In the late ’50s, there was a need in the armed forces of Soviet Union for replacing the rifles deployed in sniper and DMR roles. By that time they were mainly using scoped Mosin-Nagant, SVT and SKS rifles. All these rifles were outdated and they needed something [Read More…]
Russian Tula Arms Plant, the manufacturer of the VSS “Vintorez” integrally suppressed rifle, has recently added a couple of versions of the rifle to the list of civilian products on their website. In order to qualify as civilian firearms, these weapons were [Read More…]
No, Vz. 58 is not an AK version. The recently released video by Kalashnikov Media was just a good additional source to start talking about this topic. This rifle is so many times confused with the AK, that even Kalashnikov Media dedicated a separate video in their [Read More…]
A popular YouTube channel called The Slow Mo Guys makes a variety of cool videos filmed with high-end slow motion cameras. Among their videos, there is a fair amount of gun-related ones too. Arguably one of the most interesting slow motion footages is to see the [Read More…]
Aklys Defense makes an integrally suppressed AK rifle called AKSV “Velociraptor”. The suppressor not only encloses the barrel but also the gas system. Combined with the use of a short stroke piston system, it prevents any gas flow back to the shooter. The [Read More…]
IMI Systems has published a news release telling about their new enhanced performance 5.56x45mm ammunition called 5.56APM (Armor Piercing Match). The round is completely developed and they are already manufacturing it. It is supplied to IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) for [Read More…]
Despite the suggestion being raised more than once in Congress, the United States Army will not be buying M27 Infantry Automatic Rifles from Heckler & Koch, but instead is devoting its small arms resources towards the Next Generation Squad Automatic Rifle program, [Read More…]
At the end of the past month, we reported about the adoption of AK-12, AK-15, AEK-971, and AEK-973 rifles by the Russian military. Back then it was not clear if they are going to adopt the RPK-16 light machine gun, too. Today, Kalashnikov Concern and TASS [Read More…]
During the SHOT Show 2018, two European companies announced their plans of importing new polymer AR-15 magazines to the US market. One of these companies is the German Schmeisser and the second one is a Croatian company called POB. Schmeisser TFB’s Eric B. has [Read More…]
Russian archaeological team called “Yuri Gagarin” publishes on its YouTube channel videos of excavations of WW2 relics from the battlefields of the war. In several recent videos, they show how they retrieve many really well-preserved firearms and other items [Read More…]
Ascendance International has introduced the Dark Horse line of ammunition. This ammunition mainly consists of frangible rounds. However, among a selection of frangible loads, the company also showed a door breaching bullet loaded in the .308 Winchester (7.62x51mm [Read More…]
Inceptor Ammunition has introduced new cartridge offerings loaded with their ARX and SRR projectiles. Particularly, they now offer the defensive/frangible ARX bullets loaded into 10mm Auto and .450 Bushmaster rounds. The SRR bullets are now available for the .223 [Read More…]
What did we see at Range Day? Valkyries, Valkyries everywhere. Federal’s pint-sized long distance runner has already outstripped the market purchase of its direct competitors in the high performance AR-15 market, testified to by the sheer number of .224 Valkyrie [Read More…]
The Army Marksmanship Unit’s .264 USA – a medium-sized 6.5mm round in-between the 6.5mm Grendel and 6.5mm Creedmoor in size – is not yet dead, it seems. The round, about which little had been heard in official channels for a couple of years, is the [Read More…]
Browsing through the CIP cartridge standards while doing a research, I noticed several cartridges named PICRA. The name was unknown to me and apparently, it is unknown to many others too. So I thought why don’t I do a little research to find out who has designed [Read More…]
This experimental Soviet light machine gun was designed in a military academy called “F.E. Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy” by a gentleman named Major E. Gorov. In 1942, Gorov finished the designing process of his light machine gun and submitted it to [Read More…]
The .224 Valkyrie may be the most interesting AR-15 round to come out in years, but the question many have been asking in my comments section is: Cool, but where are the rifles? Approaching the 2018 SHOT Show in Las Vegas Nevada, we are already starting to get answers, [Read More…]
Through the Modern Calibers series of posts, we’ve covered 40 different rifle and pistol calibers, ranging from the diminutive .22 Winchester Magnum to full power calibers like the 7.62x51mm NATO. The series was intended to give readers a baseline picture of how [Read More…]
Broadsword Group, LLC, the owners of Sharps Rifle Company (makers of the Relia-Bolt and .25-45 Sharps upper receivers for the AR-15), has been ordered to pay nearly three quarters of a million dollars to one of its founding members, Michael H. Blank, by the US District [Read More…]
A couple of months ago Interfax news agency reported that according to Russian military officials they are going to adopt an unmanned ground vehicle called Nerekhta (name of a town in Russia). The Russian military has been testing a number of similar UGVs during the [Read More…]
SK-17 (Semiautomatic Kalashnikov 2017) is a custom AKM-based rifle built by a company called Fire Control Group Manufacturing. Besides being a custom made rifle, it has several design changes which are supposed to increase the efficiency of the rifle. The first [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…]
Those eagerly awaiting the market for the new .224 Valkyrie round have something to celebrate. Gunmaker JP Enterprises recently announced that they are now offering three different barrels for the new cartridge, in 20″ light, 20″ medium, and 22″ medium [Read More…]
In the ’40s, the Soviet Union has developed its intermediate cartridge (7.62x39mm) and adopted a number of firearms chambered in this caliber – the Simonov self-loading rifle (SKS), Kalashnikov’s “avtomat” (AK-47) and Degtyaryov light [Read More…]
Even without the use of skeletonized or minimalistic parts this rifle weights 4 lbs 9 oz! How did V Seven Weapon Systems manage to make this AR-15 so light and still keep it normal rifle size and looking like an actual rifle? The answer is in use of materials that [Read More…]
In the early ’50s, small arms of the Soviet Union have been deeply modernized. The Kalashnikov’s “avtomat” along with its new cartridge was adopted and it was replacing the submachine guns and rifles in the service. The Makarov pistol was also [Read More…]
Krebs Custom is one of the few companies which name is associated with the highest-end AK rifles on the market. Recently, the company has introduced a new AK pistol called PD-18. These are Polish AKM based builds chambered in 7.62x39mm. The PD-18 pistol has a [Read More…]
Earlier this month, the Serbian Army debuted a new 6.5 Grendel weapon system, developed by Zastava. The rifle, called M17, is a heavily modified variant of the M70 AK family that has been developed by the company for decades. It incorporates a number of significant new [Read More…]
If we can make a round that is significantly better than the existing 5.56mm or 7.62mm ammunition, shouldn’t the military just bite the bullet and switch, to the benefit of the servicemen and women in harm’s way? What’s stopping the powers that be from [Read More…]
Idaho company Trom Technologies (formerly PNW Arms) is advertising a new .300 Blackout round that it claims extends that cartridge’s effective range to 900 meters, more than twice the generally accepted 400 meter value for that round. They claim the new round [Read More…]