ForgottenWeapons

Beretta 93R: The Best Machine Pistol? (Ad-free)

The Beretta 93R ("Raffica") was developed in the 1970s by Beretta engineer Paolo Parola at the request of Italian military special forces. It took the basic Beretta 92 pistol design and added a well-thought-out burst mechanism under the right-side grip panel. It does not have a plain full-auto setting, but only semiauto and 3-round burst. To help keep the gun controllable, it has a heavier slide to reduce cyclic rate, a detachable shoulder stock, and a folding front grip to help control the m...

Sten MkII vs Ingram M10/9 (w/ John Keene) (Ad-free)

If you had to pick one, would you take a Sten MkII or an Ingram M10/9? This applies specifically to the guns in their original factory configurations; no Lage products allowed! It's hard to come up with a mass-production SMG that isn't obviously better than a MkII Sten, but the stock Ingrams might make the cut...the MAC is a more compact package, but has even worse handling than the Sten in some ways (which is a remarkable achievement!). So if you have to pick one, which would it be?

Books Now Shipping From Headstamp Publishing!

https://www.headstamppublishing.com

We have a huge variety of beautiful and informative firearms books available and shipping right now from Headstamp Publishing! From Japanese tobacco to British bullpups to Chinese mystery pistols, there really is something here for anyone who enjoys firearms...

Steyrs for the Luftwaffe: The G29(ö) aka Gewehr 12/34 (Ad-free)

When the German government bought up the controlling interest in Steyr in 1938, they made use of its production facilities to start making rifles for the Luftwaffe. Steyr had tooling for the Mauser 98, but not in K98k form - they had most recently made a Mauser-pattern carbine for Chile in 1934 (the M12/34). Under German ownership that rifle was put back into production, simply chambered for 8mm Mauser instead of the Chilean 7mm. About 50,000 in total were made between mid 1938 and the end of...

Book Review: The U.S. Model 1917 Rifle - "America's Enfield" (Ad-free)

Available from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/U-S-Model-Rifle-Americas-Enfield/dp/1931464928

Available from the publisher, Mowbray:

https://gunandswordcollector.com/product/us-model-1917-rifle-canfield/

Bruce Canfield is one of the most prolific and pr...

French 1717 Rampart Musket from the American Revolution (Ad-free)

American forces in the Revolutionary War took in a bunch of different types of surplus small arms, and one of the interesting ones was the French Model 1717 Rampart gun. When the French created the first standardized military rifle pattern in 1717, they made two versions - an infantry musket and a rampart or wall gun. These wall guns were more heavily constructed and has larger bores, to allow them to fire a heavier powder charge for a longer effective range. Specifically, they were .78 calib...

Best of American and Europe: the Webley No5 Express New Army (Ad-free)

Webley introduced their No5 Express New Army model revolver in 1878. This was essentially a ruggedized and scaled up variation on the No5 RIC revolvers that was very popular with police forces. The RIC was chambered for just the .450 Adams cartridge, and its ejection system in particular was not suitable to serious military campaigning. Hoping for a military contract, Webley took that No5 double-action clockwork and put it into a much bigger frame, capable of handling all patterns of British ...

So Many Ways to Fail at Making a Pistol (Ad-free)

Making a successful and popular new handgun requires doing a whole lot of things right...today we are going to consider what happens when they don't go so well.

SVD Dragunov: The First Purpose-Built DMR (Ad-free)

The development of the Dragunov designated marksman’s rifle was spurred by the NATO adoption of the 7.62x51mm cartridge. The Red Army had standardized on a new suite of infantry weapons using the intermediate-sized 7.62x39mm round, and feared being out-ranged in open terrain by NATO units. The Soviet squad needed some way to reach out and engage a NATO machine gun or antitank weapon that might be beyond the range of their RPD light machine gun. And so in 1957, specifications were issued for...

The Hungarian Alternative: G98/40 Rifles in German Service (Ad-free)

The German Wehrmacht was always hungry for more rifles during World War Two, and adopted substitute designs made in friendly (or subservient) countries when possible. Almost all of these were minor variations on the Mauser 98 system, but the Hungarian G98/40 was an exception. This was a Mannlicher system, with zero parts interchangeability with the K98k. Specifically, the G98/40 was the result of the FEG factory taking their 35M Hungarian standard service rifle (chambered for 8x56R) and adapt...

Gear for Carrying DP27 Pan Magazines (Ad-free)

Today we are taking a look at three different pieces of kit developed to carry Degtyarev DP pan magazines. These mags are really inconveniently shaped, and traditional magazine pouches just don't work for them. Instead, the Soviets initially fielded a stamped steel can that held three pans. This was durable, but had to be carried by hand, and basically limited a solider to carrying 6 pans (just 282 rounds) at the expense of having anything else in hand. An improved World War Two system was th...

Enjoying Black Powder Episode 5: The Remington Rolling Block

The full version with hand loading information (not permitted on YouTube) is available here:

https://forgottenweapons.vhx.tv/videos/black-powder-ep-5-app

Black powder military rifles of the 1860s-1880s are a really enjoyable group of guns. A lot of them are relatively reasonably priced, and they are actually pretty easy to reload for. The unavailability of factory ammunition (for ...

Berettas With Bayonets: The Very Early Model 38A SMG (Ad-free)

The initial model of the Beretta 38A had a number of features that were dropped rather quickly once wartime production became a priority. Specifically, they included a lockout safety switch for just the rear full-auto trigger. This was in place primarily for police use, in which the guns were intended for semiautomatic use except on dire emergency (and the first batches of 38As in Italy went to the police and the Polizia dell’Africa Italiana). The first version of the 38A also included a ba...

The First Sturmgewehr: The MKb42(H) (Ad-free)

The first iteration of the iconic German Sturmgewehr was developed by Haenel starting in 1938. It was a select-fire rifle chambered for the short 8x33mm cartridge, developed by the Polte company. It used a long-stroke gas piston and a tilting bolt patterned after the Czech ZB-26 light machine gun. What makes the MKb42(H) stand out from the later Sturmgewehr models is that it was an open-bolt design. The original design spec was concerned about preventing cook-offs, and so it required firing f...

G24(t): Germany’s Take on the Czechoslovakian vz24 (Ad-free)

When Germany took over Czechoslovakia, one of the things they did was buy out a controlling interest in what became known as Waffenwerke Brunn. Headquartered in Prague, the company had two factories; one in Brno (Czechia) and one in Bystrica (Slovakia). The Bystrica factory was already making vz24 Mauser rifles, and under new German control they made a few slight adaptations to create the G24(t). These basically involved adding German sling fittings, as other vz24 elements like the full-lengt...

Questions for Falklands Q&A?

I am on my way home from about 10 days on the Falkland Islands, having hiked the Great Yomp across the island, visited a bunch of the battlefields, and spent some time with the Falkland Islands Defense Force. So, it seems like a good time to do a Q&A about the place - both the 1982 war and the islands in general. What would you like to ask on that topic?

“Grey Ghost” - The French Occupation Production P38 Pistol (Ad-free)

When the French took over control of the Mauser factory complex in May 1945, the plant had some 85 tons of pistol parts on hand - 7.3 million individual components in various stages of production. This was enough to make a whole lot of guns, even if many of them were not completed parts. So alongside K98k rifles, HST and Luger pistols, the French restarted P38 pistol production at Mauser.

German military production ended at about serial number 3000f in April 1945, and the French ...

The Unique Challenges of Self-Loading Shotgun Design (Ad-free)

I think a lot of people under appreciate the difficulty of making a reliable self-loading shotgun. Between the rimmed case, wadcutter-type cylindrical shape, varying shell length, and massive variations in loadings, the variability that a designer has to work around is insane...

P99: The Pistol that Rejuvenated Walther (Ad-free)

For a couple decades after World War Two, Walther survived on legacy designs - the PP/PPK and P38 (eventually made with an aluminum frame as the P4) primarily. In the 1970s they developed the P5 for German police use, and this was a reasonably successful pistol, but expensive and complex. Something more modern was needed to keep the company relevant in the market. The first attempt was an all-steel Browning style pistol, the P88. This was put into production, but was never very popular. Next ...

Single-Rune bnz43 SS Contract K98k (Ad-free)

In 1942, the SS devised a plan to rent out concentration camp labor to companies in the German armaments industry. Several different rifle production lines were set up to make use of this source of cheap labor, and the one we are looking at today is Steyr’s plant at the Gusen camp (a subsidiary of Mauthausen). A rifle production line was established there in March 1943, and in June 1943 Stern signed a contract to supply the SS directly with 10,000 K98k rifles per month. This production was ...

Port Stanley Meetup Update

Sorry, update to the Port Stanley meetup: it will be Wednesday the 20th (not Thursday as originally posted). Same time and place; The Narrows bar from 6pm to 8pm.

Franchi SPAS-12 at the Range (Ad-free)

Today I'm taking the SPAS-12 out to the range, to try a variety of ammunition and see what runs in it. The SPAS is a gas-operated shotgun that can be switched to manual pump operation for use with underpowered ammunition. This was originally intended as a way to allow things like beanbag and other less lethal rounds to be used by police forces - but it is also a way to run light practice birdshot that would not normally cycle the gas system. So let's see what runs and what doesn't!

A DAO Service Revolver in the Civil War: the Pettengill Army (Ad-free)

The Pettengill revolver is a 6-shot, muzzleloading double-action-only system designed and patented by C.S. Pettengill in 1856, and improved by Edward Raymond and Charles Robitaille in 1858. In 1859, the Rogers & Spencer company was contracted to put them into production as a .31 caliber pocket model and a .34 caliber Navy model. Shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War, Amos Rogers took a couple of the .34 Navy models to Washington DC to look for a military contract. The Secretary of W...

Colt Boa: Rarest of the Snake Revolvers (Ad-free)

Of the seven revolvers Colt named after snakes, the rarest is the Colt Boa. Only a single production run of these were made totaling just 1,200 guns. They were made in 1985 as a custom order for the Lew Horton distribution company, which wanted something unique to offer its buyers. The Boa was an intermediary between the standard Colt MkV and the high-end Python. It was a 6-shot .357 Magnum with a full underlay and ventilated shroud. The only variation was in barrel length, as half were made ...

Spoils of War: French Occupation-Production Mauser K98k svwMB (ad-free)

Allied troops occupied the Mauser factory complex in Oberndorf in April of 1945, right at the end of the war. The factory was put under French administration and by May that same year production lines were restarted to supply French forces (who needed as many arms as they could get). In total, just under 52,000 new K98k rifles were made for the French between May 1945 and June 1946, when the factory shut back down (and much of it was dynamited by the departing French forces).

The rifle...

Shooting a WWII German 50mm Light Mortar (L.Gr.W.36) (Ad-free)

The standard German light mortar in World War Two was the model 1936 5cm Leichter Granatwerfer. It was a very precise (Germanic, one might say) machine, and a bubble lever for careful aiming, and it threw a roughly 2 pound projectile out to a maximum range of 550 meters. Today I have the chance to do some shooting with one, using original (demilled) projectiles and 1939-dated propellant charges. Should be fun!

You can see my full video on the history and use of this mortar here: 2024-11-09 12:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post

G33/40: Special Carbine for the Gebirgsjager

When the Germans took over control of the Czechoslovakian arms industry, they took some time to work out what out to be mass produced at the Brno factory. In the interim, they decided to restart production of the Czech vz33 Mauser carbine as the Gewehr 33/40 for German mountain troops. This was a truly short carbine with a 19.4 inch (490mm) barrel, which the Czechs had used for mostly police applications. German had used a short carbine back before World War One, but with Spitzer ammunition i...

Meetup: Port Stanley, Falkland Islands

EDIT: Sorry, had to switch this to Wednesday the 20th - same time, same place.

I know this one is a very long shot...in all sorts of sense of the phrase. But I will be in the Falklands filming next week, and if anyone there wants to hang out I will be at the Narrows Bar in Port Stanley at about 6pm until about 8pm on Wednesday, November 20th. Come down and say hello!

I normally only post these announcements to Patrons, but I am going to post this one in public because it's such a ...

SPAS-12: Franchi's Special Purpose Automatic Shotgun (Ad-free)

Franchi introduced the Special Purpose Automatic Shotgun (SPAS-12) for Italian military and police agencies in 1979 and it quickly because popular worldwide. Based originally on the gas-operated Franchi 500, that SPAS-12 was robust, reliable, and designed as a semiautomatic action with a backup pump action operation for use with underpowered ammunition (like beanbags or other less-lethal loads). In 1982 they began to be imported into the US through FIE, which was replaced by AAI as the import...

Beretta M38A vs Suomi kp/31 (w/ John Keene) (Ad-free)

If you had to pick one, would you take an early Beretta 38A (with bayonet), or a Finnish kp/31 Suomi? Both have semiauto selectors, although the Beretta's its easier to use. The Suomi has a higher rate of fire and larger magazine capacity, but is slower to use. Both have roughly equivalent sights and are very controllable. The Suomi is heavier, but the Beretta is longer. So which would you take?