In this fourteenth installment of Personal Defense Weapon Calibers, we’ll be looking at a highly minimalist incarnation of the PDW/SMG round: The 7.65x20mm French Longue. The story of the French Longue begins with the US entry to World War I and the brilliant [Read More…]
PPSh-41 submachine gun was the main SMG of the Soviet Union during the WW2. It was cheap to make and was deployed in large numbers. It was also chambered in 7.62x25mm Tokarev, which means it shared the same ammunition as the handgun and the same caliber/bore as pretty [Read More…]
TOR (means fireball in one of the local languages) is a Venezuelan firearm designed by a gentleman named Fernan Altuve Febres. It was designed in 1995 and initially chambered in 5.6x36mm (a cartridge unknown to me). It was tested by Venezuelan paratroopers, tank and [Read More…]
What do you get when you take the venerable speedster 7.62 Tokarev, and load it with a muzzleloader-style sabot and 50gr .22 cal projectile? You get one of the most interesting pistol, submachine gun, and personal defense weapon ammunition concepts there is! Today [Read More…]
It has been a little while since we visited the subject of modern personal defense weapon calibers, so to start it off again we’ll be taking a look at a new high velocity round that is only a few years old: Armscor’s .22 TCM. This round was reportedly [Read More…]
Russian gun magazine “Kalashnikov” has published this image on one of their social media pages. It is taken in Beretta facilities. Supposedly these are the upper and lower receivers of a new Beretta submachine gun or pistol caliber carbine. Unfortunately, [Read More…]
The US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is seeking something a little smaller than its existing M4A1 and Mk.18 carbines: The command just released a request for information (RFI) to the industry seeking proposals for conversion kits for M4A1 Carbine receivers that [Read More…]
The Sterling L2A3 was the iconic Cold War submachine gun of the British Army. Inexpensive to make, compact and rugged, it was a design that incorporated the experience from the Sten submachine gun, a weapon which though inexpensive really left a lot to be desired. In a [Read More…]
One potential solution to the problem of a suitable anti-armor pistol and submachine gun round is to take the existing ammunition system and introduce one or more new kinds of ammunition which provide additional armor piercing capability through higher muzzle velocity [Read More…]
So far in the Modern PDW Calibers series we’ve talked about small caliber, high velocity PDW rounds like the 5.7mm FN and 4.6mm HK, and we’ve tackled larger, punchier calibers like the 10mm Norma Auto and the 7.5mm FK. However, we still have not tackled the [Read More…]
Since we’ve discussed the .30 M1 Carbine caliber, it is probably only a matter of time before someone mentioned another .30 caliber round used by the Allies during the Second World War, that being the 7.62x25mm Tokarev. The round is a turbocharged derivative of [Read More…]
If you are a fan of the World War II German MP40 submachine gun and want to have one of your very own, you are pretty much out of luck unless you are willing to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for a transferable original. However, it has been possible to buy [Read More…]
The history of modern small arms is in part so fascinating because of how many firearms have been developed even in obscure circumstances, and how many of those obscure small arms still exist in museums and private collections around the world. Even though I make [Read More…]
The history of modern small arms is in part so fascinating because of how many firearms have been developed even in obscure circumstances, and how many of those obscure small arms still exist in museums and private collections around the world. Even though I make [Read More…]
During World War II, various companies and weapons designers vied for the coveted contract that ultimately became the M1 Carbine in .30 Carbine. One of those companies was Auto Ordnance, which did submit a “light” rifle design, but as a “just in [Read More…]
In May of this year, I got the rare opportunity to travel to Heckler & Koch’s headquarters in Ashburn, VA, to take a look at some of the experimental and prototype firearms they have located there in their famous “Grey Room”. It wouldn’t be worth as much for [Read More…]
In May of this year, I got the rare opportunity to travel to Heckler & Koch’s headquarters in Ashburn, VA, to take a look at some of the experimental and prototype firearms they have located there in their famous “Grey Room”. It wouldn’t be worth as much for [Read More…]
This looks like a lot of fun. I have seen videos of matches at Knob Creek and it seemed like a waste to use a machine gun. Shooting a semi auto would actually be more accurate and faster than using a machine gun. However some of the stage design in this video lend [Read More…]
Here is a 9mm SMG made by Innovative Arms which was built primarily for testing the effectiveness of their suppressor designs on this type of weapon. Like many utilitarian tubeguns It fires from an open-bolt with a fairly high cyclic rate and also accepts 9mm British [Read More…]
In May of this year, I got the rare opportunity to travel to Heckler & Koch’s headquarters in Ashburn, VA, to take a look at some of the experimental and prototype firearms they have located there in their famous “Grey Room”. It wouldn’t be [Read More…]
The famous Uzi 9mm SMG was introduced to the world in the 1950s, and was a huge hit that made its way into military and police armories around the world. With millions sold, the gun has been engaged in numerous conflicts and famously helped protect the life of President Reagan. The gun’s [Read More…]
I asked this question a few years back, but decided to do a little redux for TFBTV: Submachine guns are pistol caliber fully automatic firearms that were very important in 20th Century military and police use, but seem to have faded in popularity by a tremendous amount. In this video we talk a [Read More…]
Previously in TFB’s series on weapon operating mechanisms, we examined both the closed-bolt blowback system and the open-bolt API blowback system, two very close relatives that share a common feature: Closure of the breech through the inertia of the breechblock [Read More…]
Previously on Operating Systems 101, we discussed the straight blowback method of firearms operation; today we’ll be talking about its close cousin, API blowback. “API” stands for advance primer ignition, which refers to the chief way that the [Read More…]
The H&K MP5 is the world’s greatest submachinegun, and its sales even 50 years after its introduction are quite strong. So let us take a look at what makes the greatest SMG of all time tick in this field strip.
The Brazilian Polícia Militar do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro Military State Police) have adopted the semi-auto only CTT40C carbines, made by Taurus. Below is an embedded video of the PMERJ’s introduction to the new short barreled carbines: The [Read More…]
General Thompson will certainly be remembered for his famous “Tommy Gun” or formally adopted as the M1928 or in its later blow-back only form the M1 Thompson. But what about Thompson’s other designs? Due to the prohibitive costs of the Thompson M1928 [Read More…]
In true Forgotten Weapons form, Ian visited the James D. Julia Inc. auction house to found a weapon that no one but a few historical enthusiasts would be familiar with, the Czech ZK-383. The weapon was used by Bulgaria and the German SS during World War II. As Ian goes [Read More…]
The famous Uzi submachinegun is a brilliantly simple firearm that is straight blowback and fires from an open bolt. While it was not the first firearm to feature a telescoping bolt, it certainly took the concept and ran with it. The Uzi was an international sales success, and if you grew up in the [Read More…]
The Heckler and Koch MP5 is now 52 years old, and is not yet showing its age. The humble little submachinegun can be found all over the world and employed in many different situations, but why is it so prolific? Well, the answer is actually quite simple: It’s the best there is. Big thanks to [Read More…]
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