ForgottenWeapons

The Sexy Retro Shorty: Original AR-180 Police Carbine (ad-free)

When Armalite designed the AR-180, they needed a factory to produce it, as their own production capacity was limited. Initially a license was granted to How in Japan, but this only lasted a few years before US involvement in the Vietnam War led Japan to cease allowing arms to be shipped to the US. In 1974, Armalite instead gave the production lice to Sterling in the UK. Sterling made a total of 12,368 AR-180 rifles, or which 10,946 were sent to the US.

In addition to standard rifles, St...

Gas Delayed Blowback Pistols: A Tour of the System (Ad-Free)

Today we are taking a look at an assortment of gas-delayed pistols, from South Africa to China to Europe. There is one predominant style of gas-delay execution, but also some variations and some substantially different takes on the concept...

Sorry! Meetup moved to Thursday 26th

Sorry! I made a scheduling goof, and have to move the meetup to tomorrow, Thursday the 26th. Same place and time (Cravan; 17 Rue Jean de la Fontaine, 16th Arr; 6:30pm-8pm).

Croatian Improvised Weapons: From Obrez to Single-Shot Yugo M70 Hybrid (ad-free)

During the Croatian Homeland War - as in all wars of independence - a wide variety of cobbled-together firearms were used by people who could not access proper factory arms for one reason or another. Today I'm as the Sisal Municipal Museum looking at four different examples from specifically the Sisal area in Croatia. Two are 16ga shotguns (16ga was more common there than the 12ga we are used to in the US), one is a classic Enfield "Obrez", and one is a neat hybrid of a Yugoslav M70 AK onto a...

Gevarm D4: An Economical MAT-49 Alternative (ad-free)

Gevarm was the gun-making subsidiary of Gevelot, a long-standing French ammunition manufacturer. In 1956 they brought a simple new submachine gun to market. It was chambered for 9mm Parabellum, with a simple blowback action. The construction was very basic, a combination of a tube receiver, stamped and flat components. There was two versions available; the D3 with a collapsing wire stock and the D4 with a fixed wooden stock (our example in today's video is a D4).

The French Army tested ...

Meetup in Paris, THURSDAY Oct 26

Want to come hang out for a cocktail? I'll be at Cravan (17 Rue Jean de la Fontaine, 16th Arr) from 6:30pm until 8pm. Stop by and say hello if you are in the area!

New Laugo Creator 500 Alien at the Range (Ad-Free)

Today I'm taking the new Laugo Alien out to the range to see if it matches up to the original. Spoiler, it does - and it's even better. The new grip angle is much more natural for me, and the trigger is actually a bit better than the original...

AFN-49: The Forgotten Full-Auto Brother of the FN-49 (Ad-free)

The SAFN, aka FN-49, is one of the classic post-war European battle rifles, and was sold to nine different countries in the early 1950s before the FAL became FN's primary combat rifle offering. What is often forgotten is that despite being limited to a fixed 10-round magazine, nearly half of all FN-49s produced were actually fully automatic AFN-49s. The Belgian Army, Luxembourg Army, Luxembourg Gendarmerie, and Belgian Congo all purchased the automatic pattern. So today, we're going to take a...

Zastava M51: A Compact Yugoslav Prototype SMG (Ad-free)

The Zastava M51 is a prototype Yugoslav submachine gun developed before the adoption of the M56. It uses elements of the Beretta M38 (namely the captive recoil spring system) and PPSh-41 (the selector switch and magazine well) along with a collapsing stock reminiscent of the Polish PM63 machine pistol. Documentation on the M51 is very limited, and I don't know how many were actually built, but it never went into series production.

A big thanks to the Croatian Police Museum (Muzej Polici...

Correcting Gun Myths w/ Bloke on the Range: StGs, Carbines, and M16s (ad-free)

#1: The AK is copied from the Sturmgewehr

#2: Mattel made M16s

#3: Chinese jackets in Korea stopped .30 Carbine rounds

0:00 Introduction and discussion on the Lynx Brutality match in Slovenia

0:28 Debunking and comparison of firearm myths: AK vs Sturmgewehr

3:11 The history and development of AK with the French and German influence

5:23 Detailed analysis of the AK receiver and its construction

6:59 Debunking the myth: Mattel M16 and a comparison with ...

Shooting the SS-77: How Good is South Africa's GPMG? (ad-free)

Yesterday we looked at the history and mechanics of the South African Vektor SS-77 general purpose machine gun, and today I have it out at the range to do some shooting. It's really as nice of a gun as I had expected from taking it apart - controllable and comfortable to shoot. I would put this up against any of the best GPMGs in the world and I think it could hold it's own just fine...

SS77: South Africa Builds a GPMG on the Shoulders of Giants (Ad-Free)

In the 1970s, South Africa began looking for a domestic-production GMPG to replace its inventory of FN MAG machine guns. The MAG was an excellent weapon, but the ones in South Africa were getting old and worn out, and with the country under international embargo over Apartheid, new guns and parts were not available from FN.

The SS-77 (named for its two designers, Richard Joseph Smith and Lazlo Soregi) began development in 1977, with initially prototypes built by Lyttleton Engineering Wo...

Improved Laugo Alien for the American Market: The Creator 500

When the original Laugo Alien came out, it was designed with a grip angle rather steeper than a lot of people (including most Americans, it seems) preferred. In response, Laugo redesigned the grip to be more like a 1911, and made the whole grip assembly modular in the process. Original magazines are still compatible, but the handling of the new model is a lot nicer for those of us who aren't used to a Luger style grip.

At the same time, Laugo now has an American offshoot (Laugo Arms USA...

A Professional Warlord Copy of the FN 1900 from the Nanjing Arsenal

Interested in more pistols from the Chinese warlord era? Check out my book "Pistols of the Warlords", now in stock and shipping at:  

https://www.headstamppublishing.com/chinese-pistols  

One of the professional factory-made Chinese warlord-era copies of the FN Model 1900 came from the Nanjing Arsenal. The arsenal was founded in 1864 as a Chinese/British private venture and eventu...

Egyptian 2-Gun: Rasheed and Browning High Power (Ad-Free)

We just looked at the Rasheed (and it's Iraqi sibling the Baghdad) and today I'm taking it out to the monthly 2-Gun match. I'm pairing it with a United Arab Republic contract Browning High Power, and some period Egyptian camouflage. Fun! Unfortunately, the Rasheed gave me a number of malfunctions, and its tiny sights were definitely a handicap for me. The High Power was better, although you can't necessarily tell from my shooting today.

Japanese Type 96 150mm Howitzer (Guadalcanal) (ad-free)

Like the smaller 105mm field gun, the Imperial Japanese Army essentially copied a French Schneider design for their 150mm howitzer, adopted in 1936 as the Type 96. It was produced by the Osaka Arsenal from 1936 until 1944, with about 600 being made in total. Capable of firing at extremely high angles, the Type 96 was a practical and effective weapon in the islands of the Pacific.  

This example currently resides in the Vilu Military Museum on Guadalcanal, having been salvaged off M...

Baghdad Carbine: Iraq's Super-Rare Copy of the Rasheed

In 1974, Iraq and Egypt were still on good relations, and Egypt sold Iraq a batch of 300 Rasheed carbines and the production tooling to manufacture them. Iraq quickly set up production and began making their own copy of the Rasheed in 1974 or 1975, named the "Baghdad". Production ran until 1978, with about 9,000 or 10,000 carbines made.  

Information about the Baghdad remains very scarce, and only a handful of the carbines are known to exist in the United States. The production tot...

MSBS "Grot" Ceremonial Parade Rifle (Honor Guard Version) (ad-free)

The first version of the new MSBS "Grot" rifle purchased by the Polish government was actually a special version for ceremonial parade use. In order to make the gun suitable to that role, a surprising number of changes were made to it - almost every element is different than the standard service version. The stock is fixed and given a heavy steel buttplate, the fire control system is semiauto only, the right-side magazine release is disabled, the sights and low-profile and non-adjustable, the...

A Mystery MP-5 in .45ACP...Will it Run?

The fine folks at DSA had this rather mysterious MP5 in their reference collection, and we decided to take it out to the range to see if it would run. It's an MP-5, but chambered for .45ACP using altered M3 Grease Gun magazines. The original manufacturer is unclear; it's marked as being imported form Turkey, but does not appear to have been something that MKE made. So is it Pakistani? Or just someone's one-off project? I really don't know.  

As for functioning, we found that only o...

Testing an Original WW1 Trench Gun w/ GI Buckshot: How Does it Pattern? (Ad-Free)

Today I am out at the range with Matt Haught from Sym-Tac to test out our original WW1 Winchester 1897 Trench Gun with some original WW2 GI buckshot. While the US did buy some shotgun ammunition specially packaged for military use, the majority was simply commercial off-the-shelf ammunition stamped "US Property". We are using a box of that type of US Property Remington Kleanbore, 9-pellet 00 buckshot. In addition, we will testing premium modern Federal Flite Control buckshot in the trench gun...

The Rasheed: Egypt's Semiauto Battle Carbine From Sweden (ad-free)

Egypt purchased tooling for the Swedish AG-42 Ljungman in 1952, and adapted it to their 8mm Mauser caliber as the Hakim rifle. Later, they scaled the rifle down to 7.62x39mm as the Rasheed, and manufactured about 7,300 of them between 1966 and 1968. These rifles were issued to the District Ward Reserve Army (essentially a National Guard) and saw service in the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War. Production ended in favor of AK pattern rifles, but the Rasheed is a very interesting and fairly r...

Finnish Brutality 2023: A True Bucket-List Experience for Derek the SF Medic(ad-free)

I took a few minutes at Finnish Brutality 2023 to chat with Derek, a former Range and SF medic who overcame some quite daunting personal challenges to come shoot the match despite stage 4 cancer. It was great to hang out with him at the match, and to take inspiration from his story!

"Hill's Patent" Stanley Bull-Dog Revolver: Blatant Patent Theft in 1878

The Stanley Bull-Dog revolver is an English-production revolver which is marked as being "Hill's Patent". The gun uses an interesting simultaneous ejection system similar to the Fagnus - which one assume was the subject of Hill's aforementioned patent. The guns were made in a variety of configurations (blue, nickeled, various barrel lengths and calibers, etc).

Hill's actual patent (number 3645 of 1878) is actually a provisional patent relating to the lockwork that turns the cylinder. In...

Testing Slamfire: Sneaky Advantage or Useless Hype? (Ad-Free)

We've all heard about how the Winchester 1897 is capable of slam fire, but is that really a useful feature? Or is it just a cost-saving safety hazard? Well, Matt Haught of Sym-Tac consulting and I are at the range today to find out...

Lever-Delayed Prototype SMG: The MAS Mle 1948 Series (ad-free)

When France decided to adopt a new 9x19mm submachine gun after World War Two, all three of the main French arsenals (St Etienne/MAS, Chatellerault/MAC, and Tulle/MAT) developed designs to compete for adoption. Tulle would eventually win and their design became the MAT-49, but the other lines of development are quite interesting.  

The MAS design from 1948 was a lever-delayed system, anticipating perhaps the later FAMAS rifle. We have a series of developmental prototypes to look at ...

Real or Fake? Authenticating an 1897 Trench Gun (Ad-Free)

Authentic World War One 1897 trench guns will have:

Serial number between E613,000 and E705,000

High quality rust blue finish

Solid frame

20-inch cylinder bore barrel (with no bead)

Muzzle in lone with bayonet lug

Handguard with six rows of holes

Bayonet lug with a bead sight and either "PAT APPY FOR" on the right or patent dates on the right

Stock with a thin wrist, high comb, no fluting, and no stamps

Hard plastic commercial buttplate 2023-09-19 12:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Colt 607: The First AR Carbine (ad-free)

The Model 607 was Colt's first attempt at a carbine version of the AR-15 rifle, shortening both the barrel and stock. The action is identical to a standard AR, but the barrel is only 10 inches (254mm) long, and the stock uses a collapsing design unique to this model. Most examples used a small suppressor to reduce the very substantial concussion of such a short 5.56mm barrel down to more like that of a standard 20" rifle. Production of the Model 607 was limited to only about 50 units, and the...

Machine Gun Questions for John Keene

I'm on my way to do some filming at the Morphy auction company this week, and I expect I will have some time to do another Q&A with John Keene, machine gun guru extraordinaire. What would you like to ask him?

Live Q&A about the new video app - live now

We are going live now with a Q&A about the new streaming video app, History of Weapons and War. Hop in if you have any questions!

South Africa's Sci-Fi Bullpup: Vektor CR-21 at the Range (ad-free)

Courtesy of DSA, I'm out at the range today with a Vektor CR-21 to see just how it handles compared to a regular Galil...