridges for lost treasure. Besides dozens of crab traps, a few shopping carts and random ferrous trash, my dream of reenacting a scene from The Goonies went largely unfulfilled. Perhaps my results would have been different if I had grown up near historic battlefields where guns, ordinance and gear were discarded in battle. A team of Dutch Magnet Hunters called Dutch-WW2Magnet Hunters have been using rare earth magnets to dredge ponds and rivers in Holland for WWII artifacts. Their latest find is a German Sturmgewehr 44 and multiple magazines. I’m amazed at how well preserved the metal, wood and plastic is after being submerged for 70 years.

The Dutch Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) ensures that military personnel have modern, robust and safe materiel to work with.

Today’s photo of the day is a blast from the recent past. It features Marines of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines Regiment, with a Weaponized Multi-Utility Tactical Transport vehicle. The MUTT has been mounted with an M2 .50 calibre heavy machine gun (fitted with a blank adaptor). Which the USMC have described as “a multifunction force multiplier configured to persist, protect and project the small unit”. The photo was taken during July 2016 exercise for Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory Marine Air-Ground Task Force Integrated Experiment at Camp Pendleton, California.

There are very few weapons as legendary as MP5. Developed in the mid-60s by German small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch, it became one of the most well-known submachineguns in history and weapon of choice for many special units all around the world.

Kalashnikov Concern have confirmed that their new light machine gun the RPK-16 has been adopted by Russia’s National Guard, the Rosgvardia. Back in September, the National Guard of Russia announced their purchase of a small number of the new AK-200 series of rifles from Kalashnikov Concern.

The Japanese 7.7mm Type 99 took after its predecessor the 6.5mm Type 96, both machine guns forming the basis of mobile fire support during the Second World War. Type 99 was a magazine fed, gas operated, light machine gun with a removable barrel that began production in 1941 and continuing until the end of the war. Interestingly it probably was one of the first few light machine gun designs that saw a mass issue with an optical sight, something that small arms design wouldn’t see again until the SUSAT on the SA80’s LSW.

As the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference ( SOFIC) starts today at The Tampa Convention Center (Florida) FN will be showing a prototype of a 6.5 Creedmoor Mk 48 Mod 2 Machine Gun.

The story of how Hungary came to equip its armed forces with Swiss machine guns, like many origins in WWII, goes back to WWI.  The treaty of Versailles prohibited or significantly inhibited arms production by any former Central Powers countries, Hungary being one of them.  Many small arms designers impacted by the same regulations turned to outside countries to circumvent these regulations, Switzerland being a favorite choice of the Germans.  Therefore Louis Stange (whose resumé also includes the FG42, MG39Rh, MG 81, MG 15, and the MG 34) of Rheinmetall took his MG 30 design to Switzerland to be produced by Solothurn Waffenfabrik (A company which was in itself a bit of a Rheinmetall creation).

For those not familiar with Colin Furze, he is an eccentric mad tinkerer in England. He has a substantial following on his YouTube channel and he makes some really cool gadgets. I first came across Colin 5 years ago when he made working Wolverine claws from X-Men. Then he made wrist mounted flame throwers based on the Marvel character Pyro. He also made a thermite launcher. Well, his Uzi machine gun briefcase was inspired by the movie Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle.

Let’s talk about the new B&T APC9 Pro. If you aren’t familiar with this pistol caliber carbine, then I have to go ahead and question your knowledge and support of firearms and the second amendment all together. Joking aside, these are some of the best sub-machine guns available. Not to worry, they make semi-auto versions as well. The new Pro series from B&T has some interesting new features that I think you will appreciate.

Below are pictures of a homemade submachine gun seized last month by the Municipal Civil Guard of Limeira in Sao Paulo along with cocaine base paste and marijuana. This illicit craft produced SMG model has been seized as far back as at least 2014 and has appeared more regularly in recent months. These weapons are certainly the product of a large criminal distribution network being supplied by an efficiently run and well equipped illicit workshop.

The catalog of Morphy Extraordinary, Sporting, & Collector Firearms April auction is now available online. Just like in the case of many previous auction-related TFB articles, we browsed the catalog to see what interesting, rare and unusual firearms are consigned. The Morphy catalog is full of such firearms. If I was to choose every rare gun, I’d probably end up talking about each and every lot seen there.

A lot of people these days are complaining, that the firearms industry in recent years is very boring and there is no real innovation anywhere. Companies are mostly tinkering with proven 60-year-old designs, inventing new, often useless, accessories, and trying to sell you, essentially, “that same old pig with a new brand of lipstick on its face”. But imagine if a large country would suddenly decide to move away from a proven design to a new, groundbreaking weapon system, wouldn’t that be great? Finally, some real innovation! Well, that actually happened in Russia with the Nikonov AN-94 assault rifle.

Molot Arms, best known as the manufacturer of VEPR shotguns recently shared a photo of a new belt-fed machine gun on their social media. According to Molot’s Facebook post, the weapon can feed from belts and magazines and is chambered in 7.62x39mm.

In the late 1970s, while designing the GAU-8 Avenger for the A-10 Warthog, General Dynamics developed a smaller NATO friendly counterpart.  The GAU-12 Equalizer would incorporate similar design features while using the slightly smaller 25mm ammunition.  A small but notable step down from the 30mm ammo used in the GAU-8 Avenger. Using five barrels instead of the GAU-8’s seven, the smaller lighter cannon saw more diverse use.  

The Bren light machine gun was one of the more robust and successful light machine gun designs to see service in the Second World War among the Allied forces. During the war, it was even produced full scale not only in Britain but also in Canada and Australia where it saw extensive service with the forces of those countries. Derived from the ZB26 and ZB30 linage, it served at the “section” level within the British infantry. Even after the war was over, the Bren remained in service with numerous countries, rebarrelled to 7.62x51mm NATO (UK, Pakistan, India, etc…)

Of all the questions in the gun world, What Is An Assault Rifle, seems to be the one answered and used by those least competent to do so. And since TFB is (arguably) the world’s leading resource on firearms, I thought we should take a minute to settle the debate once and for all. So, what is an assault rifle?

On the 20th February, FN Herstal was awarded a ‘major contract’ for rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers by NATO’s Support & Procurement Agency (NSPA) on behalf of the Portuguese Army. The contract is said to be for “5.56mm and 7.62mm NATO caliber FN SCAR assault rifles, FN40GL grenade launchers, MINIMI 5.56 and 7.62 Mk3 light machine guns.”

Everyone knows about the Soviet “burp gun” – PPSh-41. But its predecessor, PPD 34, is much less known, both in Russia and internationally.

At their pre-SHOT Show range day SIG Sauer have demonstrated their new light machine gun, the SLMAG. TFB reported back in October 2018, that SIG Sauer had displayed their new light machine gun at the 2018 Association of the United States Army exposition. Now, thanks to footage from SIG’s range day we get our first glimpse of the SL MAG, chambered in .338 Norma Magnum, in action.

Delta P Designs has developed a 3D printed suppressor for the M2 50 caliber machine gun. It suppresses the sound to the point of being hearing safe while standing right next to the weapon! Pretty cool stuff. Check it out.

Composite munitions manufacturer True Velocity has announced their partnership with General Dynamics – Ordnance & Tactical Systems in working to win the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon system program. Back in July 2018, TFB reported that General Dynamics was one of five manufacturers to be awarded prototype development contracts as part of the Next Generation Squad Automatic Rifle program.

The Ultimax 100 is the light machine gun for the Singaporean Army. Formerly ST Kinetics, ST Engineering is the Singaporean company who makes the Ultimax and they were at Range Day. Unfortunately they opted to be a non-shooting vendor at Range Day but we got to check out the newest version, the Ultimax 100 MK8.

A beltfed 50 caliber machinegun conjures up images of utter dominance over enemy solidiers, vehicles and structures. The muzzle blast alone is enough to strike fear into the hearts of men. Unfortunately it’s that blast that will pummel the shooter, crew and LAV drivers if the gun is vehicle mounted. Even the best helmets and ear protection can’t stop the concussive forces that will end up injuring our war fighters. Not to mention the reduced ability to communicate. So when Delta P Design set out to suppress the Ma Deuce, they weren’t chasing decibels – even though you can hold a conversation 20 feet from where the modified crew-served weapon is being fired.

Some of you may or may not know of the infamous “shoe string machine gun”. A piece of string can be tied to the charging handle of an MI1 or similar firearm, then wrapped around the trigger guard and looped onto the trigger. With the correct length and tension, the travel of the bolt will pull the trigger and continue firing until there is a malfunction or you run out of ammo. Well now there is a new DIY method for an AR-15. The coat hanger machine gun.

The Czech ZB30 was probably one of the better light machine gun designs that saw extensive use during the Second World War. Nations such as Japan and Britain copied aspects of it in the Bren and Japanese Type 99 LMG. It was also license-produced in some other countries as well. It was a top mounted magazine-fed, gas operated, light machine gun that incorporated a bolt hold open catch when rounds ran out. A variant of the ZB26, the light machine gun had a number of unique features that came to be standard on light machines of the time.

Profense has been shaking the Minigun game up since introducing their competitor to Dillon Aero’s domination of the international market in 7.62x51mm NATO M134 Minigun platforms manufactured in the United States. Taking things up (or down) a notch, Profense introduced a 5.56x45mm NATO variant of their 7.62x51mm NATO M134 while at AUSA in April this year. A 5.56x45mm version of the Minigun has historically been done before, with the XM214 “Microgun” from General Electric during the Vietnam War. However, the 5.56x45mm cartridge was too inaccurate for fast-moving vehicles such as aircraft and the U.S. Army wasn’t interested in the project as an infantry portable HMG. Fast forward to today and the increasing use of special operations forces combined with small craft such as speedboats and all-terrain vehicles, having a Minigun that takes up less space and weight and is needed for suppressive fire at shorter ranges, a 5.56x45mm NATO Minigun might have some merit.

The Canadian-based division of Rheinmetall was present at the show with the latest variant of their Field Ranger RCWS system that is designed to accommodate 7.62x51mm FN MAG/.50 BMG M2/ and 40x53mm Mark 19 grenade launchers and machine guns. On display was the “Multi” system, but there are also “Light” versions (7.62x51mm only), “Dual” (designed to take both a GPMG and a Heavy MG), and the “20” designed for a 20mm cannon. Not on display was the “Rapid Obscuring System” (ROSY) which consists of a smoke grenade discharging system mounted below the weapon system. The system has been purchased and has been in active service for around two years with Rheinmetall clients around the world.

The catalog of the upcoming  Rock Island December 2018 Premiere Firearms Auction includes a lot of incredibly interesting and rare firearms. Fellow TFB writer  Matthew Moss has already written an article about some of the coolest guns of this auction. In this article, I’ll tell you about five other rare and unusual guns consigned to the December 2018 auction.

Continuing our series of articles about the most expensive firearms  sold in the major US auctions, today we’ll take a look at the five most expensive lots sold in the Morphy Firearms, Militaria, & Sporting Auction that was held from October 30 to November 02, 2018.