At the last four SHOT Shows I have longingly fondled the FN 249S semiautomatic belt-fed rifles. I have made wishes while blowing out birthday candles, on shooting stars, and on pulled wishbones. In 2020 I even asked Santa (publicly) for an FDE Para version and the bastard stiffed me hard. And so, at the beginning of 2022, I sit here, sans crew-served weapon. However, there is first-world problem hope – FN has just announced the return of the M249S series.

In this episode of TFBTV, James Reeves is at Steyr USA’s HQ in Alabama talking with the head instructor of the Steyr Academy, Brian Marshall, about the AUG LMG or light machine gun – the Steyr AUG HBAR. James and Brian go over the features of this unique full auto and even subject it to a 600m accuracy test at the Civilian Marksmanship Park.

The UK’s Royal Navy have been testing a new mount for their .50 caliber defensive guns. The Agile, Small-deflection, Precision (ASP) is made by Oregon-based Flex Force. The ASP stabilizes the gun using gyroscopic stabilization which will make longer range, more accurate fire in heavy seas possible.

It’s 1968, the Cold War has gone hot and you’re a British soldier somewhere in northwest Germany. The 3rd Shock Army is coming straight at you and you’re trying to decide if the Soviet motor rifle regiment infantry attacking your defensive position is bringing up a DShK or an SGM. You reach for your trusty copy of Recognition Handbook Foreign Weapons and Equipment (USSR) Group III Infantry Weapons.

Following the tragic shooting death of the cinematographer of the movie “ Rust“, Alec Baldwin Tweeted “Every film/TV set that uses guns, fake or otherwise, should have a police officer on set, hired by the production, to specifically monitor weapons safety.” On the surface, it’s easy to see why someone outside of the firearms community would suggest this, police officers carry guns every day, right? The required training and yearly qualifications should, “qualify” them as someone in the know, yes? It makes sense that Alec Baldwin, unintentional shooter of Halyna Hutchins would be looking for answers and remedies to his situation. Let’s explore his suggestion about hiring police officers to inspect on-set firearms in the film industry.

A while back we sadly reported that the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot would have its final dates set for October of this year. Having never been to one previously, I really wanted to get out there and attempt to get the full experience. As most of you know, the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot was a yearly event that is basically half gun show and half machine gun range day. The event normally brings in tens of thousands of people but this being its final year, those previous attendance numbers were blown out of the water and gun enthusiasts from all across the country gathered to give the annual event a proper sendoff. Today I’ll share with you some of my experiences from the Last Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot and hopefully, this article will serve as a memoir to what has to be one of the most unique firearms events on the planet.

If there was a French version of the movie Apocalypse Now (1979), perhaps this would be one of the scenes. I guess the action of the FAMAS wouldn’t rock any kind of canoe, but I wonder how much the recoil of that machine gun would make the boat go in the opposite direction? In this Photo Of The Day, we can see the machine guns of France in action.

The UK Ministry of Defence’s Defence Equipment Sales Authority recently released a booklet containing arms and equipment which is to be sold off and disposed. This includes SIG Sauer pistols, FN light machine guns, aircraft, armoured vehicles and a large ship!

Last week TFB travelled to the UK’s largest defense exposition, Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI), where we took a look at some of the newest small arms technology – including FN Herstal’s new EVOLYS. Officially unveiled in May, DSEI 2021 is the first major event where the FN EVOLYS has been on display for the public to handle. On its launch FN Herstal hailed it as a ‘new chapter’ but some asked what set it apart from the battle-tested FN Minimi light machine gun, which FN continue to upgrade and offer for sale.

The Norwegian Armed Forces just awarded FN Herstal with a multi-year contract to supply up to 4,000 FN MINIMI 7.62 Mk3 Light Machine Guns. In association with this order is also a supply of spare parts over a 7-year period and maintenance and support equipment over a 20-year period. This gives you an idea of the lifespan of a product like machine guns. It will be interesting to see which country will be the first to adapt FN’s new Evolys?

While in the last 20 years many European firearms industries faded into obscurity (just look at France, Spain, and Portugal), other countries seem to successfully expand their industries. At the recent IDEF 2021 exhibition in Istanbul, Turkey, I came across several new Turkish gun manufacturers that were founded in recent years, and perhaps the most interesting one was System Defence.

Photo Of The Day: Above you have the new German MG6. The MG6 is a Dillon Aero M134D Gatling Minigun. It is chambered in 7.62x51mm and has a firing rate of over 3000 rounds per minute. During the summer, TFB had the pleasure to examine and play around with some of the Concamo products. I gave some of their Ghosthood products to my kids and they quickly disappeared, literally…

The recent and hasty withdrawal of the United States Armed Forces from the country of Afghanistan has been somewhat of a controversy. Many say that the withdrawal of US forces was irresponsible while others are lauding the decision as a step towards a more peaceful world. No matter what side you fall on, if you’re a serious gun aficionado then you are probably curious about all the shiny new hardware the Taliban has found themselves now owning. Today we’ll take a brief look at some of the new weapons of the Taliban and how they are already starting to integrate some US and European weaponry into their arsenal.

During the Second World War, Britain’s volunteer militia, the Home Guard, were extensively issued with American .30 calibre Browning M1917 machine guns. These water-cool medium machine guns contributed significant firepower to the Home Guard fighting units. They began to enter service in late 1940 and by November 1942 there were some 6,330 in service. For a force initially (and relatively briefly depending on the location of the unit) armed with makeshift weapons and old rifles, the M1917 Brownings were a formidable weapon.

Photo Of The Day: Some duties in the military may be rather boring, but machine gun training must be on top of the list of how much fun you can have. Here we’re looking at U.S. Marines with the 2d Battalion, 2d Marines, as they conduct a live-fire with the M2 .50 caliber machine gun during Fuji Viper 21.4. The location is the Combined Arms Training Center, Camp Fuji in Japan.

Shootah (a portmanteau of “shoot” and “Utah”) is an annual range day featuring Utah-based gun businesses. Shootah 2021 was hosted at the Garth Killpack shooting range in Springville, Utah. The range sits at the mouth of Hobble Creek Canyon and has recently undergone an expansion.

Yesterday, we took a look at the new Snipex Monomakh anti-material rifle released by this Ukrainian company at the Arms and Security 2021 exhibition recently held in Kyiv, Ukraine. Besides this expansion of their anti-materiel rifle line, the company has also introduced a new belt-fed heavy machine gun chambered in 12.7x108mm. The new HMG is called Laska K-2. It does look similar to the M2 Browning machine gun but many key design elements are completely different. Let’s take a closer look.

Today we have some really good pictures from a unit we haven’t seen on TFB before: the Latvian Sauszemes spēku Mehanizētā kājnieku brigāde. My Latvian language skills are a bit poor, but it should be the “Mechanized Infantry Brigade of the Land Forces” translated to English. As you can see, they are using their standard-issue Heckler & Koch G36C s. The standard-issue light machine gun is the FN Minimi.

Aidan Johnston, Director of Federal Affairs for the GOA announced via his Twitter yesterday (June 25th, 2021) that the previous judgment regarding Gun Owners of America v. Garland has been vacated via a three-judge panel. This essentially means that the panel ruled that bump stocks are not machine guns. This is a victory for the 2nd Amendment community even if you’re not a fan of the bump stock. The battle determining the legality of bump stocks has been raging on for quite some time and the GOA has been working to restore these firearms accessories back to legal status as non-machineguns since they were first banned on March 26th of 2019.

Machine gun enthusiasts received a bit of bad news recently with a News Alert from Kenny Sumner – the owner of the Knob Creek Gun Range. This year’s October 2021 Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot will be the last one. The news was discovered via a picture of a printed and signed letter breaking the sad news – the end of the shoot. For years people have been coming to the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot to get the rare opportunity to shoot full-auto and other NFA firearms that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to get their hands on.

FN America have been awarded a $92 million contract by the US Army to produce M240 series general purpose machine guns. The firm fixed price contract awarded 8 June calls for an estimated completion date of June 2026. FN confirmed that the contract will cover M240 provisions not just for the US Army but also other Department of Defense programs.

The US Army’s ongoing Next Generation Squad Weapon program has spawned capable designs from three companies. While the NGSW program has not yet selected a winner it was inevitable that the companies would begin to offer their weapons to other nations seeking to upgrade their infantry small arms. It appears that the first may be the NGSW prototypes from SIG Sauer.

In case you missed it,  FN Herstal has a new ultralight machine gun called EVOLYS. The weight for the 5.56mm is just 5.5 kilograms and 6 kg for the 7.62mm. Compared to the FN Minimi and similar competitors, it is up to 30% lighter, and as you know, low weight is one of the most important factors when it comes to moving from A to B. We managed to find some new pictures of FN EVOLYS, perfect for our Photo Of The Day.

True Velocity have made a very interesting announcement about their 6.8 TVCM ammunition which was originally developed for the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) program. True Velocity have successfully chambered several 7.62x51mm chambered weapon systems in the new 6.8mm TVCM round.

FN Herstal recently announced a new Ultralight Machine Gun called  EVOLYS. But the focus of today’s Photo Of The Day is the FN Minimi (seen above) and the Heckler & Koch HK416.

Introduced in 1990, the FN P90 is a select-fire personal defense weapon (PDW) designed to defeat body armor.  Designed to be a replacement for 9mm chambered firearms, this requirement yielded an entirely new weapons system.  The P90 uses a top-loading 50 round standard capacity magazine and is chambered in 5.7x28mm. To see just how well this weapons system had aged, I headed out to the desert with Jake and Chris from 1911 Syndicate to put the P90 through its paces.

Chambered in 4.6x30mm, the HK MP7 was designed in the ’90s specifically to defeat Kevlar body armor.  With no civilian version available, the MP7 has developed a cult-like following over the years.  As opportunities are few and far between to shoot these, I’ll jump at the chance to shoot an MP7 whenever possible.  Lucky for me, Jake from 1911 Syndicate reached out recently about doing a video on this iconic machine pistol.

The M249 Squad Automatic Weapon or SAW is one of the most iconic crew-served weapons in current use.  Designed in 1976 by FN Herstal, the M249 SAW has seen use in the Gulf War, Somalia, and the current War on Terror.  The design has been modified slightly over the years to include mission-specific variants like the 249 Para, and Mk46.  Thanks to an invite from Jake at 1911 Syndicate I was able to shoot this classic crew-served weapon, but with a new SAW-specific silencer.

After the success of the Mark23 special, Jake from 1911 Syndicate asked if I would help him cover the HK G36C.  Unknown to me, Jake had linked up with SK Arms who was bringing up not one, but two G36s.  Happy to help wherever I was needed, I packed up the truck and headed out to the desert once again.

We visit Freundeskreis Panzerlehrbrigade 9 in Germany in our Photo Of The Day. Above you can spot a Rheinmetall MG 3 machine gun and a Heckler & Koch G36 rifle. While a machine gun may be noisy, it’s nothing compared to the 30 mm automatic cannon on the Puma IFV below.