While today the Italian company Franchi is not a heavy-hitting military small arms manufacturer, in the mid-1950s the company did produce some very interesting rifles, carbines, and submachine guns for the military market. The most recognizable of these is the LF-57 [Read More…]
The first entry in our coverage of automatic weapon operating mechanisms will be the humble straight blowback method. Conceptually simple, it is one of the most common systems, being applied almost universally to .22 caliber rimfire autoloaders the world over, as well [Read More…]
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…]
Manufacturer of the Vector submachine gun, and parent company to Sphinx System AG, makers of high-end CZ 75 handgun derivative, may be in financial trouble. At the end of 2015, Sphinx System AG was declared bankrupt; now its parent company may be in danger as well due [Read More…]
Well, sort-of-not-really, although it makes for a pretty great title. The Bendix-Hyde Carbine was in fact one of the nine prototypes initially submitted to the Light Rifle program (not to be confused with the Lightweight Rifle program that is the subject of my [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…]
For this fifth installment of our series on unusual, strange, or remarkable magazines, we’ll be talking about a Czech weapon designed in Britain in the 1940s for the war effort against Nazi Germany. Joseph Vesely was a Czech migrant to the UK in the late [Read More…]
Sent in to TFB is another concept design for an ‘afternoon’ DIY submachine gun of particular crudeness and expediency. The majority of components are laminated together from readily available square section steel tubing, owing to its namesake. Apparently the [Read More…]
The submachine gun had been perfected by the end of World War II as a dirt cheap, nearly disposable weapon for arming large numbers of men to fight the largest war of economy in history. However, despite this, post-war submachine gun designers would seek to push the [Read More…]
Gun blogger and MVD agent KardeN released some rare high-definition photos of the unique Russian PP-2000 submachine gun. This lightweight select-fire weapon was designed as a concealable PDW and CQB weapon for VIP protection and special police and military units. [Read More…]
Sino Defense Manufacturing has announced a new 9mm police submachine gun, which is similar in concept to the venerable HK MP5 which has seen extensive use in direct action and SWAT teams worldwide. Pierangelo Tendas of All4Shooters reports: The production-grade variant [Read More…]
Last month, I featured a couple of photos from British gun author Anthony Williams, which showcased some of the major developments in PDW ammunition in the last century. While his collection certainly beats mine for completeness, I still figured it would be worthwhile [Read More…]
Česká Zbrojovka is doubling down on its earlier commitment to bringing unadulterated Skorpion EVO IIIs to the US market, with its recent announcement that they will be importing a 922r-Compliant Skorpion Evo III SBR kit. Guns.com has more: CZ-USA has announced plans [Read More…]
Swiss company Brügger & Thomet, not content with their locked breech MP9 and unlocked APC9 submachine guns, have announced a new, unlocked SMG, the P26. Aftermath Gun Club has covered the new weapon: B&T has another firearm going to production as soon as April [Read More…]
One of the (many) reasons to follow the WeaponsMan blog is that he keeps an eye out for neat auctions that, even if they cost the same as a new luxury sedan, provide great photos of rare or unique firearms. Most recently, Hognose has linked to an auction for a very rare [Read More…]
I’ve kept my eyes open for literature regarding the new Brügger & Thomet carbine family, since I managed to miss their booth at the 2015 SHOT Show. Fortunately, Defense Review covered the rifle at the show, which appears to be essentially similar in [Read More…]
Stopping into the German Sport Guns (GSG) booth found me eye goggling a very nice piece of WWII history, the MP-40. This was not the version currently offered by GSG in .22LR, and imported to the United States by American Tactical Imports; no, this one was chambered in [Read More…]
Good news for M11/9 owners looking for affordable magazines! Shockwave Technologies has released its ZMAG for the Cobray M11/9 submachine gun. These guns, though affordable (by registered machine gun standards) suffer from problematic and aging Zytel magazines. [Read More…]
Kaboom! Bang! Explosions downrange, machine guns going off, helicopters flying overhead, entire belts of tracers stitching their way across the range in the darkness. You’ve all seen it, the famous Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot through Youtube videos or various [Read More…]
Here’s another design sent in, this time for a simplified copy of the classic Sten gun. As pictured, It’s possible to construct a clone of the original bolt using only a drill and an angle grinder. The example shown was of course constructed as [Read More…]
In 1957, George Kayaian was tasked by his wife to replace a stubborn and ailing sun lounger. After a trip to Lowe’s and several hours of tinkering in his basement, the Kayaian Machine Pistol was instead born. Its first obvious feature is its long receiver [Read More…]
First and foremost I would like to thank everyone involved in helping get this series of articles together. Without Phil (our T&E Manager and Senior Writer) helping bridge the connections between KRISS USA and myself, without the good people at the DeSoto Police [Read More…]
The Australian police recently raided a property and discovered a large cache of over 300 weapons. They discovered everything from Enfields to AK-47s. Among these guns were two rare Australian submachine guns. The first, the Owen submachine gun (the gun pictured above), [Read More…]
The MP5SD is the integrally suppressed version of the famous MP5 submachine gun. This video, taken by the THOR Group, shows just how silent the gun is. Unlike most videos on YouTube the sound on this video is very clear and you can distinctively hear that a lot of the [Read More…]
About two weeks ago the police in Winnipeg, Canada, confiscated a a bunch of saw off shotguns, ammo and a unidentified submachine gun that is reported to be homemade. Full photo at The Winnipeg Sun The Winnipeg Sun reports: Possibly homemade, the submachine-gun and five [Read More…]
Murdoc uncovered a story which mentions that the US Army still has the WWII era M3 “grease gun” submachine gun in service for select units such as vehicle crews, engineers and radio operators. M3. Photo from Wikipedia. Interesting if true. There is a [Read More…]
I just really like the design. Simple and functional. It looks like it should fire something more powerful than the 7.62x25mm Tokarev. SinoDefense: The Type 79 submachine gun is more or less patterned after the Type 56 (AK-47) assault rifle. It uses gas-operated, rotary [Read More…]
I came across a cool photo of an MP5SD with mini-uzi type stock. Click to expand image. Hat Tip: MilitaryPhotos.net
This photo has been floating around the internet for quite a long time. I recently saw in on BoingBoing. This little engraved MP5K is a machinenpistol produced in 1976, “designed at the request of HK South American sales rep, who saw a market for dignitary [Read More…]
Bryant @ Defense Tech writes about his experience testing the H&K USC .45 carbine During demonstration firings of the weapon here at Blackwater USA’s training grounds, Military.com was invited to shoot up some targets using the Kriss and, for comparison, [Read More…]
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