The second Forgotten Weapons video to feature really big guns, the embedded flick below shows a T124E2 AT (anti-tank) gun firing. These weapons were the last of the towed American AT guns, with less than a hundred made, although the Soviet Union – and its [Read More…]
While I was out at Finnish Brutality 2023 I had a chance to talk a lot with both Mike Burns (Bloke on the Range) as well as Ian McCollum (Forgotten Weapons). Both of these guys have a passion for bringing the history of weapons and other wartime machinery to life and [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…]
When we think of Heckler & Koch in the 1980s we think of the famous G11, the iconic HK MP5 and the stylish P7 pistol. One rifle we don’t tend to think of is the G41, a 5.56x45mm chambered rifle designed to meet NATO’s new requirements. HK hoped the new [Read More…]
The Benelli MR1, a semi-automatic rifle in .223 Remington developed and manufactured by the Benelli Armi SpA of Italy was never a hit in the USA. The action is the ARGO system patented by Benelli, and the MR1’s bigger brothers can be found in the Benelli Argo [Read More…]
At a recent amnesty program held by the Israeli Defense Forces, a first model Dror in .303 British turned up along with a number of other small arms that had been surrendered as part of a drive to return historical small arms from IDF veterans or otherwise. In this [Read More…]
The Cold War is famous as the squaring off of two superpowers: The United States, and the Soviet Union, and their duel-by-proxy in Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas. The standard rifles of each side, as well, became proxies: On the Soviet side, the famous AK-47 [Read More…]
August Coenders is one of those firearms designers that we almost don’t know anything about. During the WW2, Coenders was working in a German company called Rochling’sche Eisen und Stahlwerke GmbH. Most of the information about him and his firearms became [Read More…]
In 1997, while Brazilian Army Captain (later, Lieutenant-Colonel) Paulo Augusto Capetti Porto was working at IMBEL’s Fábrica de Itajubá as head of the R&D Office, several interesting ideas materialized into a series of prototypes generally designated as FIL-97 [Read More…]
Despite 1,000’s being made and attempting effective employment, Liberator handguns from the Second World War tend to be looked down upon. The diminutive .45 gun was simply difficult to use and near impossible to employ accurately (as demonstrated by Forgotten [Read More…]
Last weekend, I took the major arguments of Kalashnikov conspiracy theorists head on, and one of those – which I hear rather frequently – is why he did not design any other weapons besides the AK-47. The reason is… He did. Kalashnikov was a skilled and [Read More…]
While the Garand was hailed by Patton as the “best” battle implement ever to hit the field, there arguably were better implements proposed to replace it. While the Johnson & Peterson designs typically gets the most attention, the Winchester company also [Read More…]
While today the Italian company Franchi is not a heavy-hitting military small arms manufacturer, in the mid-1950s the company did produce some very interesting rifles, carbines, and submachine guns for the military market. The most recognizable of these is the LF-57 [Read More…]
Not quite old or obscure enough for our beloved Forgotten Weapons, the M9 handgun is still in service with the US Military, though the Army now has the Modular Handgun System RFP bids in (but will take at least a year to test and determine the winner). With its modern [Read More…]
Probably the biggest reason firearms history is so charming to someone like me is the virtually endless number of different designs that exist. The ceiling for entry to become a firearms designer has historically been extremely low, and with that comes a plethora of [Read More…]
I swear I am developing a man crush on Ian from Forgotten Weapons. He gets to play with all the cool things including a Franchi SPAS-12, a combination semi-auto/pump action shotgun. The “SPAS” stands for “Sporting Purpose Automatic Shotgun” While [Read More…]
After the decision to create a new family of infantry weapons for the then-new intermediate 7.62x41mm obr.1943 cartridge (the precursor to 7.62×39), Soviet designers were tasked with creating new kinds of weapons in this chambering, including machine guns, [Read More…]
The Czech Republic has always been a nation that hits above its weight in the small arms field. Despite being a relatively small country with a somewhat checkered history, it has consistently put out high quality, innovative firearms that compete very well with those [Read More…]
10. Thorneycroft Carbine Some of you might be familiar with this gun, but few know that almost all available pictures of it are misleading, at best. The picture below is not of the original Thorneycroft Carbine, but of the later Thorneycroft-Farquhar rifle. The title [Read More…]
Over at Forgotten Weapons, Leszek Erenfeicht and Jan Skramoušský write about a forgotten German machine gun designed by the prolific gun designer Louis Stange. It was fascinating to learn that the German military in the 1920s and 30s had an irrational fear of gas [Read More…]
With special guests Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons and Nathaniel F. of our own TFB, Alex and Patrick take a look at a rare Pedersen model PB Autoloader. This rifle almost beat the Garand to become the US military service rifle of WWII, and would have changed the evolution of military firearms for [Read More…]
We’re back again with another roundup of fresh firearms-focused podcasts in TFB Podcast Roundup 127. Each week we’re bringing you a new set of podcasts from across the web that cover a wide variety of topics including gunsmithing, hunting, precision shooting, war [Read More…]
Today we are back again with TFB’s Vladimir Onokoy to talk with him about his wild adventures with guns in the Russian film industry. While most of you will no doubt know Vladimir from his extensive body of work right here on TFB, he’s done a lot of other [Read More…]
We’re back again with another roundup of fresh firearms-focused podcasts in TFB Podcast Roundup 126. Each week we’re bringing you a new set of podcasts from across the web that cover a wide variety of topics including gunsmithing, hunting, precision shooting, war [Read More…]
An Oklahoma man may end up doing hard time in a Turks and Caicos prison after airport officials say they found ammo in his carry-on luggage.
We’re back again this week with a familiar face and a familiar topic with Paul B and Moons Out Goons Out 2024! Paul B is a seasoned writer with our sister sites OutdoorHub and AllOutdoor.com. This year he was fortunate to gain a slot in the main match at Moons Out [Read More…]
We’re back again with another roundup of fresh firearms-focused podcasts in TFB Podcast Roundup 125. Each week we’re bringing you a new set of podcasts from across the web that cover a wide variety of topics including gunsmithing, hunting, precision shooting, war [Read More…]
Continuing on with our coverage of the Forgotten Weapons Moons Out Goons Out night vision carbine competition, we’ve brought back an old friend, Les Winner with Polaris Logistics, to talk about his crucial role in the safety of the match. I think it goes without [Read More…]
We’re back again with another roundup of fresh firearms-focused podcasts in TFB Podcast Roundup 124. Each week we’re bringing you a new set of podcasts from across the web that cover a wide variety of topics including gunsmithing, hunting, precision shooting, war [Read More…]
If you're curious about the Soviet Union's World War II arsenal, then Ian McCollum has the book you need, just announced via Headstamp Publishing.
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