Most of the articles and news I write come out of a personal interest and a curiosity to learn more, and hopefully share the same to our readers. However, from time to time there are news you’d rather not write about, but still feel obliged to. As I learn that the [Read More…]
Here’s a new, odd bird from Austria if you feel you want to be on of a few with the firearm of your choice at the range. At only 2 kilograms (about 4.4 pounds) it is a very light rifle, and uses STANAG compatible magazines with a bolt-action. Apart from the low [Read More…]
The Austrian Army’s Military Police are to be issued a new version of the Bundesheer’s standard issue rifle, the StG 77. The new StG 77A1 MP will be issued to the Bundesheer’s military patrol and military police (Militärstreife) units. The official [Read More…]
The 9x19mm NATO MPi 69 and its improved variant the MPi 81 certainly don’t take many points for revolutionizing submachine gun design. But nonetheless, they are interesting designs of their own accord, essentially based on the Uzi from Israel and taking some elements from the Steyr AUG rifle [Read More…]
Normally when you think about a European triple barrel break action hunting firearm you most likely depict a drilling with a triangular orientation of barrels. Karl Hauptmann, a company located in Ferlach, makes triple barrel rifles and shotguns with horizontal [Read More…]
Austrian firearms manufacturer VOERE Präzisionstechnik GmbH has introduced a new bolt action rifle called Voere S16. As you can see on the images of this article, the rifle has one very distinctive feature. It has a side magazine well which takes AR-15 (STANAG) [Read More…]
Madritsch Waffentechnik (Madritsch Weapon Technology) from Austria isn’t exactly a company that TFB writes about on a regular basis, but we have covered their 40 mm Grenade Launcher (MWT-40) before. It’s not every day you get to uncover a new firearm from a [Read More…]
Swarovski from Austria take an interesting approach at this year’s IWA. When almost everything and anything has been invented already, why not invent a rifle scope that makes things appear smaller than they are? Sounds stupid? Well, hold on for a second because I [Read More…]
Since 2007, Iran has attempted numerous indigenous polymer framed, striker fired handgun designs such as a Walter P99 copy known as the M9-02, in addition to a simple attempt at a Glock copy known as the “Raa’d”. However, recent photographs have come [Read More…]
Today’s series of photos are a bit odd. You can see the melee training for the guards of the Maria Theresien Kaserne in Vienna, Austria. This is part of a self-defense training. They seem quite confident that their Steyr AUGs, including the optics, will withstand [Read More…]
DefenceWeb recently released a video overview of the new Steyr / Rheinmetall RS-556 assault rifle. The rifle, a sort of hybrid between an AR-15 and a Steyr AUG, was submitted to the Bundeswehr’s System Sturmgewehr Bundeswehr trials, competing against both Heckler [Read More…]
Non-mainstream firearms like the Steyr AUG normally have a little aftermarket support. The development of new products with a small potential customer base is not always justified or results in an overly expensive product. Nevertheless, even if there is a very small [Read More…]
The top picture shows what the Austrian Army calls the “Überschweres Maschinengewehr M2“, or üsMG M2 for short. This is a Browning Machine Gun, in caliber .50 BMG, M2. Below: The rain pours down, but a little rain never stopped the Maschinengewehr 74 from [Read More…]
I had the opportunity to examine the brand new Steyr-Mannlicher RS556. This firearm is one of the contenders to become the next service rifle for Germany in 2019, and possibly many other countries. It took me a while, but I realize I am probably one of the few that have [Read More…]
Wrapping up our coverage of some of Austria’s top manufacturers in the firearms industry, we take a factory tour at the Kahles factory. As the company that really pioneered the modern riflescope that we all know and love, Kahles has been making cutting edge scopes for over a century. Today [Read More…]
The Ritter & Stark SLX precision rifle was rolled out at IWA just recently, but no one outside of Ritter & Stark has had the chance to take the rifle out to the range to get an idea what the prototype will do. In this episode of TFBTV, Patrick is still at the Ritter & […] Read [Read More…]
We traveled to Austria to see how Ritter & Stark is making some of the most advanced factory rifles on the market, but to totally understand the thought process behind what they do we were invited to tour EPT Precision Technologies. I have been told that EPT has been in the gun making game for [Read More…]
Austria is investing a large sum of money for the protection of their soldiers. A total of 1.2 billion Euros will be invested by 2020, and by the looks of it a lot of the sourcing will be made with local suppliers. However, Ase Utra, a Finnish supplier of sound [Read More…]
The Steyr Hahn aka Hammer or M1912 was a service pistol in Austria. It shoots a 9mm Steyr cartridge which is similar to a 9x23mm. The pistol has an internal magazine and uses stripper clips to load it similar to a Mauser. Steyr did make an extended magazine variant. [Read More…]
Ritter & Stark is a newly formed firearms manufacturing company in southern Austria. At the recent AUSA 2016, the company unveiled their flagship product, the SX-1 Modular Tactical Rifle (MTR). The rifle is an Austrian take on the PSR style rifles that are currently [Read More…]
Ritter & Stark will introduce its SX-1 Modular Tactical Rifle (MTR) to the US market at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting and Exposition next month. TFB readers got a sneak peek of this gun in May when Steve published a number of guns [Read More…]
The truly high capacity magazine has been a dream that firearms inventors throughout the world and time have endlessly pursued. One of the crazier attempts to improve the capacity of the Steyr-Hahn 1912 handgun was a system designed by Arthur Kottas. Over at Historical [Read More…]
The Editor Writes: This week’s Friday Field Strip Video/Article combo is on the fascinating 1907 Roth-Steyr. Watch Alex’s video above then read Nathaniel’s article below … Austrian cavalrymen in World War I each went into battle with three handguns, all identical Steyr-made [Read More…]
No, this is not the same “Ruthless terrorist organization, determined to rule the world” from G.I. Joe. COBRA is Austria’s counter terrorist group. They act more like a hybrid of SWAT and GSG9. Here is an article about their operations of 2014. I had [Read More…]
Blogger oper-1974 recently covered a trip he made to the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Military History Museum) in Vienna, Austria. In the museum are many artifacts from Austria’s rich military history, most dating from periods outside my expertise, and thus [Read More…]
Gregor writes … This is a MG74 with Aimpoint M4H, Aimpoint Magnifier and a TLLM (light/laser infrared module), mounted on the left side. This setup was used as the front gun of the passenger seat of the “Sandviper”. The Sandviper is a modified Puch G [Read More…]
According to OnPointSupply Glock’s factory in in Smyrna, GA are unable to keep up with overwhelming demand. The factory is running two 8 hour shifts and producing 4000 pistols a day! They have started to import Glock 19 pistols from Austria to meet the demand. [Read More…]
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