ForgottenWeapons

The Pointless (and Dangerous) "Spetznaz" Makarov Holster (Ad-Free)

Today we have a look at the EFA-2k Makarov holster that was "made for Spetznaz". I am extremely skeptical that any Spetznaz operator ever actually deployed with one of these things, though. It's a holster with a neat mechanical function; you can push the pistol down through the bottom of the holster and it will automatically disengage the safety and rack the slide (chambering a round) in the process (ejecting the chambered round out the hole in the holster is there is one chambered).

Th...

VSS Vintorez: Russia's Silent Sniper Rifle (Ad-free)

The VSS (Special Sniper Rifle) Vintorez was one of two dedicated silenced rifles developed in Russia in the 1980s. The Vintorez was given a very good barrel and intended for precision shooting, while the AS (Special Assault rifle) Val used the same action and suppressor, but had a pistol grip and folding stock, and was intended for use as a typical carbine. Both were chambered for the 9x39mm round, which came out at subsonic velocities to ensure very quiet operation. Both designs also include...

Just How Bad Is It? Vektor CP-1 at the BUG Match (Ad-free)

Yesterday we looked at the history and the mechanics of the Vektor CP1, and today I'm taking it out to the monthly BackUp Gun Match. It isn't a pistol with a good reputation, but it's also not a pistol very many people gave a fair shake to. It has a decent grip, pretty decent sights, a fixed barrel, and a single-action trigger. So it might actually do pretty well...

Vektor CP-1: Recalled to the Mother Ship (Ad-Free)

The Vektor CP-1 was developed by Lyttleton Engineering Works (who owned the Vektor brand) in 1995 for a South African Police contract. They lost that contract to the Republic Arms RAP-401, but decided to put the CP-1 onto the civilian market instead. It was a pretty decent seller for them, and after a couple years they started importing it into the US. Things went bad when it turned out the the gun wasn't quite drop-safe, and in late 2000 they were recalled for a repair. Some were repaired an...

Deep Lore on Machine Guns: Q&A with John Keene (Ad-Free)

Today I'm speaking with retired Master Sergeant John Keene, the NFA export for Morphy's. John is a machine gun collector himself, and between this and his work with Morphy's he has exceptional experience and expertise. So we have a slate of questions for him from Patrons:

0:00 - Introduction

0:29 - What’s the best way to sell a transferrable SMG?

5:00 - German small arms engineers used by the US after WW2?

10:44 - Could the T24 (American MG42) have worked?

14:0...

Top 5 Pistols of World War One (Response to C&Rsenal) (Ad-Free)

C&Rsenal posted a Top 10 Pistols of WWI video a few days ago, and I didn't entirely agree with their choices - so I figured I'd do my own list. I'm using the same base conditions that they did (only locked-breech pistols), and I'm judging the guns based on their desirability to a trained and practiced pistol gunfighter. I stuck to just 5 rather than C&Rsenal's 10, but let me know what you think of our picks...  

C&Rsenal's Top Ten: 

2023-12-03 12:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post

East Germany's Secret Walther Clone: The Pistole 1001-0

When the Allies occupied German at the end of World War Two, the Walther factory at Zella Mehlis was initially garrisoned by American soldiers (who did a pretty thorough job liberating all the guns they could find there) but eventually ended up in the Soviet occupation zone (and later East Germany). This was in Suhl, a major area of weapons production, and the DDR set up a large factory complex of its own there called the Ernst Thalmann Werke (named after a German communist martyr).

In ...

Venezuelan FN49: The First FN49 Contract (Ad-Free)

Venezuela was the First Nation to purchase the FN-49 rifle, before even the Belgian military. In fact, the Venezuelan contract was signed in 1948, before the "FN-49" designation was even in place. Venezuela bought a total of 8,012 rifles in two batches - 4,000 rifles plus 12 cutaway training examples delivered in 1949 and a further 4,000 more rifles delivered in June 1951. All of them included the integral muzzle brake and scope mounting cuts, although no scopes were ever procured. They were ...

My New Book: Small Arms of World War Two - United States (Ad-Free)

In stock and shipping now: https://www.headstamppublishing.com/ww2-usa

European sales: https://www.headstampbook.com/

Small Arms of WWII: United States of America is the first in Headstamp Publishing’s newest book series covering the myriad of weapons developed and fielded around the globe by the vari...

Argentine Brass Maxim: A Machine Gun of the Steampunk Age (ad-free)

The Maxim Gun was the first successful true machine gun, and it became extremely popular worldwide. Maxim sent his first two working models to Enfield for testing in 1887, and by 1889 he had what he termed the "World Standard" model. No two contracts were quite identical, as the gun was constantly being tweaked and improved, but the 200 guns sold to Argentina in 1895 (50), 1898 (130) and 1902 (20) are a great time capsule into the configuration of the early Maxim guns in military service.

Hotchkiss Portative: Clunky But Durable (Ad-Free)

The Portative was an attempt by the Hotchkiss company to make a light machine gun companion to their heavy model (which had found significant commercial success). The Portative used the same feed strips, albeit loaded upside down, and the same gas piston operation, but a very different locking system. Instead of a tiling locking block the Portative had a "fermeture nut" that rotated to lock onto the bolt with three sets of interrupted thread locking lugs. In addition, many of the traditionall...

Ballard .41 Rimfire Derringer: An Old West Boot Gun

Charles H. Ballard is much better known for his single shot rifle design, but he also designed, patented, and produced a .41 rimfire caliber derringer. These were popular concealed weapons during the 19th century, and remain in production even today (though no longer in .41 rimfire...). Production began circa 1870, and a few thousand of Ballard's derringers were made.

Favela 2-Gun Action Challenge: Rio BOPE Madsen & Beretta 92

It's time for the monthly 2-Gun Action Challenge Match, and this time I'm bringing out the Madsen! I've rigged it up like the BOPE (Brazilian military police special teams) typically use them, with the flash hider and bipod removed to save weight. It's still a heck of a gun, weighing in at about 20 pounds (9kg). I've paired it up with a Beretta 92FS for the match - that should be a Taurus PT92 for maximum realism, but the Beretta is what I've got. For gear, I found some black DPM fatigues and...

FN Model 30: The First Belgian BAR (ad-free)

FN played a role in the production of Polish wz.28 BARs, and in the process obtained a copy of the technical package for the weapon, and converted it to metric measurements. Under the supervision of Dieudonne Saive, this was used as the basis for FN's own BAR production, called the Modelé 30. Production was done with a license from Colt, who owned the rights to Browning's patents on the BAR.

The Model 30 was basically a Colt R75 (Model 1925), but incorporated a few improvements. Most s...

Colt's .41 Derringers: Buyout and Innovation (Ad-free)

When Colt decided that it wanted a piece of the Derringer market, it used a tactic we are used to seeing today: it found an existing manufacturer and just bought them outright. This was the National Firearms Company, which was manufacturing a Derringer designed by Daniel Moore in 1861. Moore made the guns himself until 1865 when he sold the rights to National, and they made them until being purchased by Colt in 1870. This design then became the Colt 1st Model (and 2nd Model) Derringer. It use...

Hangfires & Ballistics Gel: Czech vz.52 at the Range (ad-free)

Yesterday we took a look at the vz.52/57 rifle in 7.62x39mm, and today I have one of its 7.62x45mm predecessors out at the range. Not so much to do some shooting, as it turns out, but to fix malfunctions and wait for hangfires and duds...

However, we did have enough success to put some 7.62x45mm into ballistics gel and see what it does.

If you want a nice small resource on the 52 and 52/57, check out Donald Woolley's book: 2023-11-18 12:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Czech vz. 52/57: The SKS We Have At Home (ad-free)

We don't need the SKS, we have gun designers at home! In the early days of the Cold War, the Czechoslovak communist party was on very good terms with Josef Stalin, and were able to design and use their own small arms. A whole new slate of small arms were developed in the early 1950s, with a rifle, pistol, and light machine gun all adopted in 1952 as vz. (model) 52. The rifle used a short-stroke annular type gas piston that was located around the barrel. It was chambered for a proprietary Czec...

Beltfed Madsen LMG: When the Weird Gets Weirder (ad-free)

First produced in 1902, the Madsen was one of the first practical light machine guns, and it remained in production for nearly 5 decades. The Madsen system is a rather unusual recoil-operated mechanism with a tilting bolt and a remarkably short receiver. The most unusual variation on the system was the belt-fed, high rate-of-fire pattern developed for aircraft use. This program was initiated by the Danish Air Force in the mid 1920s, and several different patterns were built by the time World ...

Colt 1903 in US Military Service (and for the OSS) (Ad-free)

The Colt Model 1903, aka Pocket Hammerless, aka Model M, was a massively successful design for Colt on the commercial market. It was chambered for the .32ACP cartridge, with a .380 model introduced in 1908. During World War Two, the US government took an interest in the pistol. A total of 17,330 were purchased in .32 ACP, and another 3,113 in .380 ACP. The .32 caliber examples are found between serial numbers 541,103 and 572,215. Some were purchased by direct contract, and some procured indep...

Breda 37: Italy's Forgotten Heavy Machine Gun (Ad-Free)

The Breda Model 37 was Italy's standard heavy machine gun (which meant a rifle-caliber gun fired only from a tripod) during World War Two. It was chambered for the 8x59mm cartridge, as Italy used a two-cartridge system at the time, with 6.5mm for rifles and the heavier 8mm for machine guns to exploit their longer effective range. Production began in 1937 and continued until the end of the war, with a batch being made for German use after the Italian armistice in 1943. Pre-war it was also sold...

Soviet World War Two Swords? The M1927 Shashka (Ad-free)

Cossack forces have long been a key cavalry element of the Russian military, and this did not change during the Soviet era. The Cossacks had their own rather distinctive style of sword, the shashka, and the Red Army maintained the tradition of issuing them to Cossack cavalry troopers. In 1927, a new pattern was adopted, and it was produced and issued from 1928 until 1946. The shashka has a slightly curved, single-edged blade and no handguard. The model 1927 military type was initially made wi...

Early Registration: Moons Out Goons Out 2024 Night Match

https://practiscore.com/moons-out-goons-out/register

We are running another night rifle match this year, called Moons Out Goons Out. It's an 8-stage, 2-night match taking place at the Echo Valley Training Center outside Winchester Virginia March 22-24. Full information in the video - public registration opens tomorrow, and it will fill up fast. So this is your chance to snag a slot early if you'...

Madsens in the Favelas: The LMG Still Going Strong With Rio's Military Police (ad-free)

The Madsen LMG was first introduced in 1902, and it is still in use with police forces in Brazil today. The Madsen was not very popular with major European armies, but it sold extensively in South America, with Brazil acquiring batches in 1932, 1935, and 1949. These were converted to 7.62mm NATO in the 1950s, and the military kept them in inventory until 1996. At that point they were given to the police, in particular the Rio de Janeiro state police. There, they were put to use providing cove...

Adventures in Surplus: From German Imperial Navy to Ethiopia (ad-free)

I really enjoy finding guns that can be positively traced through multiple different parts of history, and Lugers can be a great source for that sort of story. Today I have a Luger from Royal Tiger Imports that has an incredible amount of history to it...  

The upper assembly of this Luger was built in 1917 for the Imperial German Army, then property marked by the Weimar Republic, then rebuilt by Mauser and used in World War Two, then rebuilt again and used by East Germany before b...

The Most Expensive Machine Gun Ever Sold (Ad-Free)

Morphy's recently took the world record for the most expensive machine gun ever sold at public auction - with a transferrable FN Minimi. It sold for a winning bid of $490,000, which became a total price of $588,000 after adding the 20% buyer's premium. Good heavens. So today, let's consider why someone might speak THAT MUCH money for a Minimi...

CZ-75 Automatic: The Czechoslovak Machine Pistol

In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, CZ started exploring more commercial export options for its guns. In addition to resurrecting (well, attempting to) the vz.68 Skorpion in 9x19mm, they also developed a selective fire version of their landmark CZ-75 pistol. Production began in 1995, and shut down in 2000. A few more were made in 2002-3, and a final batch in 2007, for a grand total of 2,382 manufactured. Besides the selector allowing semi or fully automatic fire, the CZ75 Automat...

Looking for an artist

I'm looking to commission a piece of art based on Alphonse Mucha's work - is there anyone here who is an artist interested in that sort of project? If you are, please drop me an email at ianm07@gmail.com with links to some of your work, and we can discuss details. Thanks!

Mauser Schnellfeuer: The Official Full Auto C96 Broomhandle (ad-free)

Contrary to what you might expect, Mauser was actually the last company to produce a fully automatic model of the C96 "broomhandle" pistol. The C96 was very popular in China (Mauser sent hundreds of thousands of them to China) and Spanish firms like Bestigui Hermanos and Astra jumped at the chance to make their own lookalikes and piggyback on the Mauser reputation there. The Spanish firms were also more responsive to Chinese desires for things like extended and detachable magazines and select...

HK P11: NATO's Secret Underwater Pistol (ad-free)

0:00 Introduction and History of Underwater Firearms

0:55 Engineering Challenges and Russian Underwater Firearms

2:07 Development, Adoption, and Global Usage of the H&K P11

3:36 Examination of H&K P11: Fired Barrel Cluster and Firing Mechanics

5:24 Unique Features of the H&K P 11: Silence and Sealed Sabot System

7:45 The Electrical System and Battery Compartment of the HK P 11

8:42 Web Gear and Standard Load Out for the H&K P11

9:24 Th...

Guycot: A Rocket Ball Chain Rifle From 1879 (ad-free)

The “Guycot” is a rocket ball chain rifle system named for its two creators, Paulin Gay (the designer) and Henri Guénot (the financier). They patented the idea in 1879, and manufactured it in both rifle and pistol form - I have a previous video on one of the pistols and today we are looking at two of the rifles. The chain inside holds a series of compartment links, each sized to fit a 6.5mm rocket ball projectile (a hollow-based bullet filled with a powder charge and set with a primer in...