ForgottenWeapons

Can I Shoot 1 MOA All Day? (Bloke/Polenar Challenge Accepted!) (Ad-free)

Posting this early for all of you guys...

Bloke and Žiga have challenged us - and you! - to shoot a 1 MOA group on demand, with a non-benchrest sort of rifle. The idea is that a whole lot of people will happily insist that their regular hunting rifle will quite easily shoot 1 MOA all day long. Well, will it? Prove it! One minute of angle is a pretty impressive standard if you aren't talking about 3-shot groups, called flyers, do-overs, and mulligans. So let's see if I can meet the chal...

AK-63F: Hungary's Last Military Kalashnikov (Ad-free)

Join our Kickstarter for "Rifles On The Danube" today and get your copy of the best book on Hungarian AKs!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/rifles-on-the-danube?ref=8nw9gl

In 1978, as AMD-65 rifles in service were starting to get worn out, FÉG launched a program to refurbish the old original AKM-63 rifles with new wood furniture for new military ser...

Romania Copies the Jericho: Cugir Models 95 & 98 (Ad-free)

By the end of communism in Romania in 1989, the standard service pistols for the army and police were still the old Tokarevs and the Cugir Model 74 "Carpați" Walther PP copy. These were obviously outdated, and as it moved more towards the West, the Romanian military wanted a modern handgun. In 1992 they assessed what was available, and decided to make a domestic copy of the IMI Jericho, with a few minor tweaks. The process of reverse engineering the design took until 1995, when production be...

Hungarian Blast Machine: AMD-65 at the Range (Ad-free)

"Rifles on the Danube" Kickstarter is live!

Today I took my AMD-65 out to the range. I've shot regular AKMs with AMD muzzle brakes, but never had the chance to try the AMD-65 in its original proper configuration. And you know what? It's actually not bad, at least in short helpings. The brake is really concussive for people around the gun, but it's not bad at all for the shooter. The grip would get tiring after a while, but for just a bit of shooting it's not bad at all. 2024-05-09 12:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post

Tanegashima: Guns of the Samurai (Ad-free)

The first Japanese exposure to firearms came from Portuguese traders in 1534, as the southern Japanese island of Tanegashima. They received a matchlock, and quickly recognized its utility and potential - within 10 years matchlocks were in significant production in Japan. The style of gun took hold nationally, and they became known collectively as “Tanegashima”. These matchlocks served as major military arms during the Japanese warring period between 1575 and 1638, and then remained standa...

ATF Update: More Transferrable MGs and One-Week NFA Transfers (Ad-free)

Two pieces of surprisingly good news regarding the NFA :

First, ATF has recognized that about 4,000 machine guns imported prior to 1986 for police agencies were mis-classified as dealer samples when they should have been fully transferrable. Those guns are being reclassified as transferrable now, and lots of dealers have already probably noticed the change. We are still waiting on written confirmation from ATF, but this has been a project years in the making between NFATCA and the ATF,...

Researching Hungarian Kalashnikovs: Interview with László Becz (Ad-free)

Rifles on the Danube: Hungarian Kalashnikov Firearms 1959-2002 is available now on Kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/rifles-on-the-danube?ref=ezuyuv 

Nic Jenzen-Jones, Director of Research for Headstamp Publishing, spent some time in Budapest speaking with László Becz, author of "Rifles on the Danube: Hungarian Kalashnikov Firearms...

MG08: The Devil's Paintbrush

The MG08 was the German Army standard Maxim gun in World War One. The Germany Navy adopted the Maxim first in 1894, followed by the Army in 1899, then a new pattern in 1901, and finally the MG08 in 1908. This was actually a somewhat old-fashioned pattenr of Maxim when it was adopted, as the Germans chose to use the 1889-style lock, which was neither headspace adjustable not field-strippable. Their decision was based on the idea that they could produce locked to perfect interchangeable headspa...

Rupertus Pepperbox: A Sophisticated 8-Shot Rimfire Pocket Gun (Ad-free)

The Rupertus Patent Pistol Manufacturing Company was founded in Philadelphia by Bavarian-born Jacob Rupertus. The company made a variety of derringers, pepperboxes, and revolvers and today we are looking at an 8-shot, .22 rimfire pepperbox patented by Rupertus in 1864. It’s a tiny civilian pocket gun, and one that seems to be well made and cleverly designed. The loading port is a rotary piece that prevents any accidental firing during the loading process and also ensures that the loading po...

.30-06 M1918 American Chauchat - Doughboys Go to France (Ad-free)

When the US entered World War One, the country had a grand total of 1,453 machine guns, split between 4 different models. This was not a useful inventory to equip even a single division headed for France, and so the US had to look to France for automatic weapons. In June 1917 Springfield Armory tested a French CSRG Chauchat automatic rifle, and found it good enough to inquire about making an American version chambered for the .30-06 cartridge. This happened quickly, and after testing in Augus...

AMD-65: The Specialist's AK Turns Standard-Issue (Ad-free)

Get your copy of "Rifles On The Danube" today!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/rifles-on-the-danube?ref=950hwi

The Hungarian AMD-65 (Automata Módosított Deszantfegyver - "Modified Paratrooper Automatic Rifle") was requested first in 1964 because the standard AKM-63 rifles in Hungarian service were too long for a lot of troops. The Mini...

Rifles on the Danube: Hungarian Kalashnikovs - Headstamp's New Book!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/rifles-on-the-danube?ref=biz070

Rifles on the Danube: 
Hungarian AK-Pattern Firearms, 1959–2002

At the end of the Second World War, Hungary was occupied by Soviet troops and soon fell into the Soviet sphere of influence, joining the Warsaw Pact in 1955. Like most other socialist countries behind the Iron Curtain, ...

Madsen M50: From the Korean War to Star Trek (Ad-free)

During World War Two, Madsen (DISA) manufactured a licensed copy of the Finnish Suomi (see: https://youtu.be/hjs1uiAIpNQ). When the war ended, they wanted to replace this with a more modern, inexpensive design of their own. The result was the Model 1946 Madsen, a creative clamshell design of stamped parts. It is a very simple blowback, open-bolt 9x19mm SMG that perfectly fit the post-war era. The M46 version was sold to a ...

Clockwork Basilisk - The Early Revolvers of Elisha Collier and Artemas Wheeler (Ad-free)

Available now at:

http://www.headstamppublishing.com/collier-book

Clockwork Basilisk: The Early Revolvers of Elisha Collier & Artemas Wheeler reveals the first attempt to put a multi-shot firearm in the hands of the common soldier and sportsman. This novel device—patented in America in 1818 by Artemas Wheeler—was taken to England by his partner, Elisha Collier, to be trialed by t...

How to Avoid the Legal Pitfalls of a Transferrable H&K Auto Sear (Ad-free)

One of the particularly popular transferrable machine guns out there is the H&K auto sear. Since H&K grip and trigger assemblies are interchangeable between 9mm, 5.56mm, and 7.62x51mm guns (ie, MP5, HK33, and G3) a single registered full-auto grip assembly can allow someone to effectively have three machine guns for the price of one (albeit only one at a time). However, there are some potentially very expensive and dangerous pitfalls for someone acquiring one of these without a full u...

M1 Thompson: Savage Simplifies the SMG (Ad-free)

The Thompson submachine gun struggled to find a market when it was originally produced, with the first batch of 15,000 Colt-made guns not finally all selling until the late 1930s. By that time, the clouds of war were gathering, and demand for submachine guns finally began to really grow. The US military had some Thompsons, and the British began buying as many as they could. The US wanted to increase production, and that meant simplifying the gun, both to reduce cost and to increase manufactur...

Daly Arms "Tom Thumb" - A Tiny Ring-Trigger Revolver (Ad-free)

The "Tom Thumb" is a tiny .22 rimfire revolver made in Belgium by an unknown shop and imported into the US to be sold by the Daly Arms Company of New York. These are antique guns, probably made in the 1870s or 1880s, chambered for the original black powder .22 rimfire cartridge. There are other similarly sized guns (like the Colt New Line rimfire revolvers), the the use of a ring trigger here is quite unusual. The ring appears to be too small to actually use, and in seeming acknowledge of thi...

Colt Automatic Machine Rifle Model 1919: the First Commercial BAR (Ad-free)

Several patents were taken out on the BAR during World War One, but they were all kept unpublished and secret during the war. Just days after the Armistice, Colt patent attorney CJ Ehbets wrote to the US Patent Office requesting release of the secrecy restrictions. They responded just two days later sending formal publication of the patents, and Colt was able to move directly into commercial export sales of the BAR.

The model being sold by Colt was officially the Colt Automatic Machine...

Maxims in the Skies: the German LMG 08/15 (Ad-free)

As soon as the MG08/15 "light" machine gun was adopted by Germany, it was recognized as an ideal basis for an aircraft gun. Weight was of the essence for WW1 aircraft, and a lightened Maxim was just the thing to use. So the Spandau Arsenal began producing the LMG08/15 (the "L" in which might stand for either air-cooled or lightweight; we really don't know which) in May 1916. In addition to cutting a ton of lightening slots in the water jacket, the guns also had mechanisms added to allow a pil...

The Rarest 1911: North American Arms Co (Ad-free)

In the summer of 1918, the US government wanted to increase production of M1911 pistols, but all current manufacturers were working at capacity. So they looked to issue new contracts, and someone realized that the Ross rifle factory was a potential option. Now, the Ross Rifle Company was bankrupt by this time, and its factory lay essentially abandoned. So in June of 1918, two Canadian lawyers by the names of James Denison and Edmond Ryckman incorporated the North American Arms Company Ltd in ...

What is the Best Maxim Gun? (with John Keene) (Ad-free)

Today, Ian is talking to John Keene, NFA specialist for Morphy Auctions. The question is, what is the best model of Maxim gun? Whether it's for a recreation shooter or a historical enthusiast, there are some models that are better than others...

'Murican 2-Gun: M1918A3 BAR and M1911A1 (Ad-free)

Today I'm taking a brand new Ohio Ordnance M1918A3 semiauto BAR to the 2-gun match, along with a Tisas M1911A1 clone. The BAR is the WW2 configuration, but I followed the footsteps of many a US GI and took off the bipod (and it didn't come with a carry handle). That reduces the weight a bit from the very beefy 19 pounds the WW2 BAR tipped the scales at. Even so, it's still like running a shoulder rifle with a second rifle strapped to it...

It was a fun match, even if I did place very n...

MG11: The Magnificent Swiss Maxim Gun (Ad-Free)

The Swiss were one of the first countries to test Hiram Maxim’s new automatic machine gun in 1887, and they found it far superior to their just-recently-purchased Gardner guns. The first Swiss maxims were delivered in 1889, and the country came back three more times for newer models. The MG94 was the first major adoption, followed by the MG00 for cavalry. Finally, after the Maxim patents expired and DWM introduced their improved 1909 commercial pattern, the Swiss adopted it as the MG11. The...

Type 100 / 44 (Late Pattern) Japanese SMG (Ad-free)

The Japanese never really embraced submachine guns during and before World War Two. A series of development programs in the 1920s and 30s led nowhere, and there never really seems to have been much motivation behind them. Some small batches of guns were purchased from abroad for units like the Special Naval Landing Force, comprising things like SIG Model 1920 Bergmann guns and Steyr MP34s. Finally in the late 30s, apparently spurred by Japanese experience in the taking of Shanghai, Kijiro Nam...

M14: America’s Worst Service Rifle - What Went Wrong? (Ad-free)

While the US never adopted a significant variation of the M1 Garand (excluding sniper models), testing continued on new iterations and features throughout the war. By the time the war ended, the US military had some specific ideas about what it wanted in a new service rifle. That being, something lighter, capable of automatic fire, and to have one single platform replace the M1 Carbine, M3A1 Grease Gun, M1 Garand, and M1918A2 BAR. New rifles to meet these requirements were developed by Spring...

A Guns to Save Lives: Winchester 1886 Line Thrower (Ad-free)

Line-throwing devices have long been an important part of maritime safety, and many different have been guns adapted to launch ropes from shore to ship or ship to ship. Usually they are inexpensive obsolete surplus of the era, but a change in law in 1918 led to a spike in demand for line-throwers in the US. As a result, a number of entrepreneurs put together line-throwing rifle kits. One of these was William Read & Sons, who bought 497 Model 1886 Winchester lever action rifles in .45-70 f...

Lugers in Thailand: The Siamese Artillery Luger (Ad-Free)

In 1936 and 1937, Siam purchased a batch of several hundred new Luger pistols for the Bangkok Police, including 100 long-barreled lP08 Artillery Lugers. These were new production gun, but made with surplus WW1-era barrels, sights, and stocks. The Siamese serial numbers range from 3450v to 3553v. The guns are standard Mauser production, all dated 1936, similar to the purchases by Persia and Turkey around the same time. The one distinctive marking on the Siamese contract are local rack numbers ...

Chinese Type 50 PPSh: Founding “Gun City” in Manchuria (Ad-free)

One of the first new weapons adapted and used by the Chinese Peoples’ Liberation Army after the Communist victory in the Chinese civil war was the Type 50, a copy of the Soviet PPSh-41. The story of its manufacture begins at the Japanese occupied Mukden Arsenal. It was briefly occupied by the Soviets in 1945 before coming under control of the CCP. It was a huge manufacturing complex at the time, making artillery, small arms, ammunition, and more. A Nationalist bombing raid in 1949 led to th...

What is a "Battle Rifle"?

"Battle rifle" is not a formally recognized term like "assault rifle", but it is widely used, and I think it has a lot of utility. It is intended to differentiate between intermediate-caliber and full-power military rifles, and to that end I propose these four criteria to define a "battle rifle":

1 - A military style or pattern rifle

2 - Intended primarily to be fired from the shoulder

3 - Self-loading (either semi- or fully automatic)

4 - Chambered for a full powe...

Colt Viper: A Rare Snake and a Great Revolver (Ad-free)

Colt has released seven different revolvers named after snakes, and they have become a popular niche collection for many people. The Python is by far the best known, but several others are very rare. One of these is the Colt Viper, of which only a few thousand were made and only in 1977. The Viper is fundamentally a variation of the Police Positive Special with an aluminum alloy frame and a 4" barrel. They were all chambered for .38 Special, and in fact the only variations are in the finish -...