A little over six months ago we published an article about an independent Soviet firearms designer named Firs Barkanov and his firearm designs. Today we will tell about another such arms designer – Foma Yazikov. This exclusive content was published by the [Read More…]
Kalashnikov Media has recently published a scanned copy of a quite an interesting drawing. It is said to be the hand sketch of a CIA agent who first saw the AK-47 rifle in 1953. It was a part of a report which told that during a demining operation in Leningrad and [Read More…]
In the Soviet Union, arms designing was almost exclusively done in government armories and design bureaus. And only on very rare occasions, individuals could be licensed to design firearms. This article tells about one of such independent designers – a gentleman [Read More…]
For better or worse the PKM GPMG has been in constant service since 1961 and is considered by many to be one of the best machine guns in its field. Comparatively light, very reliable, and disgustingly simple to maintain and operate, the machine gun has found much favor among good guys and bad guys [Read More…]
Sometimes there is virtually no way to see images of long-forgotten Soviet firearms that were not ever adopted. Even if any samples of such firearms exist, they are most likely gathering dust in some vault. Thanks to the video and description released by Kalashnikov [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…]
Continuing on from where we left off yesterday, in this article we’ll address the arguments that center around the Sturmgewehr’s designer – Hugo Schmeisser – and his career in Izhevsk. Let’s get on with it: 4. The AK-47 looks just [Read More…]
After World War II, the nations of the world retired to lick their wounds and rebuild, but their arms engineers also began thinking about the next war. The war have brought forth a storm of new technologies and inventions, and one of the most significant in the field of [Read More…]
Following close on the heels of our other articles about the development and use of the AKS74U “Krinkov”, we now bring to TFB an article specifically about the prototypes that were entered into the design competition, that would later turn into the [Read More…]
A week ago, Alex C. and Miles Vining pitted the Russian Mosin-Nagant against the German Mauser Gewehr 98 in a battle royale shootout to see which was the best rifle. Unsurprising to some, and outrageous to others, Paul Mauser’s masterpiece took home the gold and [Read More…]
In 1957, the T44E4 rifle was formally adopted by the United States Armed Forces as the United States Rifle, 7.62mm, M14, but this only marked the beginning of the rifle’s troubles. After numerous delays and production crises – including the rejection in [Read More…]