Forgotten Weapons
Season 2013
Host Ian McCollum goes over, disassembles, tests, and assesses some of history's most captivating and unorthodox firearms.
Where to Watch Season 2013
92 Episodes
- Book Review: German Flare Pistols and Signal Ammunition by Dr Lorenz ScheitE1
Book Review: German Flare Pistols and Signal Ammunition by Dr Lorenz ScheitOur book today is German Flare Pistols and Signal Ammunition, by Dr. Lorenz Scheit (and edited in English by Dr. Geoffrey Sturgess). This is a 700-page, full-color tome covering more flare pistols and ammunition for them than you had any idea existed. Simpson Ltd puts out Deluxe editions of several of their books, including this one. The content of the book is the same, but it is bound in sumptuous leather, and really stands out on a bookshelf (as well as being a limited-printing collectible in its own right). The Deluxe editions are not for everyone, but they are a good fit for the really encyclopedic volumes that Simpson publishes (like German Flare Pistols and Signal Ammunition). - Shooting the Singapore Technologies SAR-21E2
Shooting the Singapore Technologies SAR-21Cool Forgotten Weapons Merch! http://shop.bbtv.com/collections/forgotten-weapons We lucked into a chance to disassemble and shoot a pretty rare black rifle recently - an SAR-21 bullpup made by Singapore Technologies (and this is why we take a camera everywhere we go). Singapore is another one of those countries with an impressive arms industry that most folks don't know about, and the SAR-21 is a pretty impressive product. Unlike so many new rifles out there, this is not just a remake or variation on the AR15 or AR18. The two-lug bolt and carrier remind us a bit of the FG-42, although the SAR-21 uses an AR-style cam pin instead of the FG-42's method of holding the firing pin on the oprod. There seems to have been a lot of practical thought put into the design, with a very controllable rate of fire, good all-purpose optic, built-in laser, easy disassembly and easy cleaning access. - Reproduction FG-42 by SMG GunsE3
Reproduction FG-42 by SMG GunsThere has been talk for a while of people making functional reproductions of the German FG-42 paratroop rifle for a long time...and it wasn't just idle talk. We have gotten our hands on a sample of the second model FG-42 being made by SMG out of Texas, with instructions to go nuts, and not baby it in any way. Well! Sounds right up our alley. I will be posting a complete review for The Firearm Blog shortly, but here are the main points: - We had 5 failures to extract in about 300 rounds, and Rick Smith at SMG suggested this was due to using Romanian surplus ammo. I checked, and the rims on my milsurp ammo were all in the 47-50 thousandth range (for thickness), while random boxes of Remington, Winchester, and Federal brass-cased 8mm was all at 40 thou. The rifle's extractor was designed for commercial ammo, and going 20% larger caused the extractor to occasionally not fully snap over the case rim. We had no other rifle malfunctions throughout our testing, so I would rate the reliability as excellent as long as you don't use stingy cheap-o ammo like I did. - Handling was very good. It's a relatively heavy rifle (~12 pounds), but that helps tame the recoil (along with the buffer design and muzzle brake). Rick Smith claims the recoil feels like a stock AK, and I would agree. The safety is totally un-ergonomic, but that's how the gun was originally designed. Despite the weight of the piece, it is well balanced and great fun to shoot...and I had one person at the IPSC rifle match suggest that I should get a 20 second bonus for style. - Historical accuracy is about 90%. The changes are the result of using modern small-scale production methodologies, and are understandable. Very few people can recognize the differences, and the working parts (except the ATF-mandated semi-only trigger) are functionally identical to the original. My only real complaint is that the metal reinforcing was left out of the handguard, and the one on our review rifle started to crack alon - GunLab Tours Vltor Weapons SystemsE4
GunLab Tours Vltor Weapons SystemsA little while back we had the opportunity to visit the extensive shop that is home to Vltor Weapons Systems. It's a huge facility, and gives Vltor the ability to do almost every part of a manufacturing process in house - including stamping, machining, welding, bending, laser engraving, and many different kinds of finishing. As a result, they make a pretty wide range of products. Their ARs are their best known work, but they also made the semiauto PKM receivers that came on the market a few years ago, plus AUG receivers for Steyr and complete 40mm grenade launchers for the military. - MG34 Trigger GroupE5
MG34 Trigger GroupWe spent some time with Greg from Allegheny Arsenal a little while back, and one of the things we went over was disassembly and reassembly of the MG34 trigger group. When you get one in a parts kit, it's often loaded up with cosmoline and needs a thorough cleaning...so here's how to do it. - Reproduction 1877 "Bulldog" Gatling GunE6
Reproduction 1877 "Bulldog" Gatling GunThanks to a friendly collector, we had the chance to take out one of the new, gorgeous reproduction 1877 Gatling guns being sold by Colt. It's a near-exact replica, with the added feature of being able to crank backwards to safely clear any loaded cartridges out of the action. Being a Bulldog model, it has 5 short barrels (18.25") chambered for .45-70, enclosed in a full brass jacket to keep the action clean. Colt claims it will do 800 rounds/minute, but we got it going a bit faster... Thanks to an interesting quirk of US gun laws, the Gatling is not considered a machine gun - so anyone who can possess a bolt action rifle can own and shoot one of these. The crank handle is considered a trigger, and each partial turn fires a single round. Since a single discrete motion doesn't fire multiple rounds, it's not subject to the registration and transfer tax of a machine gun under the NFA. - Book Review: Johnson Rifles and Machine Guns, by Bruce CanfieldE8
Book Review: Johnson Rifles and Machine Guns, by Bruce CanfieldMost folks are aware of the M1941 Johnson semiauto rifle, which competed valiantly fut unsuccessfully withthe M1 Garand for the position of standard US service rifle during WWII. What most people aren't as familiar with is the story of Melvin Johnson, and the other projects he was involved in both before and after the war. The book we're looking at today is Bruce Canfield's Johnson Rifles and Machine Guns, which explores these subjects, as well as the competition between the M1 and the Johnson. http://www.forgottenweapons.com/book-review-johnson-rifles-and-mac - Vickers-Berthier LMGE9
Vickers-Berthier LMGThe Vickers-Berthier was a light machine gun that competed with the Bren unsuccessfully for British military use but was adopted by the Indian Army. We had the opportunity to handle a pair of them (an early MkI and a later Mk3) at Cornet & Co in Belgium. I will write a more detailed post (or posts) at ForgottenWeapons.com on the Vickers-Berthier coming up, but this video is a decent introduction to the gun. - Book Review: Osprey "Weapon" SeriesE10
Book Review: Osprey "Weapon" SeriesWe have had several people ask us about the small softcover books printed by Osprey about various types of firearms, so today we're looking at a couple of them. Osprey has a whole series of firearms volumes, including pretty much all the important military arms of the 20th century. Think of them like a Cliff's Notes version of the serious research works published by folks like Simpson, Mowbray, and Collector Grade - they are inexpensive and a good way to get some background on a particular gun, but don't have very much depth. - Madsen M47 Lightweight Military RifleE11
Madsen M47 Lightweight Military RifleThe M47 Madsen "Lightweight Military Rifle" was the last military bolt action rifle designed to be a primary infantry rifle, and it is a bit hard to see just who Madsen thought they could sell it to. The rifle was designed in the late 1940s and was available for sale in 1951, evidently marketed to countries in South America and Asia without the financial resources to afford any of the semiauto rifles that were clearly the new standard for effective military forces. The Madsen was obsolete when it first hit the drawing board, and there were loads of surplussed bolt action rifles available from the post-WWII drawdown to compete with it on price. Not surprisingly, the gun was a commercial flop. The only country that decided to purchase them was Colombia, which bought a few thousand (in .30-06 caliber, with 5-round magazines) and ended up never even issuing them. They went into storage until being sold to the US civilian surplus market, although some may have been used for ceremonial purposes. As a result, they tend to be in very good condition when you can find them, and are quite good shooters. http://www.forgottenweapons.com/madsen-lightweight-military-rifle/ - Book Review: Central Powers Pistols by Jan StillE12
Book Review: Central Powers Pistols by Jan StillCentral Powers Pistols, by Jan Still, is a bit of a neither-fish-nor-fowl book. It has many more and better quality photos than most heavy-duty reference works, but also has much more detailed information (particularly on markings and serial numbers) than most coffee table volumes. I wasn't really sure what to make of it at first, but on further use I realized that it is pretty well designed as a collector's reference guide. It doesn't try to dig into the details of each gun's design history, but instead focuses on the circumstances of their actual use. For example, the section on the 1910 Bergmann-Bayard notes that Germany overran the Pieper factory and ordered pistol production to continue, but the Belgian proof house was shut down - hence most of the 1910 Bergmanns used by the Germany military did not have proof marks. It's details like this (and attention devoted to lists of recorded serial numbers and associated markings/features) that make this a particularly good resource for folks who are interested more in collecting than in overall history. - Shooting a DShK Heavy Machine GunE13
Shooting a DShK Heavy Machine GunCool Forgotten Weapons Merch! http://shop.bbtv.com/collections/forgotten-weapons We're still working on an extended write-up on the DShK heavy machine gun, but thanks to our friend Leszek in Poland, we have some nice HD video of one firing. The Russian counterpart to to Browning M2, the DShK uses the same flapper-locking system as the DP and RPD machine guns, and is chambered for the 12.7x108mm cartridge (9mm longer than the .50 BMG cartridge). This particular gun is the updated 38/46 version, which has the distinctive wheel-shaped muzzle brake. - Leader T2 & Ballester Molina at the 2-Gun Action Challenge MatchE14
Leader T2 & Ballester Molina at the 2-Gun Action Challenge MatchI'm always up for the chance to put unusual guns through practical trials, so I jumped at the chance to try out the 2-Gun Action Challenge Match north of Tucson AZ this past weekend. For my armament, I chose a Leader Dynamics T2 rifle and the Ballester Molina I recently bought as a carry gun. Both guns performed great - I had no malfunctions at all caused by either of them. The only gun-related problem I had was when I failed to fully seat a rifle magazine in the Leader at the start of stage 3. Well, that and losing one of the FCG e-clips somewhere...although that did not cause any functional problems. The Leader was designed to be simple and inexpensive to manufacture - a practical no-frills rifle. There are a few changes I would make to it - like replacing the carry handle with a bit of Picatinny rail and using a more secure system for retaining the FCG pins - but it gave me no problems and handled quite naturally. The Ballester-Molina, I am happy to report, ran like a top and justified the confidence I had put in it. It's everything the 1911 was really intended to be, and not what people have tried to make them into. It's not a bullseye gun, it rattles a bit when you shake it, and as a result it runs reliably. http://twogunaction.squarespace.com/ http://www.forgottenweapons.com/action-match-video-leader-t2-and-ballester-molina - Ljungman AG-42B at the RangeE18
Ljungman AG-42B at the RangeBeing right in the depths of winter, it seemed like a good time to take a Scandinavian rifle out to the range. Specifically, a Swedish Ljungman AG-42B. This is one of the few semiauto military rifles chambered for a full-power cartridge lighter than the 7.62 NATO (the other common one being the FN49 in 7x57), and I was curious about whether that lighter round would really make much difference in how the rifle felt. The answer? It definitely does. The Ljungman is a bit of a bulky rifle, with a fairly long action and stock. Shooting it is very pleasant, though. The light-ish cartridge and muzzle brake make for fairly mild recoil, and a very controllable gun. It sure does fling brass, though - close to 20 feet ahead and slightly to the right. If you would like to see more on the inner workings of the AG-52B, you should take a look at our previous video on the Ljungman, which has us disassembling one in the shop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmvI_YYSrlk http://www.forgottenweapons.com/rifles/ljungman/ - John Garand on Service Rifle DevelopmentE19
John Garand on Service Rifle DevelopmentJohn C. Garand himself discussing the history of American service rifles, originally aired on the US Army syndicated TV program "The Big Picture". Of particular note is the rack of rifles to Garand's right - they are the various early prototype version of his rifle. Unfortunately, he doesn't discuss them at all (perhaps more of this lecture still exists on video somewhere?). Also, xenophobes beware: he has a surprisingly thick French-Canadian accent. http://www.forgottenweapons.com/john-garand-on-us-weapons-development-video - Book Review: Astra Automatic Pistolsby Leonardo AntarisE20
Book Review: Astra Automatic Pistolsby Leonardo AntarisOur book today isn't particularly flashy or exciting, but it is a solid piece of research. It is Astra Automatic Pistols by Leonardo Antaris - and the subject is pretty self-explanatory. Antaris follow a simply and effective layout, with the book divided into chapters on each model of pistol (made very neat by Astra's simple system of numbering different models). Each chapter includes a history of the pistol, production variations and tables, and photos of different variations, including prototypes, engraved examples, and accessories like holsters. - Roth-Steyr 1907 PistolE21
Roth-Steyr 1907 PistolWe had the chance to dig into a Roth Steyr 1907 selfloading pistol recently, and put together a video on it. The pistol is quite unusual, with a fixed internal magazine, rotating barrel locking system, and quasi-double action trigger mechanism (actually quite similar to modern striker-fire pistol trigger mechanisms). The successor to the 1907 was the Steyr 1912 (aka Steyr-Hahn), which shares its rotating barrel system, but uses a conventional hammer-fired trigger mechanism. Other rotating-barrel pistols have been tried, but none of them have been particularly successful. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Book Review: The Great Remington 8, by John HenwoodE22
Book Review: The Great Remington 8, by John HenwoodI bought a Remington Model 8 a couple months back, and I've been remiss in not putting together a video on it - it's a very neat rifle. Instead (for the time being), I figured I should talk about the Remington Model 8 book - because there really is only one. It's The Great Remington 8, by John Henwood, and it's pretty much the encyclopedia of the 8 and 81 (the 81 was really just a minor cosmetic overhaul of the Model 8). As I said in the video, the $60 for the book (you can save a couple bucks on Amazon) will probably pay for itself with your first Model 8, or give you a great insight into to details of the rifle(s) you already have. Mine, for example, has a 5-screw pattern on the side of the receiver that was for a specific type of aftermarket scope mount, and it is one of a fairly small number of Model 8s chambered for .300 Savage - when Remington released the 81 in that caliber, they offered Model 8 owners the option of sending a rifle back to be rebarreled by the factory, since .300 Savage was a fairly popular round. Not things I would have known or recognized without Henwood's book. http://www.forgottenweapons.com/book-review-the-great-remington-8/ - Direct Gas Impingement and the AR BoltE23
Direct Gas Impingement and the AR BoltMany people already know everything I'm going to say in today's video, but I think it's important to get it out there for the folks who don't have as much mechanical experience with their rifles. Specifically, today we're looking at how the AR uses direct gas impingement to operate, and how it's different form the other DGI gun designs out there. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - M1886 Lebel Rifle at the RangeE24
M1886 Lebel Rifle at the RangeThe French M1886 Lebel was the first smallbore smokeless powder rifle adopted by a major military, and was a game changer in the European arms race in the 1880s. It wasn't an outstanding design in many ways (like the slow-loading tube magazine and requirement to use a screwdriver to remove the bolt), but its 8mm smokeless cartridge jumped France to the front of the technological race regardless. Today, we're taking one out to the range to see how it shoots. http://www.forgottenweapons.com/m1886-lebel-video/ - Book Review: The Grand Old Lady of No Man's Land, by Dolf GoldsmithE25
Book Review: The Grand Old Lady of No Man's Land, by Dolf GoldsmithI got an email from a fellow a few days ago asking if there is a good book out there on the Vickers gun, so I figured it would be a good time to do a review of Dolf Goldsmith's gold standard work, The Grand Old Lady of No Man's Land. The good news is that it covers pretty much everything you would want to know about the Vickers in all its iterations...the bad news is that it's very difficult to find these days. Any price under $200 is very good, and worth buying at. http://www.forgottenweapons.com/book-review-the-grand-old-lady-of-no-mans-land/ - The Australian Owen SMGE27
The Australian Owen SMGThe Australian-designed Owen submachine gun is a weapon with quite a story behind it. The Owen is arguably the best subgun used during WWII, and also probably the ugliest. Its mere existence was a drawn out struggle between the inventor and manufacturer and the Australian Army bureaucracy, and yet it saw service through into the Vietnam War. For lots more information on the Owen, check out: http://www.forgottenweapons.com/owen-smg/ - .30-06 Mosin Nagant - the Bannerman ConversionE28
.30-06 Mosin Nagant - the Bannerman ConversionToday I'm taking a look at a Mosin Nagant converted to .30-06 caliber in the early 1920s by Francis Bannerman & Sons. They were a huge surplus arms and equipment company for many decades - the Century International Arms of their time, in some ways. They bought a bunch of surplus Remington and New England Westinghouse Mosin Nagant rifles as surplus after WWI, and converted many of them to .30-06 for the American hunting market. While a military rifle that was sporterized yesterday has little remaining value, these Bannerman guns are old enough that they have acquired newfound collector status as an interesting curio of the 1920s. Common legend is that these is particularly unsafe, but I think that is significantly exaggerated. I wouldn't run hot 220 round-nose loads through one, but I think mild ammo is just fine (if you own one of these, you can make your own decision about firing it or not). Anyway, let's take a look, and see what the characteristics of the Bannerman conversions are... http://www.forgottenweapons.com/ - Dolf Goldsmith on $5 Finnish MortarsE29
Dolf Goldsmith on $5 Finnish MortarsWe have another piece today from our interview with Dolf Goldsmith, this time on the subject of $5 Finnish mortars used for fun and profit. Well, actually just for fun. To clarify one of Dolf's comments, I believe these mortars were Soviet made, and Finnish captured - the Finns used mortars made by both the Soviets and Western powers. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Removing Cosmoline with Hot WaterE30
Removing Cosmoline with Hot WaterWe have a bit of a departure from normal content today - I needed to clean up a really greasy C96 Mauser, and figured it might be useful for some folks to see the process. Cosmoline is great stuff for protecting guns from rusting in storage, but it can be a rear bear to remove. This particular C96 seems have been dunked in the stuff, so I decided to try boiling it in water to melt the cosmoline rather than clean it all with rags and Q-tips. I should note, though, that you don't want to do this with wooden parts - I left the grips off to clean separately. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Schwarzlose 1908 Blow-Forward PistolE31
Schwarzlose 1908 Blow-Forward PistolWe previously got to take a look at a Hino-Komuro, a Japanese blow-forward automatic pistol dating from 1908 - and today we have another blow-forward from 1908. Andreas Schwarzlose (best known for his 1907 and 07/12 machine guns) designed this pistol for military and civilian use, and it saw minor commercial success. The blow-forward action was pretty much a developmental dead end, because it made for unusually sharp recoil and was potentially unsafe to handle - the only three commercially available pistols made this way were the Hino, the Schwarzlose, and the Mannlicher 1894 (which was quickly replaced by better Mannlicher designs). The Swiss did tinker a bit with a blow-forward action in their AK-52/53 rifle as well, but this ultimately went nowhere. Anyway, stick around and have a look at how the 1908 Schwarzlose operates, disassembles, and shoots! http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Schwarzlose 1908 blow-forward pistol in slow motionE32
Schwarzlose 1908 blow-forward pistol in slow motionWhen we went to the range to do our video on the Schwarzlose 1908, we didn't have our slow-motion-capable camera along. I knew it would be great to get some slow footage of that action, so we took it back out with the other camera to rectify the problem. This footage is at 1/4 speed, and things are still moving really fast - the rifle actions we film are downright lethargic by comparison. The last clip is slowed down to about 1/12th speed, and it gives the best view of the workings: - Czech CZ-52 PistolE33
Czech CZ-52 PistolThe CZ-52 really isn't a forgotten weapons yet, but it is a pretty interesting gun mechanically, and well worth taking a look at. About 200,000 of them were made in Czechoslovakia from 1952 to 1954, and they served as that country's standard military sidearm for several decades (which the rest of the Warsaw Pact bloc used the TT33 Tokarev pistol). Czechoslovakia has a long and outstanding tradition of arms design and manufacture, and they kept it going through the Cold War, developing and issuing the vz52 and vz58 rifles and the vz59 light machine gun, as well as the 52 pistol. The CZ-52 looks like a pretty ungainly weapon, but don't let that prevent you from giving it a chance. The grip angle is not to many peoples' liking, but I find it to be a pretty comfortable pistol to shoot. The bore axis is relatively high and causes more muzzle jump than one would like, but the wide grip does a good job of distributing recoil energy and preventing shooter fatigue. Its single-action trigger gives a good break, and it is one of few single-action designs to incorporate a decocker as well as a manual safety (a feature I neglected to mention in the video, whoops). Mechanically, the CZ-52 is a recoil operated, roller locked design. This is the same concept as the MG-42 machine gun, and not the roller-delayed blowback of the HK-91 family of rifles and the HK P9 pistols. It is a reliable, durable, and overall very effective design for a service pistol. You can still find CZ-52 pistols available today in the $250-$275 range, and they are an excellent deal for that price. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Book Review: International Arms Review 1E34
Book Review: International Arms Review 1We've all seen the books of compiled articles at gun shows, printed by Gun Digest or other sundry magazines. I usually don't give them a second glance, at least until now. I had a friend point out this one in particular, International Arms Review 1. Printed in the late 1970s, it is a lot more interesting than I would have expected, as its editor focused on unusual topics for its articles. The majority are about early breechloading systems, but it does also get into some medieval arms & armor areas and a few more modern guns. The complete table of contents consists of: Giant Siege Guns of Paris History of the Pellet Gun The Gewehr 88 and its Variants Block-Operated Target and Gallery Rifles The Lugers The Dreyse Needle Gun Shotgun Slugs The Gun Collection in Erbach Castle, Odenwald The Bavarian Werder Rifle, Model 1869 The Zig-Zag Mauser From Hallmark to Proof-Mark The Lefaucheux Pin-Fire System Broomhandle Mauser (C96) The Austrian Breech Loader M67 The Halberds The Heerenbuchse Ferlach - Ancient Home of the Austrian Gunmaker The FG-42 Paratroop Rifle Schwarzlose Pistol Evolution of the Assault Rifle Since WWII Can Pistols Stop Cars? 7.63 Astra vs C96 Mauser The Mysterious Chamber of Nazidom Zanotti Belt-Buckle Pistol A Wheel-Lock Curiosity Collette's Gravity Loaders The Crossbow as Sporting Weapon The Introduction of Firearms to Europe The 1911 Swiss Service Rifle Firing the Needle Gun The Age of Armor The Portuguese Guedes Rifle, Model 1885 Evolution of the Machine Gun in the German Army The Norwegian Rifle With the Tip-Up Chamber The Rheinmetall Automatic Shotgun No. 4 Granddad's Rifle is not Dead The Old Prussian Hussar Sabre Nagant Gas-Check Revolver 7.62mm Model 1895 The Russian Simonov Carbine (SKS) Few people will be interested in everything there, but I expect many folks will find a lot of the articles worthwhile. - Book Review: A Gun For All Nations - the 37mm Gun and AmmunitionE35
Book Review: A Gun For All Nations - the 37mm Gun and AmmunitionI ran across a mention of this book while trying to find some information on a 37mm Hotchkiss machine gun - and this book was the only reference I could find any mention of it in. Robert Mellichamp has taken on a pretty daunting task; documenting the history of the 37mm gun and ammunition from 1870 (when Hotchkiss started developing it) until the present day. This encyclopedia will be in 4 volumes, and we got a copy of volume I to review (volume II has just been released, and III and IV are still works in progress). As I say in the video, the informational content of this work is excellent, although it focuses on historical rather than mechanical detail. The spattering of typographical errors, while they may be irritating to some people, don't reduce the reference value of the book at all (though we would recommend that Mr. Mellichamp find a better editor for the next volumes). It is a self-published work, and the only distributor we are aware of is OldGuns.net - you can find it in their Heavy Ordnance catalog here: http://oldguns.net/catho.htm Definitely a must-have reference for anyone interested in light cannon, so get your copy now before they sell out! - Boberg XR9-L Review for TheFirearmBlogE36
Boberg XR9-L Review for TheFirearmBlogThere are really no new ideas in firearms design today - some of the best and brightest engineers humanity has produced have spent the last 120+ years figuring out every possible mechanism for building self-loading firearms. What we have today in new guns are creative new ways to put together various different design elements in new ways to make more efficient and reliable guns. The Boberg XR9-L (and its shorter companion piece, the XR9-S) is a pretty slick compact carry gun that harkens back to the original monster hand cannon, the Mars Automatic Pistol. What makes the Boberg so interesting is that it feeds cartridges backwards out of the magazine, instead of the standard method of pushing them forward - like the Mars did. This requires a pretty creative feed system, and all for the end goal of getting a long barrel in a short pistol. - Savage Model 101 Youth Cowboy "Revolver"E37
Savage Model 101 Youth Cowboy "Revolver"A little nostalgia for today - I was out at the range with some friends, and this came out of a range bag. It's a Savage Model 101, in .22 LR, and I thought it was just too neat not to do a quick little video on (I like things that appear to be one thing but are actually another). Savage introduced it in the 1960s, almost certainly to appeal to the growing Old West appeal from television programs. Beyond the neat-o factor, the 101 is actually a pretty nice shooter. The trigger is pretty good, operating the gun is smooth and easy, and it really would make a very effective starter pistol for a child. - Book Review: The Devil's Paintbrush, by Dolf GoldsmithE38
Book Review: The Devil's Paintbrush, by Dolf GoldsmithOne of my favorite books to just flip through at random is Dolf Goldsmith's The Devil's Paintbrush: Sir Hiram Maxim's Gun. Every time I open it, I find another detail of information that I had overlooked or under-appreciated before - it is a wealth of information on the Maxim gun in all its forms. Better yet, the heavily expanded 2002 edition is still available at the cover price (about $80). Among the 200 pages of material added are appendices focusing specifically on the British, German, and Russian Maxims, plus a section on Maxim's early automatic pistol designs (with a bunch of photos from the Geoffrey Sturgess collection). http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Russian 1895 Nagant RevolverE39
Russian 1895 Nagant RevolverOne of the mechanically interesting guns that is really widely available in the US for a great price (or was until very recently, it seems) is the Russian M1895 Nagant revolver. It was adopted by the Imperial Russian government in 1895 (replacing the Smith & Wesson No.3 as service revolver), and would serve all the way through World War II in the hands of the Red Army. As with its other standard-issue arms, the Russian government intended to manufacture the M1895 revolvers domestically. However, when the Nagant was officially adopted the major Russian arsenals were already working at capacity to make the relatively new M1891 rifle, so the first 20,000 revolvers were made by Nagant in Liege, Belgium. In 1898 space had been freed up to start production at the Tula arsenal, where they would be made until 1945 (Ishevsk put the Nagant revolver into production as well during WWII). The common version available in the US today is a 7-shot, double action revolver chambered for 7.62x38mm. That cartridge is a very long case with the bullet sunk down well below the case mouth. The cylinder of the Nagant cams forward upon firing, allowing the case mount to protrude into the barrel and seal the cylinder gap, thus increasing muzzle velocity slightly. This also allows the Nagant to be used effectively with a suppressor, unlike almost all other revolvers (in which gas leaking from the cylinder gap defeats the purpose of a suppressor). The Nagant's 7.62x38mm cartridge pushes a 108 grain jacketed flat-nose projectile at approximately 850 fps (I believe a lighter 85-grain load was also used by the military later, but I haven't fired any of it), which puts it roughly between .32 ACP and .32-20 ballistics. Not a hand cannon by any stretch, but fairly typical for the era (the 8mm Nambu and 8mm French revolver cartridges were both pretty similar in performance to the 7.62mm Nagant). As far as being a shooter, the Nagant is mediocre, but reliable. The grip and sights are ac - Book Review: Paradox - The Story of Col. G.V. Fosbery, Holland & Holland, and the ParadoxE40
Book Review: Paradox - The Story of Col. G.V. Fosbery, Holland & Holland, and the ParadoxI'm not normally all that interested in sporting double guns, but the name Fosbery perked up my ears when I heard about this book. Col. George Fosbery is best known (in some circles, anyway) for the Webley-Fosbery automatic revolver, but he had several other significant patents and inventions to his name. These include a pump-action shotgun with a 6-lug rotating bolt, a black powder breechloader intended for the British military, exploding bullets for hunting dangerous game and helping to determine range on the battlefield, several types of magazines for use with single-shot rifles, and of course the Paradox. Fosbery was stationed for many years in India, and there was demand there for a double-barrel weapon that could fire both shot and slugs accurately. This was a problem because smoothbore guns were inaccurate with solid projectiles, and rifling would destroy the tight pattern of shot. Fosbery spent quite a lot of time and effort experimenting, and came up with a solution by rifling just the end of the barrel and using a specially sized projectile. The result was a weapon that could fire slugs with good effective accuracy out to 100 yards, and also patterned well with shot. He licensed it to Holland & Holland for production, and it became his most successful invention; made for black powder and smokeless, in sizes from 8 bore down to 28 bore, all manner of actions, and finishes from basic to exquisite. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Czech vz.54 Sniper RifleE41
Czech vz.54 Sniper RifleWhile Czechoslovakia was a part of the eastern bloc, it did a pretty thorough job of developing its own weapons rather than use standard Russian designs. For example, the vz52 pistol, vz52, 52/57, and 58 rifles, the uk59 light machine gun, and more. Well, their military sniper rifle was closer to Russian origin, but still not the same. The vz.54 sniper was made from 1954 until 1957, and served for many years, until replaced by the Dragunov. It was at heart a Mosin-Nagant rifle, but outfitted with a semi-pistol-grip stock, distinctive Czech scope mount, and a few other features. It was chambered for the standard 7.62x54R cartridge, and was capable of excellent accuracy. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Stop That Tank! Disney Training Film on the Boys Anti-Tank Rifle, complete & high-resE42
Stop That Tank! Disney Training Film on the Boys Anti-Tank Rifle, complete & high-resDuring World War II, the Disney company joined in the Allied war effort by producing animated movie material at cost for the US government (they also created insignia mascots for hundreds of aircraft and warships by request). These films number well over one hundred - although most are only partially created by Disney - and cover topics from antenna tuning to Beechcraft airplane maintenance to anti-German and Japanese propaganda. However, one piece in particular is of interest to us here at Forgotten Weapons: Stop That Tank! Produced in 1942 for the Canadian military, it is a training film on the operation and maintenance of the Boys anti-tank rifle. The Disney contribution is in animated x-ray views of the various parts of the gun, and about 3 minutes of introduction featuring a section of Nazi tanks (the lead one driven by none other than Adolf Hitler) being surprised and driven back by a bunch of plucky doughboys hiding Boys AT rifles in bushes, outhouses, and horses. - 7/8 Scale Arisaka Type 38 TrainerE43
7/8 Scale Arisaka Type 38 TrainerIn many countries prior to WWII, it was not uncommon to begin preparing children for military service at fairly young ages, and several countries produces small-scale rifles for training boys who could not yet handle full-size weapons. These include France and Italy (with miniaturized Lebel and Carcano rifles), and also the Empire of Japan. Today we're taking a look at a small-scale Type 38 Arisaka trainer, approximately 7/8 normal size. While most of these sorts of rifles were designed for small rimfire cartridges, this one was instead chambered for 6.5x50mm blank rounds. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Savage 1907 in .45ACP at the RangeE44
Savage 1907 in .45ACP at the RangeIn the first years of the 20th century, the US military was looking for a new standard sidearm in a .45-caliber cartridge, and set up a series of trials to choose one. The entrants to the 1907 pistol trials included many of the prominent semiauto pistols of the day, like the Parabellum (aka Luger), John Browning's design that would become the Model 1911, the Bergmann-Bayard, and the Webley-Fosbery. Among these submissions was a design form the Savage Arms Company; basically a version of their .32ACP model 1907 pistol scaled up to .45ACP. In the initial testing, the Savage did fairly well, although it did suffer a few dozen various malfunctions over the course of 913 rounds. It was recommended for further field trials by the testing board, along with the Colt/Browning pistol. The result of these extended trials was the selection of the Colt/Browning, as it proved a more durable and reliable design than the Savage. Having now had the opportunity to fire the Savage, I would concur with the Army decision to choose the Colt over the Savage. The Savage is a decent pistol, but inferior to the Colt 1911 in a number of ways. It has more felt recoil, it is physically larger and bulkier,and its controls are more difficult to operate. Granted, many of these things could be fixed with further refinement (as has been done with the 1911 in 106 years since the trials). As it stood in 1907, the Savage had a surprisingly stiff trigger and tiny sights, which made it difficult to shoot accurately. The magazine release was a bit awkward to use, and the slide lock was both very small and not conveniently positioned. The grip was generally good, although designed at too close to a right angle to the bore (a bit like holding a TT33 Tokarev). http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Book Review: The Military Remington Rolling Block RifleE45
Book Review: The Military Remington Rolling Block RifleDuring the latter half of the 1800s, a significant fraction of the world's military forces were being armed by the Remington brothers, and their factory in Ilion, New York. The Remington Rolling Block was one of the most durable, reliable, and effective single-shot breechloading rifles available, and became extremely popular with armies worldwide. Even after the introduction of bolt action, magazine fed repeaters, the Rolling Block continued to sell, thanks to its low cost and simplicity of use. We can still find Rolling Blocks fairly easily here in the US, but few people know enough to determine where any given one came from. Remington generally didn't put serial numbers, caliber markings, or even national crests on the rifles, which helped keep them cheap but doesn't offer much help to today's collector. George Layman's book, however, provides a good overview of the different models, nationalities, and cartridges used in these rifles over the many decades they saw service. If you can find the 4th Edition of The Remington Military Rolling Block Rifle for a reasonable price, it is definitely worth having in your library. However, it has been overtaken by a more recent and larger book by Mr. Layman, entitled Remington Rolling Block Military Rifles of the World. While I have not read through that new version, I have no doubt that it will be a more comprehensive resource than its predecessor, so barring a find in the $5 bin, the new version would be the better buy. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Webley-Fosbery Automatic RevolverE46
Webley-Fosbery Automatic RevolverThis is an update to out previous video on the Webley-Fosbery, which was taken on a low-res camera in a dark room - hopefully this will be a big improvement! The Webley-Fosbery was an early automatic handgun based on a revolver design. The top half of the frame slides back under recoil, recocking the hammer and indexing to the next round in the cylinder. They were made commercially in both .38 and .455 calibers, with the .455 version attracting interest from British Army officers into World War I. - Book Review: German Pistols and Holsters 1934-1945 by Maj. Robert Whittington IIIE47
Book Review: German Pistols and Holsters 1934-1945 by Maj. Robert Whittington IIII'd heard some negative things about today's book before I picked up a copy, and I was happily surprised by its usefulness. The book is German Pistols and Holsters 1934/1945, by Major Robert D. Whittington III. It is a pretty straight-forward work, written to aid collectors and historians in understanding and identifying the handguns that were used by German military, police, and Nazi party officials. Each of those groups used a different procurement process and different associated markings. The military ones are pretty well documented, but it is much rarer to find a useful discussion of police- and party-specific weapons. The mainstays of the German sidearm at this time were the P08 Luger and the Walther P38, but a wide variety of foreign-made pistols were also used, from Belgian High Powers to Polish vis 35 Radoms to French Uniques. Whittington covers all of these, explaining what specific markings should or could appear on each, when they were procured, and how many were used. It is not a particularly flowery book, but I found it quite useful. The numerical data is well presented, and the descriptive notes about each gun are both concise and pleasantly informative themselves. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Myth and Reality of the Ross MkIII RifleE48
Myth and Reality of the Ross MkIII RifleThere is a long-standing urban legend about the Canadian Ross rifle, a straight-pull bolt action that was used in lieu of the SMLE by Canadian troops early in World War One. The story is that the Ross would sometimes malfunction and blow the bolt back into its shooter's face, with pretty horrible results. Well, I wanted to learn "the rest of the story" - could this actually happen? What caused it? How could it be prevented? In short, what would a Ross shooter need to know to remain safe? And if I could get some cool footage of a bolt blowing out of a Ross in the process, all the better. Well, reader Andy very generously provided a sporterized Ross for the experiments, and I started reading into what the issue really was. Turns out that the legend was quite true - you can put a Ross MkIII bolt together the wrong way, and it will allow you to fire without the locking lugs engaged, thus throwing the bolt back out of the gun at high velocity. However, the issue was recognized fairly quickly, and the vast majority of Ross rifles were modified with a safety rivet to prevent this from happening. It is also quite easy to determine if a Ross is assembled correctly, once you know what to look for. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Union Automatic RevolverE49
Union Automatic RevolverThe most well-known historic automatic revolver is the British Webley-Fosbery, but there were other handguns of the type that were put into production. One example is the Union auto-revolver, made in Toledo, Ohio shortly before the First World War. While the Webley-Fosbery was intended to be a high-quality military and competition gun, the Union Firearms Company intended to have their auto-revolver compete with inexpensive common revolvers. It was chambered for .32 S&W Short, with a 5-round cylinder and a shrouded hammer. Mechanically, it is very similar to the Webley, although simplified and clearly not made to the same standards of fit and finish. The design was patented by Charles Lefever - who you may recognize as the son of Daniel Lefever, who built Lefever shotguns (which were eventually taken over by the Ithaca Gun Company). At any Rate, the Union company was distinct from Lefever Arms, and only about 300 Union pistols were made before theeffort was abandoned - the guns were much too expensive to manufacture to compete effectively in the chosen market. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - 2-Gun Action Match with a Madsen LMGE50
2-Gun Action Match with a Madsen LMGIt's 102F at the range, my rifle weighs 20 pounds, and the bipod puts me in Open class. Why do this? Because it's fun, that's why...2-Gun Action Challenge Match Tucson: it's like the Crossfit of run-n-gun! The rifle is a semiauto Madsen LMG, made by Midwest Metal Creations. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Book Review: Guns of the Old West by George MarkhamE51
Book Review: Guns of the Old West by George MarkhamI've always been primarily interested in military small arms, and more specifically early/mid 20th century ones at that. I need to broaden my horizons, though, and I've been reading more and more about older guns. When I found a copy of George Markham's Guns of the Wild West at a local used book store, I figured it would be a typical largely-fluff piece with some general history and nice photos. Still, it was cheap and I need a pretty basic place to start on this subject. When I sat down to give it closer look, though, I was quite happy to find a surprisingly comprehensive book by someone who clearly has a deep understanding of the period and its guns (it's always a good sign when photos in a book are labelled "author's collection" - it means the work is something the author is really into, and not just a publisher's idea of what will make a good profit). I'm sure there are some very rare pieces that are left out, but Markham does a really good job explaining the characteristics and origins of lots of lesser-known arms, in addition to the Colts and S&Ws and Winchesters that everyone knows about. He discusses how various patent claims were worked around, evaded, or simply ignored and infringed by the different companies competing for the arms market both to civilians and the military (the US Civil War having drawn gun designers out of the woodwork like moths to a flame). For example, a man named Rollin White had patented the idea of boring a cylinder clear through, and loading cartridges from the rear - the way all revolvers are made today. White's overall design was complex and impractical, but in recognizing the potential of the rear-loading, Daniel Wesson and Horace Smith set themselves up to dominate a market just over the horizon. Their first application of the idea was the Smith & Wesson No.1, an almost completely ineffectual gun firing the brand new .22 Short rimfire cartridge (with a 29-grain bullet propelled by a mere 3 grains of black powder). As cart - Madsen Semiauto LMGE52
Madsen Semiauto LMGThe Madsen light machine gun is note-worthy for several reasons - it was the first military-issue light machine gun developed and it was successful enough to remain in production into the 1950s (long after every WWI-era machine gun was long out of production). It was also one of the most usual machine gun mechanisms ever successfully designed - one of the early "what if we try this?" sorts of mechanisms that actually worked quite well. You probably saw the video of me running a Madsen in a 2-gun match last week, and the reason I actually had the gun on hand was to do a more academic video on its history and function. So if you have always been confused about that the heck is going on inside that mechanism, grab a cup of coffee and let me walk you through it... http://www.forgottenweapons.com - LM-4 Semmerling PistolE53
LM-4 Semmerling PistolThe Semmerling LM4 has pretty much no historical significance, but it does have a pretty unusual operating system. It is a .45ACP backup pistol developed by a fellow named Philip R. Lichtman in the 1970s. It was a pretty compact pistol, intended as a last-ditch backup weapon while still being in a major caliber. Lichtman's trick for getting a 4+1 capacity .45ACP into a small package was to make it a manually-operated gun instead of a semiauto. The LM4 has a slide, but instead of cycling backwards it cycles forward (similar to the Schwarzlose 1908), and the shooter must cycle it manually. This allows the design to get by without many of the components necessary for a self-loading action, thus allowing it to be smaller than the other repeating guns available at the time. In theory, fewer parts would also lead to a less expensive gun, but the LM4 was quite expensive ($750 or so retail in the late 70s/early 80s). The whole gun was made out of extremely high quality tool steels, when lower grade materials would have worked just fine for many parts. Only a few hundred were originally made, in part because of the high cost. The other reason for the gun's commercial failure was, to be blunt, the fact that it was a pretty lousy gun in practical terms. Now, I should say that I am basing this assessment on the current-production LM4 as manufactured by American Derringer - I have not had the chance to try out one of the originals. But the American Derringer version leaves an awful lot to be desired. The magazine is held in the gun by two bent tabs at its base, which have a tendency to jolt loose on recoil - which is pretty hefty, as you would expect. The manual action is pretty finicky, and you have to run the slide briskly and with the right technique to successfully eject an empty case and chamber a new round. Worse, the slide is shorter than most folks' hands, and it is very easy to unintentionally let your pinky finger wander in front of the muzzle while cycling the p - Holloway Arms HAC-7E54
Holloway Arms HAC-7The HAC-7 was a rifle designed in the 1980s, and only available for a short time before the Holloway Arms Company went out of business. It was designed as a military-style weapon, although what military contracts it may have hoped for I don't know. The design concept was quite good, utilizing elements form the AR, AK, and FAL rifles (mostly the AK). It was chambered for the 7.62mm NATO cartridge, using aluminum waffle-stamped AR10 magazines modified with a notch in the spine for the HAC-7's AK-style magazine catch. Originally, plans were to offer the HAC-7 in a variety of configurations - left and right handed ejection, normal, carbine, and sniper barrels, full-auto versions, etc. The financial failure of the company prevented this from happening, though. In total, approximately 300 guns were made, including about 30 left-handed carbines, about 20 left-handed rifles, and a single sniper model. Twelve were set aside for manufacture as full-autos, but they were later assembled and sold as standard semi-auto versions instead. All the guns were equipped with side-folding stocks. Thanks to a generous reader, we were able to borrow this HAC-7 for disassembly and some range testing... - H&K P9S PistolE55
H&K P9S PistolWhen we think about roller-delayed blowback firearms, we generally think of H&K rifles - but H&K also made a miniature version of the system for the P9 pistol in the late 1960s. The P9 was made as a single-stack design in both 9mm and .45ACP, along with a target version (with adjustable sights) and a suppressor-ready version (the P9S, which is what we have in today's video). The P9 was a pretty good gun overall, and I really don't have any complaints about it after shooting (although the cocking/decocking lever is not necessarily intuitive). http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Book Review: Military Rifles of Japan by Fred HoneycuttE56
Book Review: Military Rifles of Japan by Fred HoneycuttI've been studying up on Japanese WWII firearms recently, and when it comes to rifles my go-to resource is Fred Honeycutt's book Military Rifles of Japan 1897-1945. It isn't the newest book on the subject, nor does it have as much information on specific types as the more focused volumes that have come out since, but it is an excellent compromise between cost and comprehensiveness. Honeycutt covers all the major Japanese rifles from the Type 30 to the Type 99, plus the last-ditch substitute rifles, experimental semiauto designs, sniper rifles, and more. He covers the different nomenclature used to identify Japanese arms, the arsenals that produced them, and the elements like series kanji that are unique to Japanese weaponry. His photos, although in black and white, are clear and effective. More than any other nation, Japan's rifle production during WWII exhibits a traceable gradual decline as the war progressed, which I find fascinating to follow - and Honeycutt's book is the best single resource to guide you along the way. - Browning BDM Pistol ControlsE57
Browning BDM Pistol ControlsLast week, we talked a bit about obsolete firearms controls over at the ForgottenWeapons.com blog, and that discussion made me think of a fairly recent pistols with a fairly unique feature, the Browning BDM. Mechanically, the BDM is a pretty standard modern automatic pistol - it uses the ubiquitous Browning short-recoil system, and feel like most other service handguns. What makes it unique is the trigger and hammer setup, which are designed to replicate the manual of arms for either a DA/SA automatic or a double action revolver. I think the idea was to minimize the amount of retraining necessary for a police department that decided to switch to issuing BDMs. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Book Review: Honour Bound - The Chauchat Machine RifleE59
Book Review: Honour Bound - The Chauchat Machine RifleI've discussed the much-maligned CSRG machine rifle (the Chauchat) previously - it was not the utter disaster that common knowledge would lead you to believe. You won't find much literature on the Chauchat, but fortunately what has been written is of top-notch quality: Gerard Demaison's and Yves Buffetaut's Honour Bound: The Chauchat Machine Rifle. Published by Collector Grade, this is an insightful and detailed account of the history, development, and field usage of the CSRG. Honour Bound includes a significant amount of material from declassified French military archives, including firsthand assessments of Chauchats in the field from official French troop surveys, as well as citations for soldiers armed with the guns. Even if you aren't particularly interested in French weapons or early machine guns, this is an excellent example of how the truth can be much different from what "everyone knows," and it's worth reading just as a cautionary tale about repeating common beliefs. http://www.forgottenweapons.com/book-review-honour-bound-the-chauchat-machine-rifle/ - 2-Gun Action Match, July 2013 (M1 and SVT-40)E60
2-Gun Action Match, July 2013 (M1 and SVT-40)Yep, it's that time again - we've had another 2-Gun Action Challenge Match. I was hoping to take a Ross rifle this month, but it didn't arrive in time - so instead I used a heavily modified M1 Garand. I've had some people ask what my personal favorite (practical-use) guns are, and this month I'm using them. The M1 is a tanker conversion done by Arlington Ordnance decades ago, with an 18" barrel chambered for .308 Winchester. I added a Smith Enterprises muzzle brake (which I really like) and an Amega Ranges scope rail. The optic is a Burris 2-7x pistol scope with their BallisticPlex reticle. I like it too, although I clearly need to practice with it a lot more. So why would I pick this as my go-to rifle? Well, I started by deciding that I wanted a full-power rifle cartridge for barrier penetration. I wanted an optic because that would allow me to exploit the range potential of the gun much better than irons (it's not just about the rifle being accurate enough to make a hit, but also about whether you can identify a target at distance). I tried out all the common semiauto rifle designs available at the time, and the M1 felt like it fit me the best. The "tanker" version in particular felt really comfortable, so that's what I decided to get. Would I make the same choice again? I'm not sure...maybe not. But the great majority of effectiveness comes from the shooter and not the rifle, so I have no plans to replace my bastardized M1 with anything else any time soon. The pistol is my regular Ballester-Molina - it rattles a bit when you shake it and a lot of the finish is long gone, but it has yet to hiccup on me (I use Wilson Combat mags in it) and is plenty accurate for what I need. Really, I like all milsurp 1911 style pistols because they just fit me really well (I will be the first to acknowledge that there are much more practical pistols to choose from today, though). Anyway, I decided to use the match this month to play with my M1 for a change. Since it's not - Book Review: Japanese Military Cartridge Handguns 1893-1945E61
Book Review: Japanese Military Cartridge Handguns 1893-1945Japanese Nambu pistols used to be widely ignored as inferior and uninteresting, but prices have been climbing in recent years (as with all Japanese wartime arms). As prices rise, it is beneficial have as much information as possible about the guns, to ensure you are getting the gun(s) you really want. Happily, there is an outstanding reference work on Japanese pistols available: Japanese Military Cartridge Handguns 1893-1945, by Harry L. Derby III and James D. Brown. It covers the two major Japanese WWII pistols - the Type 14 and Type 94 Nambus - is great detail, as well as having chapters on a bunch of much less-known handguns, including the "Grandpa", "Papa", and "Baby" Nambus, the Mark A experimental Nambu, Hamada, Hino-Komuro, Inagaki Shiki, North China Type 19, Sugiura Shiki, and a variety of flare pistols. This book really is the one-stop shop for Japanese pistol information - nothing else I've seen comes close to matching it. - George Wilson's Match .45 AutopistolE62
George Wilson's Match .45 AutopistolGeorge A. Wilson was a designer for the High Standard company, and also a competitive bullseye pistol shooter. Formal bullseye shooting requires the use of a .45 caliber pistol, and the 1911 really isn't an ideal design for that sort of shooting - so Wilson decided to make his own pistol. Patented in 1961, the design he came up with is an outstanding competition piece. Instead of using a traditional slide, Wilson kept all the reciprocating parts out in the front half of the gun, allowing him to bring the grip very high up to minimize muzzle flip. Mechanically, the pistol uses a pivoting wedge to lock, somewhat like a Walther P38. It has a long sight radius, good sight design, and an excellent competition trigger (wide and smooth, with no creep and a light, crisp letoff). The machine work on the pistol is top notch - it is really a work of art. Only three of these guns were made by Wilson, and we are privileged to have been able to examine, disassemble, and shoot one of them. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Book Review: Rifles of the SnowE63
Book Review: Rifles of the SnowToday's book is really more of a pamphlet than a proper book, but it still serves well given its purpose. It is Rifles of the Snow by Doug Bowser and Powers Dunaway, and it is an introduction and basic handbook of Finnish military rifles - specifically Mosin Nagants. While Finland used a wide variety of rifles from many different countries during its wars with the Soviet Union, the bulk of its rifles were different flavors of Mosin Nagant. Finland never actually manufactured a Mosin receiver, instead using guns either purchased or captured. However, rather than using captured guns as-is, they typically overhauled and retrofitted captured Mosins to their own specifications. Between these and the pre-war purchased guns, the Finns have a handful of different models, which are easily confused by newcomers to the subject. Rifles of the Snow is a good quick reference to discern between the different models and interpret the markings which one will find on both pre-war and captured Finnish Mosins. - Type 45/66 Siamese MauserE64
Type 45/66 Siamese MauserSiam, now known as Thailand, was one of the few independent south Asian nations around the turn of the 20th century. Looking to modernize its military to protect against colonial imposition, is decided in 1903 to adopt a copy of the Mauser Gewehr 98 rifle. Siam (which changed its name to Thailand in 1938) didn't have the manufacturing base to produce the necessary quantity of rifles, so it contracted the job out to the Japanese arsenal at Tokyo (Koishikawa). Between 1903 and 1908, about 400,000 of these rifles were manufactured, chambered for an old-style 8x50R cartridge using a round-nosed projectile. This was called the Type 45 rifle, based on the Thai calendar. About twenty years later the Siamese military was improving its machine gun armament, and revised its cartridge to a slightly longer 8x52R case using a modern spitzer bullet - as basically every nation did at some point in the early 20th century. The existing stock of Type 45 rifles were rechambered for this new cartridge, and it is fairly rare to find an unmodified example today. The conversion is easy to spot, as it also included grinding down the rear sight ramp to fit the flatter trajectory of the new cartridge. Range markings had been stamped on the side of the rear sight, and converted guns have these marks partially removed by the reshaping of the ramp. As with all rifles made by the Japanese before WWII, the Siamese Mausers are of excellent quality, although many have led rough lives by the time they reach the hands of a collector today and are often in pretty rough condition. While they make an interesting addition to a surplus rifle collection, they have also long been used as the basis for conversion to .45-70 conversions, as the bolt and magazine are already designed for large rimmed cases, unlike most other military Mausers. This has led to them being rather more rare than one would otherwise expect. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - 2-Gun Action Match: England Versus GermanyE65
2-Gun Action Match: England Versus GermanyOnce again, we have video today from the monthly 2-gun Action Challenge Match. This time, I thought it would be interesting to do a bit of a historical matchup, and look at the oft-discussed question of how much of an advantage a shooter with an Enfield has over one with a Mauser. So, with the help of my friend (and match co-director) Karl, we made this both a competition and an experiment. I brought a pair of Enfields (No1 MkIII* Enfield, made by BSA in 1916 and a 1942 No2MkI** revolver) and Karl had a pair of Mausers (German K98k scrubbed and remarked by the Yugoslav army and 1930s C96 Broomhandle). Karl is definitely the better shooter between us, so the question was: To what extent does my faster rifle action allow me to make up for my inferior shooting? Conclusions, in Brief Having a fast action will not make up for inferior shooting, at least in a course of fire that requires movement, careful aim, and multiple targets. Conclusions, in Depth After watching the video, one is tempted to say that my Enfield and I could have won several of the stages if not for loading trouble, malfunctions, and the target order goof on stage 2 - but Karl and his Mauser also had several easy opportunities to do better, like his missed shots at the end of stage 3. If we want to judge the two rifles against each other, we have to accept all the variables involved. * Magazine. The Enfield does have twice the capacity (10 rounds), but it is also slower to reload and always prone to rimlock if the shooter doesn't make sure to load his clips properly (rounds 2 and 4 sitting atop the rims of rounds 1, 3, and 5). The Mauser may only hold 5 rounds, but it is faster and smoother to reload and less susceptible to malfunction. For courses of fire between 7 and 10 rounds, the Enfield magazine is a definite advantage, but beyond that point things even out pretty quickly. * Bolt speed. The Enfield is definitely faster, and it can pretty easily shoot circles aroun - Book Review: Webley & Scott Automatic PistolsE67
Book Review: Webley & Scott Automatic PistolsHaving previously read and quite enjoyed Gordon Bruce' Evolution of Military Automatic Pistols, I was looking forward to checking out his much more in-depth volume on the Webley semiautos, appropriately titled Webley & Scott Automatic Pistols. Webley automatics don't seem to very widely known here in the US, despite being an important part of semiauto pistol development. They are really all the work of a single man, William Whiting, and Bruce' book does a good job of giving a reader insight into the man's career and achievements. Whiting's pistols almost certainly allowed Webley & Scott to remain in business during the slow periods between military revolver contracts, and he is to be commended for the amount of effort he put into the somewhat Sisyphean task of developing a reliable military semiauto pistol around a rimmed revolver cartridge. Ultimately, he was able to produce a number of successful civilian and police pistols, and did manage to achieve the golden egg is firearms design; a prestigious military contract (in his case, with the Royal Navy). Unfortunately the timing of that contract was beyond his control, and his pistol was basically abandoned by the Navy when World War I broke out and new developments were suddenly relegated to the back shelf. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Ishapore Enfield.410 Shotgun ConversionE68
Ishapore Enfield.410 Shotgun ConversionQuick, think of the first thing that comes to mind when I say "riot shotgun"! Does it have a brass buttplate? A tangent rear sight? Is it a single-shot weapon? Does it use a shotshell smaller than 28ga? No? Well, I guess you have a different notion of riot gear than the Indian military. Huh. Today I've got a video on the Indian answer to the mass-issue riot gun, a SMLE rifle with the magazine well plugged and the barrel bored out to .410. They are pretty neat, and this one's in really nice shape. It seems that the bored-out version like mine that use American 2.5" shells are quite a bit more common here than the original brass-case version here in the States. They're not too difficult to find if you keep your eyes open online, and not that expensive (yet). Definitely a neat side item for the Enfield collector, or just someone like me who enjoys "different" guns. - Book Review: Handguns of the World by Edward EzellE69
Book Review: Handguns of the World by Edward EzellI normally don't have all that much interest in coffee table type gun books - the glossy photos are nice, but they generally don't have all that much actual information. I had assumed initially that "Handguns of the World" was another of these books, but I was quite mistaken. I initially gave it a second look because of the author - Edward Ezell is a very well-respected author of gun books, and I really enjoyed and appreciated his doctoral-thesis-turned-book, The Great Rifle Controversy. What I found when I opened up his "Handguns of the World" was not a glitzy picture book, but instead an illustrated technical history of military handguns. The book (all 704 pages) is in black and white, but includes copious drawings, diagrams, and photographs of some pretty unusual and interesting handguns. What really grabbed me was the amount of research that went into the work, as Ezell goes into detail explaining the history and development of many of the families of pistols we know today, like the 1911 and the progression of open-slide Beretta automatics. And this doesn't just cover self-loaders; military revolvers and their heritage back to the early Colt Paterson are covered in equal detail. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Iver Johnson Safety Hammerless (Second Model)E70
Iver Johnson Safety Hammerless (Second Model)I believe this is the least expensive gun we have yet covered on Forgotten Weapons - this particular example cost me $49 at a local gun shop. Why bother with a cheap old (and pretty commonplace) revolver? To be honest, there is one reason that specifically pushed me to buy it: the safety. You've seen the clever and innovative trigger safety on the Glock - and now on a bunch of other striker-fired pistols - right? Well, Iver-Johnson was doing that over a century ago. For the record, this is a 2nd model Safety Hammerless, which is not intended for smokeless powder. I was using light handloads, which is still not a good idea for the pistol, as smokeless powder burns faster than black powder, and creates a higher peak pressure for the same muzzle velocity as a BP load. Continued shooting of light smokeless loads will cause the cylinder gap to grow and impair the timing. Shooting full-power smokeless loads could cause more serious and spectacular damage, so you do so at your own risk. I decided it wasn't a problem to run a handful of light rounds through for the purposes of the video. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - 2-Gun Match: Chinese 7.62x39mm BrenE71
2-Gun Match: Chinese 7.62x39mm Brenhttp://www.forgottenweapons.com Thanks to the folks at SMG Guns in Texas, I just got my completed semiauto Bren gun in 7.62x39mm. What the best way to break it in? Take it to a run-n-gun match, of course! First off, the front grip is a repro experimental piece made by IMA - it would not originally have been on the gun, but I needed a way to hold/shoot it offhand. Some thoughts after shooting this converted Bren... It's HEAVY. According to my scale, it's 23 pounds, which is only about 2 pounds heavier than the Madsen LMG I shot in one of these matches a few months ago, but it's longer and not as well balanced. Great off the bipod, but I had serious trouble shooting it standing (not that it was designed to be shot that way, of course). Recoil in 7.62x39 is trivial. It's possible to fire 3-5 round bursts that are actually fairly effective and accurate, because the muzzle hardly moves. Try that in a .303 semiauto Bren (or any other full-power semi) and you'll have a much larger group, or take longer to get a small one. The big rear aperture sight stays nicely in view when you shoot, and overall it's one of the most effective and shootable "semiauto machine guns" I've had a chance to play with. Malfunctions - I had three, two caused by my ammo and one by the gun. The ammo problems were one dud primer (it had a nice sold firing pin strike) and one that hit the barrel face and stopped rather than feeding into the chamber. I was using softpoint ammo (grabbed the wrong can for the match), and the Bren certainly wasn't designed for that (in any caliber). The gun-related problem was a case that didn't fully eject, and got jammed between the next round being fed and the side of the receiver. This was caused by a combination of a receiver much larger than it needs to be (because of the caliber conversion) and a gas system just barely strong enough to run the gun reliably. When this malf happened I was firing from the hip instead of holding the gun solidly, and - H&K VP70Z - Disassembly and shootingE72
H&K VP70Z - Disassembly and shootingI recently had the chance to hit the range with a VP-70Z, the semiauto civilian version of H&K's 1970 machine pistol. It is notable both for being one of the few production machine pistols around (and it would only fire automatically when its optional buttstock was attached), but also for being the world's first production polymer-framed handgun. On a less positive note, it's next-most-known feature is it's trigger pull, which is very reminiscent of a staple gun. The VP-70 was a very simple design, using a plain straight blowback action and an 18-round double-feed magazine. One of its other notable features is very deep rifle, which I had read was intended to reduce pressure by allowing gas to blow past the bullet. That sounded like a pretty goofy idea, but lo and behold, it's true. I was able to examine a couple recovered bullets, and the all show that the rifling groove area makes no contact with the bullet, and blackened scorch marks are present as well, a bit like cartridge cases from fluted chambers. In addition, a friend I spoke to has done some chronograph testing with a VP-70, and found that it produces significantly lower velocity with a given cartridge than other pistols with the same barrel length. As for the trigger, it's long and heavy (kinda like everything else HK was making at the time...), but not necessarily as terrible as some folks would suggest. You have to approach it like a DA revolver, and get used to staging the trigger most of the way back and then pulling the final short distance when you have a proper sight picture. I found it interesting that Tim Mullin (with several thousand rounds' experience on the VP-70) commented in his book on SMGs and machine pistols that he would choose the VP-70 over an MP5PDW. - Armitage International Skorpion Scarab 9mmE73
Armitage International Skorpion Scarab 9mmIn my defense, I want to point out that the only reason I wanted to get one of these pistols was to see how much it actually resembled the Czech vz.61 Skorpion, wich is a very nice piece of machinery. And the answer is, the Armitage "Scarab" version is like the real Skorpion in basic profile only. Well, that and the use of a simple blowback action. The 9x19mm Skorpion Scarab was made in South Carolina by Armitage International in 1989 and 1990, with a total of just 600 being produced. They were chasing the same market as the MAC-10, TEC-9, and similar big scary-looking pistols. In fact, the Scarab uses modified M10 magazines (an extra cut added in the top side to match with its mag catch) and is threaded for MAC barrel extensions or suppressors. The rate reducing mechanism from the vz.61 is absent (no surprise, as the Scarab is semi-auto only), and the FCG is a copy of a basic AK FCG. The upper assembly is stamped and folded like a MAC, and the bolt is designed to be extremely simple to manufacture. The gun has none of the finesse of the Czech Skorpion. In fact, it's one of the worst pistols I've ever used... - Evans Repeating RifleE74
Evans Repeating RifleToday we're looking at an Evans repeating rifle. These were manufactured in Maine between 1873 and 1879, in three distinct models (I did goof in the video and called this particular one a transitional model, when it's actually a new model). The way to distinguish the variants is: Old Model: No wooden lower buttstock Transitional Model: Two-piece wooden buttstock, but no dust cover on the ejection port New Model: Two-piece wooden buttstock and ejection port cover that moves with the operating lever. http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Gewehr 43E75
Gewehr 43Cool Forgotten Weapons Merch! http://shop.bbtv.com/collections/forgotten-weapons German ordnance began looking for a military selfloading rifle to augment the K98k as early as the 1930s, although the pressures of war initially made that development a second priority. By 1941, though, two competing designs from the Walther and Mauser companies had been developed to the point of mass production, as the Gewehr 41(W) and Gewehr 41(M) rifles. These both shared a gas-trap operating system to comply with an HWa requirement that no gas ports be drilled into the barrels. When it came to locking systems, the two designs differed greatly, with the Walther being the more successful of the two. Thousands of examples of both designs were put into field testing, mostly in the East, and it because clear that the gas trap system was not suitable for combat. The Walther company responded with a new version of their design which used a much more modern short stroke gas piston, basically copied from the Soviet SVT-40 rifle. The G43 was very quickly recognized as a significant improvement over the G41(W), and was very quickly put into production, with approximately 400,000 being manufactured by the end of the war. Well, I found an example of the G43 that I could shoot (thank you, Mike) and took it out for some video... http://www.forgottenweapons.com - Book Review: Iver Johnson Arms & Cycle Works Firearms 1871-1993E76
Book Review: Iver Johnson Arms & Cycle Works Firearms 1871-1993The Iver Johnson company doesn't get much respect or recognition these days, but they made a staggering number of generally very good, inexpensive handguns for many decades. The "cheap" image of the brand has largely prevented a significant collector appeal, and in turn a lack of good research or documentation. The exception to that trend is Bill Goforth, whom I have to believe ignored a great many snickers and jeers and spent a great deal of time and effort amassing a collection of Iver Johnson firearms and studiously researching their history. Mr. Goforth is sadly passed away now, but his knowledge lives on in the book he wrote, entitled Iver Johnson: Arms & Cycle Works Firearms 1871-1993. It is a heavily data-oriented volume, and an excellent resource for identifying and dating Iver Johnson revolvers (its coverage of long guns is minimal). - 2-Gun Action Challenge Match: SVT40 vs M1 GarandE77
2-Gun Action Challenge Match: SVT40 vs M1 Garandhttp://www.forgottenweapons.com So, after the hype about setting the FG-42 up against the M1 at a practical action match, I unfortunately have to let you down. We had a bit of a mishap right before the match started, which rendered the FG unable to be used. It's disappointing, but we're going to get it fixed up and try again in anther month or two. In the meantime, we switched to an SVT-40 as a backup rifle. Still definitely a fun matchup, and perhaps a bit more evenly balanced than the scoped FG would have been against the M1. Also, FYI for you guys out there with FG-42s - don't use the M14 method of buttstroking the rifle into the ground to clear a stuck case! The FG doesn't have a metal buttplate, and the stress may not react well with the stock. - Swiss ZfK-55 sniper rifleE78
Swiss ZfK-55 sniper rifleThe ZfK-55 is basically a K31 action, with a bunch of modifications to convert it into a very nice marksman's rifle. The more obvious changes are the muzzle brake (very reminiscent of the second model FG-42, which makes sense as the Swiss experimented with those rifle quite a bit after the war), pistol grip stock, bipod, and 3.5x optical scope. In addition, the barrel is significantly heavier than a standard K31 barrel and the whole action has been rotated about 15 degrees to allow clip loading and ejection without interference form the scope. A clever and quite Swiss solution to that problem! Most other countries either simply abandoned the ability to use stripper clips in their sniper rifles (like most Mausers) or offset the scope on the side of the receiver (like the M1 Garand and Arisaka). Rotating the action allows the best of both, with easy loading and a center-mounter scope, at the cost of simply being more expensive to make. Anyway, I took some video of the rifle, which will hopefully help folks get a better feel for them. I am really looking forward to being able to shoot one of these some day! http://www.forgottenweapons.com - North & Skinner Revolving RifleE79
North & Skinner Revolving Riflehttp://www.forgottenweapons.com The North & Skinner was an early 6-shot percussion-fired revolving rifle design. Its design was patented in 1852 by Henry North and Chauncy Skinner (US Patent #8982), and the guns were manufactured from 1856 to 1859 by the Savage & North company (which was Henry North and Edward Savage - not the Arthur Savage who developed the Savage 99). About 600 of these guns were made in total, with roughly 20% being .60-caliber shotguns and the remainder .44 caliber rifles. Unlike many revolving rifle designs, the North & Skinner functioned as a lever action, with the trigger guard serving as lever. The North & Skinner design also included several features intended to protect the shooter from the cylinder gap blast (which was a significant problem with all such revolving rifle designs). It used recessed chambers and a locking wedge that would push the cylinder forward to achieve a semblance of a gas seal (a bit like the 1895 Nagant revolver). How well this worked, I have not been able to determine - perhaps one of these days I will find an example of the gun that I can shoot and find out. - Walther VG-1 Presentation ModelE80
Walther VG-1 Presentation Modelhttp://www.forgottenweapons.com We took a look at this rifle with a few photos a while back at ForgottenWeapons, but I do now have some video of it as well - a VG-1 last ditch rifle with an inlaid plaque presented to the Volkssturm leader of the Wartheland district of Poland, one Arthur Grieser (convicted of war crimes and hanged July 21, 1946). The VG-1 is a pretty interesting study in rifle simplicity, and just how much you can leave out while still producing a functional weapon. Unlike the Japanese progressive simplification of the Type 99 Arisaka, the Germans designed new, simplified rifle designs to reduce manufacturing costs (well, in addition to some progressive steps). The VG-1 was just one of several competing designs for this type of last-ditch rifle. - Streetsweeper ShotgunE81
Streetsweeper ShotgunCool Forgotten Weapons Merch! http://shop.bbtv.com/collections/forgotten-weapons It may seem sometimes that I've never met a gun I didn't like...but I can assure you that isn't the case. The Streetsweeper, for example, is a pretty terrible gun. Originally designed in 1983 by a Rhodesian man named Hilton Walker, the Striker shotgun was refined and manufactured in South Africa before making its way over to the US. Its claim to fame was a 12-round capacity in a fixed drum magazine, which was significantly larger than magazine capacities available in other shotguns at the time. Today, of course, there are several magazine-fed shotguns that can give the same capacity without all the negative features of the Striker/Streetsweeper (primarily the Saiga-12). The more refined South African Striker guns used the vertical front grip to load and wind the drum and featured automatic ejection of spent shell cases, but the version built in the US and marketed as the Streetsweeper (could they really have picked a worse name?) was a simpler and cheaper design. The Streetsweeper has a winding key on the front of the drum, and shells must be manually ejected with a rod much like a Colt Peacemaker revolver. It also "features" a nice cylinder gap, and sprays gas and particulates for out the front of the drum onto the shooter's forearm and out the back into the shooter's face. The trigger is a double-action type similar to a revolver's, except that the first stage releases a catch and allows the drum to rotate one position under spring tension, where a revolver rotates with pressure supplied from the trigger mechanism. The second stage of the Streetsweeper (I feel dirty just typing that name) trigger releases the hammer to fire a round. In 1994, the Treasury Department issued a finding that the Striker-12 and Streetsweeper shotguns did not have a sporting purpose. Since they have bore diameters over .50 inch (as do all 12ga and 20ga shotguns), this redefined them as Destructiv - Book Review: The World's Fighting ShotgunsE82
Book Review: The World's Fighting ShotgunsShotguns are a subject I don't cover much, and I'll admit that's because of a prejudice on my part. I just don't find most of them to be particularly interesting...but then I had the chance to take a look at a collection that included a bunch of mechanically unusual and pretty fascinating shotguns. The owner is planning to drag me out to the range for some trap & skeet lessons, and I realized that I really should pay more attention to these guns. I wound up getting a couple (like my .410 SMLE, and a Spencer-Bannerman pump that will be in an upcoming video), and I also started looking for good reference books on them. I'm primarily going to be looking for martial guns, and the literature on those is pretty skimpy. Bruce Canfield and Joe Poyer both have books on US martial shotguns, Tim Mullin covered some types in his SMG/Shotgun/Machine Pistol evaluation, but the only reference I was able to find with an international scope was Thomas Swearengen's The World's Fighting Shotguns. Swearengen's book is dated (it was published in 1978), but it does a very good job of covering a wide variety of shotguns, from single shots to mag-fed aully automatic designs. It includes, for example, the 14ga Greener police guns (built on Martini-Henry actions), Spencer-Bannermans, Ithaca Auto & Burglars, High Standard bullpups, and the AA-12. Plus, of course, the more typical WWI and WWII trench shotguns, and a bunch of Philippine guerrilla kludges (I was a bit disappointed to see that the SMLE conversions are not included, though). - Hakim Rifle in the 2-Gun Action Challenge MatchE83
Hakim Rifle in the 2-Gun Action Challenge Matchhttp://www.forgottenweapons.com More info on the Hakim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1yKY6u_YQg This past weekend was another 2-Gun Action Challenge Match, and this time I decided to shoot my Hakim in it. The Hakim is an Egyptian license-built copy of the Swedish AG-42 Ljungman (you can find more info on the Hakim and other Egyptian rifles here), chambered in the standard 8x57 Mauser cartridge. The Hakim has a 10-round detachable magazine, but was meant to be reloaded using stripper clips (and it has a pretty neat system for doing so). It's a fairly long and hefty rifle (some might use the word "oar"), but I found it pretty nice to shoot. The match this month was all about 12-round strings of fire, so I did a lot of loading 7 rounds in the mag and then reloading with a 5-round clip. - Using 8x33K ammo in AK magazinesE84
Using 8x33K ammo in AK magazineshttp://www.forgottenweapons.com The Pakistani "44-Bore" rifle is an AK with the chamber reamed to fit 8x33K ammunition (originally developed for the German StG-44 family of rifles). I wanted to see how different types of AK magazines would behave when loaded with 8x33 cartridges... - Book Review: Allied Rifle Contracts in AmericaE85
Book Review: Allied Rifle Contracts in Americahttp://www.forgottenweapons.com One of the characteristics that often leads me to be particularly interested in a given gun is a long and convoluted history. I really enjoy finding firearms that have found their way across the world and back. One entire category of rifles that did just that were the hundreds of thousands of rifles made in the United States during WWI under contract for the British, French, Canadian, and Russian armies. The Mosin Nagant is the most numerous example of this sort of rifle, but far from the only one. Literally millions of Model 1891 Mosin Nagants were made in the US by Westinghouse and Remington, and those rifles proceeded to find their way into countless conflicts over the past hundred years. They passed through that hands of Russian, Americans, Brits, Finns, Japanese, Chinese, Czechs, and many others. Now THAT is some cool history. The details of these contracts and how the rifles were made has been lost for a long time, but Luke Mercaldo's Allied Rifle Contracts in America has put that history right at our fingertips again. The details of how the contracts were awarded, how production facilities were found and adapted, how the rifles were inspected and accepted or rejected, how the US firms made or lost money, and where the rifles eventually went is all here, and not just for the Mosin Nagants. Mercaldo also covers the Belgian 1889 Mausers made by Hopkins & Allen, the Remington Rolling Blocks made for France, the Winchester 1895s made for Russia, the Remington Berthiers made for France, the Savage 1899 lever actions made for Canada, and the Pattern 1914 Enfields made for England. - Model 1871 Ward-Burton bolt-action rifleE87
Model 1871 Ward-Burton bolt-action riflehttp://www.forgottenweapons.com The Model 1871 Ward-Burton was one of the early experimental rifles trialled by the US military in its search for a new breechloading rifle to replace the theoretically-interim Allin conversion that made muzzle-loading rifles into Trapdoor Springfields. Four breechloading cartridge rifles were selected for field trials in the early 1870s: the Sharps, the Trapdoor Springfield (as a control), the Remington Rolling Block, and the Ward-Burton bolt action. It was a single-shot design, and the only one of the trial designs that would not have already been relatively familiar to US troops at the time. While the bolt action system is ubiquitous today, it was quite novel in the 1870s. Mechanically, the Ward-Burton was fairly standard by today's standards, although it used two sets of interrupted threads at the rear of the bolt for locking, rather than the two large front lugs preferred today. The names associated with it are two US Generals, William Ward and Bethel Burton. Ward held a patent on the bolt action system the rifle used (US Patent 81,059), and Burton held a patent on the extractor/ejector mechanism (US Patent 99,504). In total, 1013 Ward-Burton rifles (32 1/8" barrel) and 313 carbines (22" barrel) were manufactured by Springfield chambered for the then-standard .50-70 cartridge, and issued to a variety of units. These included the 13th Infantry and 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 9th Cavalry companies. Ultimately, of the 95 field reports filed on the different rifles in these trials, not a single one recommended the Ward-Burton for adoption. The guns had a few mechanical issues (including heat treat problems with the bolts), but more significant seems to have been the general unfamiliarity of the bolt system with troops. The Trapdoor Springfields, Rolling Blocks, and Sharps rifles all had vary prominent manually-cocked hammers that would clearly communicate whether the rifles were ready to fire. The Ward-Burton bolt had - Johnson M1941 rifleE88
Johnson M1941 riflehttp://www.forgottenweapons.com Melvin Johnson was a gun designer who felt that the M1 Garand rifle had several significant flaws - so he developed his own semiauto .30-06 rifle to supplement the M1. His thought was that if problems arose with the M1 in combat, production of his rifle could provide a continuing supply of arms while problems with the M1 were worked out. The rifle he designed was a short-recoil system with a multi-lug rotating bolt (which was the direct ancestor of the AR bolt design). When the Johnson rifle was tested formally alongside the M1, the two were found to be pretty much evenly matched - which led the Army to dismiss the Johnson. If it wasn't a significant improvement over the Garand, Ordnance didn't see the use in siphoning off resources to produce a second rifle. The Johnson had some interesting features - primarily its magazine design. It used a fixed 10-round rotary magazine, which could be fed by 5-round standard stripper clips or loose individual cartridges. It could also be topped up without interfering with the rifle's action, unlike the M1. On the other hand, it was not well suited to using a bayonet, since the extra weight on the barrel was liable to cause reliability problems (since the recoil action has to be balanced for a specific reciprocating mass). Johnson thought bayonets were mostly useless, but the Army used the issue as a rationale to dismiss the Johnson from consideration. However, Johnson was able to make sales of the rifle to the Dutch government, which was in urgent need of arms for the East Indies colonies. This is where the M1941 designation came from - it was the Dutch model name. Only a few of the 30,000 manufactured rifles were delivered before the Japanese overran the Dutch islands, rendering the rest of the shipment moot. At this point, Johnson was also working to interest the newly-formed Marine Paratroop battalions in a light machine gun version of his rifle. The Paramarines needed an LMG which - Ball Repeating CarbineE89
Ball Repeating CarbineThe Ball Repeating Carbine was one of the last Civil War arms manufactured, as an initial order of 1,002 units was ordered in 1864 but not delivered until shortly after the cessation of hostilities in 1865. The carbine was designed by Albert Ball of Worcester, Massachusetts and manufactured by Lamson & Co of Windsor, Vermont (which also made Palmer carbines). The military Ball carbines were chambered for the .56-.50 Spencer cartridge, to simplify ammunition supply. Reportedly a small number were also made for commercial sale after the war, and these were chambered for the .44 Long Rimfire cartridge. In either caliber, the most interesting feature of the Ball was how it split the chamber into two separate pieces, and used the lower one as a cartridge elevator. This system apparently worked quite well when new, but suffered accuracy problems as the components started to wear with use. - Remington-Keene Repeating CarbineE90
Remington-Keene Repeating CarbineThe Remington-Keene reifle was the brainchild of one James Keene of Newark, NJ, who began patenting its features in 1874. The gun would eventually go into production with the Remington company in 1877 and remain available until 1888, selling a total of about 5,000 copies. The Remington-Keene rifle/carbine was submitted to government trials, as were so many other repeating rifles of the period. Keene's design, however, had a number of features that one would have expected to endear it with Army ordnance officers. Despite being a bolt action, Keene place a large and unmistakeable hammer on the end of the bolt - something that would make military users much more comfortable with the design. In addition, to mollify some of the ordnance department's safety concerns the striker on the Keene only resets to half-cock when the bolt is operated. The shooter must manually cock the striker (which looks like a hammer) before firing. Another clever feature of the Keene design was that its tube magazine could be loaded either through the top with the bolt open, or from below with the bolt closed. Locking on the Keene was performed by a single large lug, which also functioned as the bolt handle. Unlike other rifles with similar shell lifters, the Keene system held the cartridge in control while on the elevator, avoiding the potential problem of a cartridge falling out mid-loading - which was possible in rifles like the Lebel and Kropatschek. The Navy did purchase 250 Remington-Keene rifles for use on on the USS Michigan and USS Trenton, and the Indian Bureau also purchased several hundred for its Indian agents. These guns were all chambered fort he standard .45-70-405 cartridge, but commercial guns were also available in .40-60 and .43 Spanish calibers. Magazine capacity was 9 cartridges in a 29 1/4" rifle and less in the shorter carbine models (I haven't found reliable numbers for the specific carbine capacity). Despite its creative elements, the Remington-Keene was pr - Shooting a Bren 100-Round DrumE91
Shooting a Bren 100-Round DrumA friend of mine went to a local machine gun shoot recently, and came back with some footage of a pair of Bren guns being fired with a 100-round drum magazine. These drums were designed for anti-aircraft use, and are quite rare today, so it was cool to see one actually in use. You can see a bunch of photos of the drum mount and the drum itself (including a photo of one disassembled) at: http://www.forgottenweapons.com/bren-100-round-drum/ - Russian Winchester 1895E92
Russian Winchester 1895http://www.forgottenweapons.com Sorry for the breathing you hear in the video - this is the final video we filmed in that session. The fellow running the camera is a disabled vet with serious lung problems who owns this rifle (among others). If I had realized his breathing would be audible I would have used a different mic setup, but I didn't realize it at the time. By the 1890s, Winchester had established an extremely successful business in lever-action rifles. John Browning's designs for the 1886, 1892, and 1894 models had proven very popular, and so Winchester (seeing the potential of the new smokeless powder developments) requested that he design a new lever action rifle specifically for the new high-pressure cartridges. This became the model 1895, and was initially offered in .30-40 caliber (as well as .38-72 and .40-72 black powder rounds, so Winchester could hedge their bet on smokeless powder). The Winchester 1895 involved several significant design elements to safely accommodate high pressure smokeless ammunition. The most obvious is a fixed 5-round box magazine in place of a traditional tube mag. This box magazine allowed the use of pointed bullets, as the bullet tips would not be resting against the primers of other cartridges. The 1895 also used a strengthened locking design and better grade steel to withstand higher operating pressure. While it is true that the earlier lever action rifles were able to use smokeless rounds as well, this is due to their being overbuilt - the 1895 was the first such design made form the ground up for smokeless powder. The model 1895 went on to be offered by Winchester in .35 WCF, .405 WCF (widely recognized as Theodore Roosevelt's Big Medicine), .30-03, and .30-06 for the American sporting market (although about three quarters of commercial sales were in .30-40). This doesn't touch on what was by far that largest sale of model 1895 rifles, though: the contract with the Russian Imperial military. In 1915, Russia