A blog named Odd Russia has photos of what they claim are a French and Russian bullet that hit each other during the Crimea War. Odd Russia has many more photos but no link to the source of the images. It could be true, or it could be a hoax. I think both the French [Read More…]
Back in the Age of Sail ships tended to carry many different types of cannons. The weapons mix was determined by the Captains preferences and what was available in the navel shipyard when the ship was being outfitted. Each cannon was crewed by the same set of men so [Read More…]
Daniel spotted a very interesting auction at gunbroker.com. The rifle on sale was a Boys Anti- Tank rifle modified by TRW-SYSTEMS GROUP and rechambered for .50 BMG. It was intended to be used for .50 BMG flechette rounds. Click to expand. The auctioneer claims that it [Read More…]
Earlier this year I wrote about the Gardener gun. Fred emailed me some photos of the Gardener gun in use by the Dutch army at Fort aan Den Ham, one of the 45 forts that make up the Defense Line of Amsterdam, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Fred volunteers at the fort and [Read More…]
The Danish Forsøgsrekylgevær (Self Loading rifle M.1888) is a fascinating early autoloading rifle. I learnt about the rifle when Ian @ TheHighRoad posted this photo and asked if anyone could identify the rifle: Click to expand. I could not figure out what was going on [Read More…]
Armed Canadian describes the bolt action French MAS36 rifle as classic “weapon of war”. It features no safety what-so-ever (including no mosin-nagant type “safeties”) and an integral bayonet that is stored under the barrel. Despite its classic [Read More…]
Tam at The Arms Room has written a very interesting post about the 40+ years evolution of the Schmidt-Rubin rifle that was adopted in 1889 by the Swiss and evolved into the K31 Carbine. When the time came for the Swiss army to replace their black-powder Vetterli rifles, [Read More…]
B.B. has written a very interesting post about a working replica of an outside lock air rife. This type of air rifle was made between 1600 and the mid 1700s. It is called an outside lock because the firing mechanism is literally on the outside of the action. Instead of [Read More…]
Quite a while ago I came across Abhijeet Singh’s webpage discussing the history of Indian gun laws since when India was a British colony. I meant to blog it but forgot about it until I was reminded of it by the recent Mumbai attacks. This changed towards the mid [Read More…]
The Israelis, and their ancient forerunners, have had a history of snipers going back at least 3000 years since David famously took out Goliath with a sniper-esque head shot. The Doubletapper has written an article on the history of IDF snipers since the turbulent [Read More…]
Razvodnik posted this on MP.net: It was build by J. Barbarić in 1944, in the small village of Čelebić, Livno. Some 100km east of Split Croatia. One piece is displayed in Belgrade Army Museum I like the lines on this subgun.
1962 model guns.ru just posted an article on the Korobov TKB-022, an early bullpup assault rifle designed by Russian gun designer G. A. Korobov. All weapons were tested by Soviet army, but turned down on unpublished reasons (most probably becuse the gun was simple too [Read More…]
Tam has written about the history of the French MAS-49/56. It is very interesting, well worth a read. A handy, compact weapon, the MAS-49 was roughly the same size as the contemporaneous Soviet SKS. Also like the SKS, its prewar heritage was evident in its elaborately [Read More…]
James has an interesting post on cyclist’s guns which were used by cyclist’s to keep dogs at bay back in the late 1800s. Well worth a read.
Click to enlarge This Enfield would fire when enough water dripped (along the wire, I think) from the top can into the bottom can. It was used by the ANZAC forces at Gallipoli (WWI) to make the Turkish forces think they were still in the trenches while they were [Read More…]
James reported on this last week, but I thought I should mention it: From Strategypage.com: The world’s first light machine-gun, the Danish Madsen has finally been retired from service after over a century of use. The State Police of the Brazilian state of Rio De [Read More…]
I recently wrote about the new Boberg XR9 pistol which features the magazine beneath the chamber. Dr. StrangeGun discovered that the Gabbett-Fairfax Mars pistol was the first pistol to feature this configuration. High tech and ugly (Photo from Horst Held) From [Read More…]
This essay takes a look at early firearm development up till the 1500’s. It is a fascinating read. Certainly, the first uses of gunpowder are psychological – loud bangs and sausage-shaped rockets snaking across the battlefield to terrify men and horses. This [Read More…]
A classic post by ‘dstorm1911’ over at Surplus Rifle Forum Folks due to members on another forum going on bout how the AK is a spray and pray rifle at best etc… or theirs won’t hit accurately because its got a wore out bore or the trigger is crap [Read More…]
This 25 minute video shows the operations and ceremonies of the Detroit Police Department. It is in the classic 1950’s style of cinematography. Worth a watch if law enforcement history interests you. “He learned to use all types of firearms and spent many [Read More…]
Very interesting blog post about the 17th Century Firearms trade in America and impact on the Indians of the northeast. Of all the trade goods the European introduced to the American Indian, the gun has had the most broad-ranging effect, both positive and negative, on [Read More…]
From another age (1943): It encourages people to take up target shooting.
A blunderbuss is a muzzle-loading firearm with a flared, trumpet-like barrel which discharges lead shot upon firing. It is the predecessor to the shotgun. The term blunderbuss is of Dutch origin namely donderbus, a combination of the Dutch terms donder (thunder) and bus [Read More…]
A very interesting video about the AK’s 60th anniversary. I like the following quote from the video “If it has given some countries the opportunity to gain freedom then it is a useful thing” – Kalishnikov It covers the history and current events [Read More…]
I came across a PDF, with no date or author, about the history of the Chinese M14 clones. It is a very interesting read! UPDATE: H2O MAN in the comments below let me know that the text comes from “M14 Rifle History and Development” by Lee Emerson. Thanks H2O [Read More…]
I came across a fascinating article discussing medieval archery, specifically the English victory over the French at the battle of Agincourt in 1415 which was won by the English longbow archers. Henry had approximately 5,000 archers at Agincourt, and a stock of about [Read More…]
I read many shooting magazines from around the world and I came across this advertisement in an Australian magazine. It shows what must to be the current AIA M-10 range being produced. I scanned it into the computer. Click the image below to enlarge it. Australian [Read More…]