What the hell is a centrifugal machine gun? In the plainest of terms, it’s a gun that requires no propellant powder and a system which has sparked the imaginations of inventors and gun designers for over 200 years. A couple of months ago I was browsing through the [Read More…]
TFB’s Top 10 Gun Guy Movies from the 1980s Welcome back to the TFB Cinema room! The ’80s were a time of Big Hair, Short Shorts, Glam Rock and of course Big Guns. With the Cold War winding down following the close of the Vietnam War, movie audiences still [Read More…]
The Guns of Stranger Things Season 3 Earlier this year the Netflix original series Stranger Things debuted its highly anticipated 3rd season. While not specifically targeted at the gun-toting audience, Stranger Things brings plenty of firepower to the Home Screen. [Read More…]
You know it was bound to happen sooner or later. So here we are guns ablaze picking out the top 10 sci-fi movie weapons to grace the silver screen. For these articles criteria, we are choosing only weapons that are based on real-world functioning firearms with sci-fi [Read More…]
Occasionally I’ll sit down in a restaurant with family or good buddies and strike up gun related conversations. A few years ago my dad jokingly said he would love to give me a million dollars to buy whatever gun parts I wanted, but the catch would be I only had an [Read More…]
Occasionally police operations across the world churn up weapons produced solely for the criminal market. Some of these are improvised while others are semi-professionally produced in illicit workshops. Documented here are a handful of interesting examples uncovered in [Read More…]
General Dynamics have closely guarded their Next Generation Squad Weapon prototypes, despite my best efforts they stuck to their guns and saved the big reveal for this year’s AUSA Exposition in Washington, D.C.There have been murmurings that their submission would [Read More…]
Thompson submachine gun is one of the first weapons of the XX century that become a true mass culture icon. Even now very few weapons are as legendary as an old Tommy Gun (“Chicago Typewriter”, “Trench Broom” or any other nickname you want to [Read More…]
Recently the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapons program moved into its next phase, with three companies down selected, one of these was SIG Sauer. We had the pleasure of sitting down to speak with SIG Sauer’s CEO, Ron Cohen, at the 2019 Defence & [Read More…]
The first photo of AAI/Textron’s Next Generation Squad Weapon prototypes has emerged. The NGSW-Rifle and NGSW-Automatic Rifle were photographed at Fort Benning, Georgia, during the Annual Maneuver Conference at the Fort’s Maneuver Centre. The 2019 Maneuver [Read More…]
As we have recently reported the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapons program has moved into its next phase, with three companies downselected, one of these was SIG Sauer, who had their NGSW prototypes on display at this year’s 2019 Defence & Security [Read More…]
Marketing to Law Enforcement in the 1970s – Apparently this is how it looked like in at least one instance, from The Law Enforcement Ordnance Company. Below you can get a closer look at the items marketed: As you can we have some very interesting firearms listed, [Read More…]
Last year, I had an opportunity to work with Larry Vickers during his visit to Russia, when he and his co-author James Rupley were working on the “Vickers Guide: Kalashnikov” series of books. One day we were at a so-called “dungeon” – the [Read More…]
The US Army has announced that two companies have been selected to produce mounted machine gun optic mounts, with the companies competing for the various orders within a $48,800,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the optics. Back in July 2018, TFB reported that the [Read More…]
Following on from their recent procurement of .50 calibre heavy machine guns and 5.56x45mm FN Minimi’s to supplement their FN MAGs, the Norwegian Army is now seeking a ‘light weight machine gun’ in 7.62x51mm. An initial batch of 1,000 7.62 light [Read More…]
While at the Cody Firearms Museum symposium Arsenals of History, an interesting thought experiment was brought up after a presentation by Scott Gausen, of the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, on 3D printing and scanning in museums. While discussing this, [Read More…]
When it comes to the improvement of the main service rifle of the Armed Forces, different countries demonstrate various approaches. Some decide to completely replace the existing stock of weapons, like France, that replaced the venerable FAMAS with HK416. Other [Read More…]
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 [Read More…]
The Dutch Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) ensures that military personnel have modern, robust and safe materiel to work with. According to Jane’s and other sources they have signed a framwork agreement with FN Herstal of Belgium to supply the following [Read More…]
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 [Read More…]
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. It truly [Read More…]
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 [Read More…]
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 [Read More…]
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. SOFIC is described as the premier venue for the SOF community to interact with [Read More…]
A central powers stew 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, [Read More…]
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 [Read More…]
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 [Read More…]
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 [Read More…]
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. [Read More…]
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 [Read More…]
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