Probably one of the most important developments in submachine gun design history was the invention of a telescoping bolt. The first production SMG utilizing such bolt layout is considered the Czech Sa 23 and probably the most recognizable SMG that uses this solution is [Read More…]
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 All these rifles were outdated and they needed something [Read More…]
Kalashnikov Media has recently published an article about one of the Soviet experimental caseless rifles. Just like in other countries where the caseless ammunition was developed, the goal was to get rid of the case in order to have a much more compact and lightweight [Read More…]
In this article, we’ll take a look at an experimental Soviet cartridge (5.6x60mm) and an interesting technological failure of the manufacturing process. This article is based on one written by Nikolay Dvoryaninov, a renown Russian ammunition and firearms expert. [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…]
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…]
Although the Russian Kalashnikov assault rifle is the one that is most famous, it is arguably the Chinese Type 56 AK that made the bigger impression on the world in the 1960s and 70s. This rifle was initially developed with Russian technical assistance just before the [Read More…]
The Russian PKM: Arguably the best general purpose machine gun in the world, it combines a robust reliability with best-in-class light weight. Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons recently released two video overviews of the weapon, giving us a good enough excuse as any to [Read More…]
The following is an article that was originally written in Russian by TFB contributor Maxim Popenker, and Andrey Ulanov, and translated to English by Peter Samsonov. With their permission, I have replicated the text here, and edited it, for the enrichment of you, our [Read More…]
Initially losing to Simonov’s AVS36, Tokarev’s design was later retried and adopted as the SVT 38, later becoming the SVT 40 after the Finnish Winter War debacle that the Soviet Union found itself in, just prior to the Second World War. Very forward thinking in many aspects of the [Read More…]
The Kalashnikov Museum keeps releasing new videos showing some of the rarest experimental Soviet firearms. These videos provide a good visual reference of the basic mechanical features of these unusual rifles. They also allow writing an article based on them making it [Read More…]
The Kalashnikov Museum and Exhibition Complex of Small Arms has released another video showcasing a pair of rare trial rifles. These are balanced action rifles which took part in “Abakan” trials and were AN-94 rifle’s competitors. The guns are called [Read More…]
RG-037 (a.k.a 7.62x28mm) was an experimental Soviet cartridge developed in 1983. Its parent cartridge is the 5.45x39mm. The RG-037 has similar dimensional relation to 5.45x39mm as the .300 Blackout has to .223 Remington. If you apply the .300 Blackout case forming [Read More…]
German gunsmith Herbert Werle – creator of the famous “AK-47” Luger and the .45 ACP Luger Carbine – has created another strange hybrid firearm: A 7.62x25mm Tokarev M1 Carbine. Two videos of Werle testing the rifle are embedded below: In the description of his [Read More…]
We are all familiar with the standard conspiracy theories: NASA faked the Moon landing on a Hollywood soundstage, President Kennedy was shot by another gunman who was working for the CIA/the mob, all world leaders are actually reptilian aliens from Alpha Centauri, [Read More…]
Kalashnikov Concern’s newest weapon releases have received quite a lot of attention since they were first shown off at the ARMY 2016 military and technology forum in Moscow, and as the conference winds down, I want to take a more thorough pass through four of [Read More…]
What happens when you take the two concepts of a traditional, full-power rifle and machine gun round, and a small-caliber, high-velocity round, and smash them together? You get one of the most extreme military small arms calibers ever developed, and one of the last [Read More…]
Modern? Sure, but let’s take a step back… Way back. It’s 1890 and smokeless powder has just been invented. There’s this guy named Rubin going around and spreading the gospel of the small caliber, high velocity .30″ bore round. You’re [Read More…]
In the late 1950s, after the first public demonstrations of the AR-15 and its new small caliber, high velocity cartridge, the Soviet Union took notice of the radical developments in military .22 caliber rounds in the United States. By 1959, four years before the [Read More…]
Perhaps the oldest rival of the 5.56mm round is its older brother in the intermediate cartridge world, the 7.62x39mm round developed by the Soviets in the late 1940s from their earlier 7.62×41 M43 cartridge. The 7.62x39mm, despite its age, has maintained a very [Read More…]
As part of the recent Russian re-armament program including the T-14 Armata man battle tank, the T-50 air superiority fighter, and the AK-12 and A545 rifles, the Federation has initiated a program for a new 5.45mm caliber squad support weapon, called [Read More…]
The Russian Army will be upgrading its automatic infantry support weapons soon. The legacy 7.65x54mmR PKM belt-fed general purpose machine gun will be supplanted in the dismounted role by the PKP “Pecheneg” automatic rifle designed at the end of the 20th [Read More…]
Gun guru and MVD agent KardeN gets to play with all the best toys – this time, it’s the 9mm Kalashnikov-based submachine gun, the PP-19-01 “Vityaz”. Designed to handle high pressure 9x19mm Russian ammunition, the Vityaz is a more elegant weapon [Read More…]
In history of the humankind one can find a lots of various types of small arms. Almost all of them were designed by humans for humans. But the Earth dominate species has also designed and developed in its history a very, very small amount of extremely rare modern [Read More…]
Before the famous Tokarev SVT-38 and -40 rifles of World War II, a Soviet engineer who would later become famous in the West for another of his designs developed a light weight select-fire infantry weapon in the standard full-power 7.62x54R caliber. That engineer was [Read More…]
The title of this article is an Anglicized version of the title of the article linked below. The search for a successful selfloading weapon that could be issued en masse to troops was closely related to the development of early weapons that were predecessors to the [Read More…]
While it’s well known that the Germans were the first to field select-fire assault rifles in large numbers during World War II, the Soviets, thoroughly impressed by the idea of an intermediate-power infantry cartridge and intrigued by the idea of the assault [Read More…]
In November of last year, we blogged about an early Soviet encounter with the MKb.42(H), the open bolt machine carbine that would become the famous closed bolt MP/StG.44 assault rifle. Ensign Expendable, author of the Soviet Gun Archives blog that provided the material [Read More…]
The subject of armor penetration previously was largely confined to the realm of big bore rifles or cannons intended to tackle tanks and other kinds of armored vehicles, but as the popularity of steel and composite body armor increases, it has become more and more [Read More…]
The Simonov PTRS 14.5mm anti-tank rifle was a very innovative rifle, that seemingly offered the Soviet AT gunner of the early part of World War II a frightening amount of firepower. Its semiautomatic action, and en-bloc clip loading gave the infantry five rounds of [Read More…]
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