ForgottenWeapons

Italy's M14: The BM-59 at the Range (ad-free)

Beretta in Italy developed the BM-59 after World War Two as an improvement on the M1 Garand - lightened, shortened, and given a box magazine, bipod, and selector switch. And the did this in a whole lot less time that the US took to finalize the M14. So how does the BM-59 handle? Well, sorry Springfield...it's definitely easier to shoot than the M14. Still quite a handful and not really effective or useful in FA from the shoulder, but not as bad as the American take on the concept.

Going live with Jackson Crawford now!

Come join us for the behind-the-scenes story of the Viking guns April fools joke...

Password is "atgaizaz"

Viking Atgeirr Livestream 3pm Pacific/6pm Eastern Tonight

Jackson Crawford and I are going a live "director's commentary" chat about the Viking "Atgierr" April fools' collaboration we did. We'll be talking about where the idea came from, the planning that went into it, and what elements were fact vs fiction, and so on. The video will be published to the general public in a day or two, but you can join us for the live recording if you like!

This is being done as a Zoom chat where Jackson and I will be presenters and we can have up to 300 other ...

Viking Atgeirr: Reevaluating the Origins of European Firearms (ad-free)

See Dr. Crawford's video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgyoGS4Niyc

"Men of Terror: A Comprehensive Analysis of Viking Combat" by Reynir Óskarson and William Short is available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Kexo3A

My helmet was generously provided by Grimfrost: 2023-04-01 13:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post

Cutting Edge Military Hardware for Civilians: Manufrance Mle 1892 (ad-free)

When the French Army adopted the Mle 1892 revolver, it was a huge improvement over the previous standard from 1873. The new sidearm has a swing-out cylinder, simultaneous ejection, was lighter, and used a high-tech new small bore smokeless powder cartridge. With Army adoption came a tremendous interest for the civilian sector. Civilians heading off to live in the French colonies in Africa and Indochina, military officers and reservists, police agencies, and private security firms were all hot...

Book Review: Swords of the Emperor by John Plimpton (ad-free)

Now in stock and shipping from Headstamp Publishing:  https://www.headstamppublishing.com/swords 

Swords of the Emperor: A Guide to the Identification of Imperial Japanese Swords, 1873 – 1945 is a comprehensive reference work examining a little-studied period in the Japanese swordmaking tradition.  

Japan is internationally renowned for its traditional swords, but comparatively litt...

Musket to Big-Bore Rimfire: the Roberts Short-Frame Conversion (ad-free)

Brigadier General Benjamin Stone Roberts designed and patented a fall-block style of breech loading conversion to .58 Rimfire. Over the course of the decade after the Civil War, he was able to sell approximately 23,000 of these conversions. The work was done by the Providence Tool Company, and included two main patterns - the early short frame and the later long frame. This example is a short frame gun, probably from a 5,000-gun contract to Brazil.

Apocrypha: Behind The Scenes March 28, 2023

I've spent most of the week, once again, working on my book on US World War Two small arms. The plan is to have that in hand and available in time for Christmas; a much faster turnaround than some of our other works. Speaking of which, the 4th Headstamp book - Swords of the Emperor - has just this week arrived at our warehouse! I'll be doing an update video on it later this week, but it is now in hand and shipping. I'm very happy to have that done.

Coming up, a few highlights are a genu...

"Alk" - A Unique German Target Pistol (ad-free)

This is a unique and interesting German proofed .22 rimfire target pistol. It uses a simple blowback slide, which locks open after each shot. It is striker fired, with a 12-inch barrel and a quite nice trigger. The top of the receiver is marked “Alk” in a fancy script engraving, and also has a partially legible line that was probably the location of manufacture (only “BURG” is legible now). I don’t know anything about the history of the gun, but it strikes me as probably a one-off c...

Prototype Silenced Sten Mk4(S) at the Range (ad-free)

Yesterday we looked at the mechanics and the history of the Sten Mk4(S), and today we have it out at the range! The very short barrel and its porting reduce the velocity of standard 115gr 9mm ammunition below the speed of sound, and so the gun is very quiet. To my surprise, the complete lack of cheek weld was not really a hindrance in keeping the sights in focus, although I would definitely prefer to have a Mk5 Sten over the Mk4 in combat. That said, the Mk4 is an exceptionally rare item, and...

Prototype Silenced Sten for Paratroops: the Mk4(S) (ad-free)

The Sten Mk4 was developed experimentally in 1943 for use by British paratroops. It used a remarkably awful folding stock along with a shortened receiver and barrel to make a very compact package - albeit one that must have been very uncomfortable to shoot. Several different models were made, with this one being a Mk4a(S) - the suppressed version. The suppressor is essentially the same system as used on the MkII(S), but with the rear endcap and barrel being permanently fixed to the receiver o...

From the American Revolution: Short Land Pattern Brown Bess (ad-free)

The standard weapon of the British Army in the American War of Independence was the “Brown Bess”, and today we are looking at a 1769 Short Land Pattern example of the Brown Bess. This was a smoothbore .75 caliber, 10.2 pound flintlock with a whopping 42 inch barrel (the Long Land Pattern it superseded had a 46” barrel). Adopted in 1769, it would serve as the British standard infantry arm until 1797.  

 This particular example was issued to the 53rd Infantry Regiment, oth...

Apocrypha: Behind The Scenes March 20, 2023 - "The App"

The big news for this week is that we are starting to move forward on developing an app, to make content easily available across mobile, web, and smart TV systems. But not just Forgotten Weapons content; educationally-focused historical firearms content from ten or twelve different channels. To be clear, this will not mean that I stop uploading to YouTube, but it will be a central hub where you can get all this sort of material properly curated and done without regard for YouTube's weird and ...

What other educational/historical firearms channels do you watch?

Edit - Thanks! I've got the info I needed. :)

Working on a multi-channel project, and I would like to get a better feel for what other channels people watch in the historical/educational firearms sphere. I've put in options for the active channels that came to mind for me, but please let me know if the comments if there are others you watch that I didn't include.

This is specifically about historic and educational focused material - so not the channels that are more entertainment ...

The Very Rare FN CAL at the Range (ad-free)

The FN CAL (Carabine Automatique Legere) was Fabrique Nationale's first attempt at a 5.56mm rifle, and it was not successful. They replaced it with the FNC, which saw much wider success. The CAL is quite scarce today, and it was a very cool opportunity to take one out to the range! It performed rather better than I expected, to be honest...

VMP 1930 at the Range: does the Monopod Help? (ad-free)

Yesterday we took a look at the mechanics and history of Heinrich Vollmner's 1930 pattern VMP, and today we have it out at the range. I'm curious is the mid-point monopod will actually help or hinder accurate shooting...shall we find out?

SMG With a Monopod? The Vollmer VMP-1930 (ad-free)

In 1925, the German military began a series of secret SMG trials at the Kummersdorf testing grounds. One of the participants was Heinrich Vollmer. He was funded directly by the government for his small arms R&D until 1930, and iteratively developed his design until it went into large-scale production as the Erma EMP. What we are looking at today is the VMP 1930 pattern (a C&R transferrable example). At this stage, the gun had most of its final design elements, including a traditional ...

Miller's Musket Conversion: The Trapdoor We Have At Home (ad-free)

In 1865, brothers William and George Miller of Meriden CT patented a system to convert percussion muskets to use the new Rimfire ammunition that was becoming available. Between 1865 and 1867, the local Meridan Manufacturing Company converted 2,000 surplus US Model 1861 muskets (mostly made by Parker & Snow) to the Miller system, using .58 Rimfire ammunition. The US military tested one of these conversions in 1867, and found it to suffer from some gas leakage and about a 3% misfire rate. T...

Apocrypha: Behind the Scenes March 14, 2023

The past week had had me in West Virginia at the Midnight Brutality night rifle match. I've got a bunch of great footage form the match, and a series of videos will be coming in a few weeks.

I'm also working on scheduling a visit to Barrett Firearms in TN...that should be a lot of fun and a bunch of great content!

Crude Khyber Pass Webley Revolver Copy (ad-free)

The town of Dara Adam Khel has became a locus of firearms manufacture in response to the British occupation of Pakistan and Afghanistan in the 19th century, and it has remained dedicated to that industry to the present day. While much of the firearms manufacturing there is done to a much higher standard than most people would expect, some shops are also quite happy to make cheap, poor-quality guns. It is those cheap examples that have become associated with the region for many people, and tod...

Russia's Big Fifty on the Range: DShK-38 (ad-free)

Yesterday we looked at the history and the mechanics of the Soviet heavy machine guns from World War Two, the DShK-38. Today, we are taking it out to the range!

DShK-38: The Soviet Monster .50 Cal HMG (ad-free)

In 1925 the USSR began a program to develop a heavy machine gun for antiaircraft use. After some initial experimentation with a converted Dreyse machine gun, they brought in Degtyarev to scale up his recently-adopted light machine gun to the task. Degtyarev’s first design was ready in 1930, and underwent testing until 1933. It was designated the DK, and used a 30-round drum magazine. This contributed to an unacceptably low rate of fire (~360 rpm), and the feed system was replaced by an inge...

FG-42: Perhaps the Most Impressive WW2 Shoulder Rifle (ad-free)

The first production version of the FG42 used a fantastically complex milled receiver and a distinctive sharply swept-back pistol grip. A contract to make 5,000 of them was awarded to Krieghoff in late spring of 1943, but by the fall its replacement was already well into development. The milled receiver used a lot of high-nickel steel which was becoming difficult for Germany to acquire, and it was decided to develop a stamped receiver to ease production obstacles. Ultimately only about 2,000 ...

Prototype Birdshead Grip S&W No.3 Russian (ad-free)

This revolver appears to be one of the pre-production prototypes S&W made for the Russian No.3 revolver contract. Its frame has been expertly converted to a birdshead style. It handles very nicely, but was apparently not ultimately desired by the Russian purchasing commission, and the design was not used beyond this prototype sample.

Apocrypha: Behind The Scenes March 5 - Midnight Brutality and my WWII American Book

There have been two major things for me this week: final preparations for Midnight Brutality, and working on my WWII American Small Arms book. We've got three great sponsors for the match: Tactical Night Vision Company, BE Meyers, and Q. Thanks to them we have an amazing prize table for our competitors - a bunch of people will be going home with a prize worth more than their entry fee, which was my goal.  

As for the book, I have finished the handgun section, and am now working on ...

Beretta's New 80X Cheetah at the BUG Match (feat. Symtac) (ad-free)

Back in 1975, Beretta introduced a line of mid-size semiauto pistols. The Model 81 was in .32 ACP (intended for the European market) and the Model 84 was chambered for .380 ACP for Americans. These both used double-stack magazines, and single-stack versions followed a few years later (the 82 and 85). Additional models were also available with a variety of safety and control configurations.

Well, at SHOT Show this year Beretta introduced its reboot of the Cheetah, now called the Model 80...

SSG-69: Steyr's Cold War Sniper Rifle (ad-free)

In the 1960s, Steyr Daimler Pusch developed a modern sniper rifle for the Austrian military (and also for commercial civilian sale). It was adopted as the SSG-69 (Scharfschützen-Gewehr; sharpshooter's rifle), replacing the SSG-98k in military service. Mechanically, the SSG-69 uses a bolt with six rear-mounted locking lugs in 3 pairs, giving it a short 60 degree throw. The stock is made of polymer and the barrel is cold hammer-forged, both fairly cutting-edge elements at the time of its desig...

Need an artist for a small project

I'm looking for an artist who can put together a medieval-style drawing in the style of medieval illuminated manuscripts. Like this in style, for a basic example: https://blogs.bl.uk/.a/6a00d8341c464853ef02af14afa62f200b-800wi

I'd like to commission a single image, but I would need it in about 2 weeks.

If this sounds like something you can do, please email me (ianm07@gmail.com) ...

Apocrypha: Behind the Scenes Feb 27, 2023

I got back from a scuba diving vacation last night, so now it's back to work! My two big projects right now are preparing for Midnight Brutality, and starting to write the text for a coffee table type book on US World War Two small arms. Beyond that, I've got a bunch of modern stuff in to film right now. Material often comes and goes in waves, and with SHOT Show last month I found a bunch of cool new products that I think are worth covering. From the Hi-Point 10mm to Carbon Research ultraligh...

What Should I Shoot at Lynx Brutality?

Because of reasons, I am not able to take my own guns to Lynx Brutality in Slovenia this summer (I didn't last year either...). So the question is, what should I shoot? The SKS would be a real challenge, and would also potentially let me compare performance to some folks rolling modern bolt action rifles. The Perun X16 would be a pretty uncommon modern style rifle, and undoubtedly let me do better in the match overall. Which would you prefer to see?