ForgottenWeapons

"History of Weapons and War" Patron Early Access

I am really excited to announce a new streaming service for historical & education firearms video content: History of Weapons and War. This is a collaboration with seven other firearms channels to put all the best educational gun content in one place - a place that is outside the reach of Youtube.

To sign up, just go to:

https://weaponsandwar.tv

We have a special discount code for you (my Patreon and Playe...

That One Terrible Gun Myth in Siege of Jadotville (ad-free)

The Netflix film "The Siege of Jadotville" recounts the fighting between Katanga soldiers and mercenaries and Company A of the 35th Irish Infantry Battalion, who were deployed to the Katanga province of Congo in 1961 as part of the UN peacekeeping mission there. The Irish soldiers fought valiantly and won a tactical victory, but ran out of food and ammunition and were forced to surrender. They were held captive for about a month before being released, and the fact that they had to surrender p...

Why Are the Russians So Bad? War Stories from Ukraine with Neil Vermillion (ad-free)

Back by popular demand, we have Neil Vermillion again today. We're talking about his experiences while volunteering as a trainer for troops in Ukraine. We're going to discuss why the Russians underperformed so badly, what the Ukrainians are doing well to adapt and improve, and perhaps why he has a somewhat scorched Wagner patch on his wall...

Vugrek's Cell Phone Gun for Organized Crime

The Vugrek family of Croatia (Marko Sr, Marko Jr, and Ivan) were talented firearms designers, who ended up supplying organized crime. Their best-known development was the Agram 2000 submachine gun, a very well-built weapon submitted to Croatian military trials in the early 1990s. In the wake of prosecution for making the Agram illicitly after its military rejection, Marko Vugrek developed a. number of guns specifically for illicit use, including this well-done cell phone gun. They began to tu...

Mateba Unica 6: A Semiauto Revolver in .44 Magnum

The Mateba 6 Unica is the culmination of a series of revolver development by Italian designer Emilio Ghisoni (1937-2008). The Unica 6 is one of only a few self-cocking revolvers to see commercial production and sales (the other two being the Union and the Webley-Fosbery). It was available in .357 Magnum, .44. Magnum (like today's example), and .454 Casull. All three could be used with the associated Special ammunition with a recoil spring swap. In addition, the Unica 6 fired from the bottom c...

Chinese Mystery Mauser: Fake FN Model 30 (ad-free)

"Arming the Dragon" by Dolf Goldsmith is now available and shipping:

https://www.headstamppublishing.com/purchase/arming-the-dragon-by-dolf-l-goldsmith

One of the most common rifles in Warlord-era China was the Mauser Model 98 short rifle. Various Chinese armies bought large numbers of them from the Mauser, CZ, and FN factories, chambered predominantly for the...

A Sneaky Swiss Sniper for Israel: the ZK-31 (ad-free)

In 1949, Israel was still fighting its was of independence, and purchasing arms internationally was difficult to do. The recently-formalized IDF wanted sniper rifles, and looked to Hammerli in Switzerland for a variant of the K-31 straight-pull bolt action action. Two different models were purchased; 100 of the ZK-31 with 4x Kahles scopes, and 100 of the FK-31 with target diopter sights. The Swiss could not legally ship them directly to Israel, and so the order was placed for Nicaragua instea...

Training Scars: Will Competition Habits Get You Kilt in Da Streetz? (Audio Only)

Training scars: the idea that your practice routine will dictate what you do under stress. Is it real? Yes. Does it need to be? No.

The first objective of basic practice and training is to become proficient at specific tasks, like drawing a pistol or reloading a rifle. Unfortunately, that seems to be where a lot of people stop. In my opinion, the real goal of practice and training is to develop the mental capacity to perform those tasks under stress while still be aware of both the task...

Training Scars: Will Competition Habits Get You Kilt in Da Streetz? (ad-free)

Training scars: the idea that your practice routine will dictate what you do under stress. Is it real? Yes. Does it need to be? No.

The first objective of basic practice and training is to become proficient at specific tasks, like drawing a pistol or reloading a rifle. Unfortunately, that seems to be where a lot of people stop. In my opinion, the real goal of practice and training is to develop the mental capacity to perform those tasks under stress while still be aware of both the task...

Introducing the BD-38: A New Production Copy of the German MP-38

There has never been a proper semiauto version of the MP40 available in the US, until now. SSD (Sport-Systeme Dittrich) is a German company that has been making semiauto copies of German WW2 small arms for quite some time, and they now have a US partner in the DK Production Group. They plan to release a variety of different rifles here, and chose to begin with the MP-38.

The MP-38 was the initial production version of what became the MP-40. It had a few distinctive differences from the ...

Barbed Wire and Burning Cars: Finnish Brutality 2023 Day 2 (ad-free)

It's time for Day 2 of Finnish Brutality 2023! This year the match is back and better than ever, with a new "Breacher" division for those seeking extra punishment. In addition to wearing armor and kit (minimum 12kg/26lb), Breacher includes a 3-10 minute physical challenge after each stage just to spice things up.

I opted to run the match this year with my left-handed G3 with an ACOG and a SIG M18 with the new Romeo M17 red dot. Full videos on both are coming once my guns get back from F...

Land Mines & Casualty Care: Finnish Brutality 2023 Day 1 (ad-free)

It's time for Finnish Brutality 2023! This year the match is back and better than ever, with a new "Breacher" division for those seeking extra punishment. In addition to wearing armor and kit (minimum 12kg/26lb), Breacher includes a 3-10 minute physical challenge after each stage just to spice things up. 

I opted to run the match this year with my left-handed G3 with an ACOG and a SIG M18 with the new Romeo M17 red dot. Full videos on both are coming once my guns get back from Finl...

Semiauto FG-42 at the Range: 1st and 2nd Patterns (ad-free)

Today we have both 1st and 2nd pattern semiauto FG-42s from SMG out at the range for some comparative shooting. Which is the better one to get?

Romanian ZB-30 LMG: Improving the Already-Excellent ZB-26 (ad-free)

Brno's ZB-26 was one of the best light machine guns of the 1920s, and it was widely adopted by countries that did not have domestic arms design and production capacity (and it would eventually become the British Bren gun as well). It was designed for the 8mm Mauser cartridge, and had a simple fixed gas system that ran very well - until countries began following the German lead in moving to standard use of s.S. (schweres Spitzgeschoß; heavy ball) ammunition. This put undue strain on the ZB-26...

Pleter M91: Croatia's High Quality STUzi (ad-free)

The Pleter M91 is a simple design, but a high-quality one that was manufactured by a proper factory production line. The company making it was planning on (hoping for?) large-scale production, and they invested to proper polymer molds and other tools to make the gun. A total of about 4500 were made, making it the most-produced of the many Croatian domestic submachine guns.

Mechanically, the gun is most closely related to the Sten - which is clear when one sees the bolt. The magazine cho...

AMELI: Spain's Not-Mini-MG42 in 5.56mm (ad-free)

The AMELI (which is a contraction of "ametralladora ligera", or light machine gun) was introduced by CETME in 1981, and adopted by the Spanish military as the MG82. It was a counterpart LMG to the new CETME-L 5.56mm rifles, and is a mechanically fascinating design.

The AMELI is a roller-delayed blowback system. Although it takes a lot of visual cues form the MG42, it's not simply a copy of that classic. What makes the AMELI so intriguing is it combination of excellent mechanical simplic...

Pacific Theater USMC-Modified Johnson M1941 Rifle (ad-free)

Johnson M1941 rifles were used in limited numbers by the US Marine Corps in the Pacific theater of World War Two, but they were used - and generally well liked. Interestingly, there was a fairly common field modification done by the Marines, and that was to cut off the front sight wings, and sometimes cut the rear aperture into a deep V-notch or a flat U-notch style. This particular ex-Marine rifle shows both of these modifications.

Meetup at Varusteleka's party (Helsinki)

Varustekela is throwing a big 20th anniversary party on Saturday the 26th, and I will be there. If you want to stay hello, please come by! There will be a bunch of other cool folks there as well, and lots of other entertainment as well.

The Post-War Legacy of the FG42 (ad-free)

If the FG-42 was such a great gun, then why didn't it get used after the war? Well, two answers...

1) It was crazy expensive to make and there weren't very many lying around for people to use in quantity after the war.

2) It was used; there was at least three post-war development projects based directly on the FG-42. One was the British EM1 Korsac Light Automatic Gun, one was the Swiss WF Bern competitor to the SIG Stgw 57, and one was the American M60 GPMG. So let's have a look a...

Taiwan's Retro Gas Piston AR: the Type 65

When Taiwan decided to move from the M14 platform (the Type 57 in Taiwanese service) to a 5.56mm rifle, they decided to develop a domestic gas-piston version of the AR. Development began in 1973, with prototypes ready in 1975 and the system formally adopted in 1976. Using the Chinese calendar based on the revolution of 1911, this made the new rifle the Type 65. It is essentially a short-stroke-piston M16A1, sharing the same barrel length, profile, and rifling (1:12") as the early M16, but usi...

Peak American: the Winchester 1897 Trench Gun in WW1 (ad-free)

The United States was the only country to use shotguns in World War One in a substantial way. It was not the first time the US had used such guns either; shotguns were used in the Philippines against the Moros and on the Mexican Punitive Expedition. For use in the Great War, however, it was deemed necessary to fit bayonets to them. At the request of the War Department, the Winchester company designed a bayonet mounting adapter for their Model 1897 pump-action shotgun, to use the M1917 bayonet...

Ugly Pistol Day at the BUG Match: CZ38 (ad-free)

For this month's BackUp Gun Match, I decided to bring out the CZ38 - one of the top contenders for ugliest service pistol ever adopted. It's a single-stack, double-action-only .380 with a weirdly bulky grip, so it's not winning any ergonomic awards either...

Llama M87: Everything You Would Want for IPSC (at the time) (ad-free)

The Llama M87 was Gabilondo y Cia's high-end competition pistols based on the M82 action, and made in both 9mm Parabellum and 7.65mm Parabellum. This was mechanically a copy of the Beretta 92 system, and it was adopted in basic form by the Spanish Army. For the commercial market, Gabilondo took all the upgrades that were being popularly made to IPSC competition pistols, and put them all in place as factory features for the M87. This included good adjustable sights, and excellent trigger, flar...

Original FG42: A Detailed Comparison of the 1st and 2nd Patterns (ad-free)

Today we are looking at examples of the 1st pattern (Type E) and second pattern (Type G) FG42, comparing their construction and disassembling both to get a close look at the internal differences. Despite sharing the basic mechanism, these two models share zero parts in common, not even the bayonets or magazines. We will also discuss the developmental path of the FG-42, and why the majority of production was the 2nd pattern but the vast majority of combat use was the 1st pattern...

Story of the Alar: A Simple Student-Made SMG (ad-free)

The Alar is an interesting very rare Croatian domestic SMG. It is called the "Alar" after it's designer, Stipe Alar. He first came up with the design in 1971 and built one illegally - which resulted in him going to prison for a time. When the Croatian Homeland War broke out and guns were urgently needed, his design came back to light and students at the mechanical trade school in Sisak began to manufacture them.

Mechanically, the design uses a simple trigger, PPSh-style bolt, very basic...

Semiauto PM-63C "Rak" at the BUG Match (It's Technically a Backup Gun...) (ad-free)

I recently picked up one of the Pioneer Arms semiauto PM-63C pistols that are sporadically available here in the US. They have a pretty mediocre reputation and I wasn't expecting much, but the gun is so unusual that I really must have one myself (and the likelihood of me getting an original PM63 machine pistol is basically nil). On my initial test trip to the range, though, it actually ran almost flawlessly, and the sights were well-zeroed to boot! So, I took it to this month's BackUp Gun mat...

USAS-12 at the Range (w/ the Fun Switch) (ad-free)

The USAS-12, made by Daewoo in South Korea, is one of the better box-fed shotguns available (I use that term loosely; there are not that many of them around). It was available as both a semiauto and a fully automatic model - although the semiautos were arbitrarily defined as Destructive Devices in 1994, and must now be registered as such. The fully automatic ones were already registered and were not impacted by that rule. While I have shot a semiauto USAS-12 before, I've not had the chance to...

Argentina's Slightly French Model 1909 SOM Sniper (ad-free)

Argentina was one of the first countries to adopt Mauser rifles, with the Model 1891. These were replaced by newer Model 1909 rifles a couple decades later, and in 1913 they bought 500 telescopic sights to make sniper rifles. All of them appear to have been put on cavalry carbines like this one, rather than full-length infantry rifles. The scopes were 3x fixed power types made by SOM in France. The mounting system was either developed by the French or later copied by the French, as it is very...

Tara TM-9: What a Tangled Web of Intrigue for a Crappy Gun (ad-free)

Tara Aerospace is an arms factory in Montenegro that was privatized around 2013 or 2014, and a major stake in it was purchased by one Heinrich Thomet (formerly of Brugger & Thomet, and then the basis for a character in "War Dogs"). The first firearm the new Tara produced was the TM-9, and it was not very good.

The basic design concept is fine - it's a modern style of service pistol; polymer-framed, striker-fired, and chambered for 9x19mm. It has interchangeable grip backstraps and a...

Yugoslav M57: Tito's Tokarev (ad-free)

Yugoslavia purchased both 1895 Nagant revolvers and TT33 Tokarev form the Soviet Union after World War Two, but this was only a holdover until domestic pistol production could begin. While Yugoslavia was formally communist, Tito was not a puppet of Moscow, and Yugoslavia did their own development to reverse-engineer the Tokarev pistol. In the process, they made a number of improvements to the design, resulting in the M57. Serial production began in 1963 and lasted until 1982, with about 270,0...