ForgottenWeapons

Herman Brevete: A Pepperbox Hidden in Your Bicycle Handlebars (Ad-free)

In the 1890s, there was a lot of interest in small caliber, simple revolvers for self-defense by cyclists, primarily against dogs. This led to the creation of a whole category of “velodog” revolvers, and a Belgian designer named Herman patented this extension of the idea. It is a 6-shot, 5mm pinfire revolver that is mounted on the handlebars of a bicycle, locked in place and not obviously a gun, but easily removed for one-handed use. Mechanically, it is a simple double-action bar-hammer t...

Voere SAM-180 - Semiautomatic American 180 SMG Made in Austria? (Ad-free)

The American 180 is a .22LR machine gun that fires at a high rate (1300 rpm more or less) from a super-high-capacity magazine (177 rounds). Conceptually it was designed by Richard Casull in the 1960s, but he only produced about 70 of his original M290 design. He sold the rights to the design, and in 1972 an Austrian company called Voere bought a license to it.

Voere thought that a fast-firing .22 with a substantial magazine could be paired with a then-cutting-edge laser sight and offere...

Springfield Kuna: Croatia's New Delayed-Blowback PCC/SMG (Ad-free)

The Kuna is a delayed-blowback 9mm pistol/PCC/submachine gun developed by HS Produkt in Croatia and marketed int he US by Springfield Armory. Development on it began in 2020 as a commercial project, but probably also with an eye to military and law enforcement sales. The Croatian police are currently using quite old MP5 submachine guns that will need to be replaced soon, and having a domestic option seems like an obvious play for HS Produkt. The did win a trial for SMGs from the São Paulo po...

Experimental AG-42B Conversion to 7.62mm NATO (Ad-free)

Circa 1954, Sweden was starting to look for a new self-loading rifle to adopt for its infantry. The 6.5x55mm cartridge was a good round, but the idea of having ammunition compatibility with its neighbors was appealing, and NATO was standardizing on the new 7.62x51mm round. This rifle is an experimental conversion of a Ljungman to the NATO cartridge, which included replacing the original simple gas impingement system with a short-stroke piston. It's unclear why that change was required given t...

Domestic Burmese G3s: BA64 Rifle and BA-72 Carbine (Ad-free)

After achieving independence from the British, Burma (now Myanmar) looked to develop a domestic small arms industry to supply its armed forces. The first weapon produced there was the BA-52, a copy of (how they chose this I don't know) the Italian TZ-45 submachine gun. By the late 1950s, talks were underway with Rheinmetall and H&K to license production of the G3 at a factory being built with German technical assistance. Ultimately Burma adopted and produced several versions of the G3: 2025-04-12 12:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Q&A Question Request: Submachine Guns

For the April Q&A, we'll be talking about submachine guns. So, what would you like to ask? I will be filming at Morphy's before this Q&A comes out, so I will also bring in their NFA expert (John Keene) for any questions suited to his expertise.

One of a Kind Prototype vz.38 Pistol in .32ACP (Ad-free)

When CZ developed the vz.38 pistol for the Czechoslovak military, they made a number of attempts to also sell it on the international export market. This involved offering some various changes in configuration for different clients - in this case, scaling it down from .380ACP to .32 ACP. It also has a manual safety, another feature absent on the domestic military model but included in export variants. This example is the only known one produced in .32 caliber, and it has the serial number 100...

KH-9: B&T Remakes the SITES Spectre Just Because It's Cool (Ad-free)

Karl Brügger, CEO of B&T, is a true gun nerd and avid competitive shooter. When he got his hands on the Spectre SMG with its quad-stack magazine and weird DA/decocker fire control system, he thought it was really neat. So neat that he decided to buy the project from its Italian creators and put it back into production. But they had thrown out all the drawings and tooling when the gun wasn't successful, and so Brügger had to recreate it from scratch on his own. Cue the Karl's Hobby 9! 2025-04-09 12:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post

Influencer Marketing in 1900: Charles Young's Repeating Shotgun (Ad-free)

Charles Sparrow Young was an extremely talent trap shooter around the turn of the century, sponsored by the Peters ammunition company. He was also a mechanical tinkerer, and developed several patents, including a shotgun release trigger. In 1901/2 he decided to design his own shotgun, and was granted two patents on it. The idea was to combine the best elements of both break action and repeating designs, and to make a product specifically tailored to trap shooting.

This meant that it wo...

Q&A: Competition Firearms and Shooting (Ad-free)

This month's Q&A theme is competition shooting...

00:50 - Guns I'd like to shoot in BUG match but haven't

02:39 - Most valuable/expensive historical load out?

03:50 - Guns that were surprisingly good or bad in competition

      Ring sight 2-Gun: https://youtu.be/AJKMk6p-iHE

07:03 - Unicorn Brutality gun combo?

08:31 - Match gear failing miserably

10:...

Battlefield Pickup at Moons Out 2025: AR with a PEQ-15A (Ad-free)

00:00 - Intro: overall match sponsor Q

03:27 - Stage 1: Rambo's Reading Rainbow, sponsored by TNVC

06:31 - Stage 2: Seal Team Extraction, sponsored by Nocturn Industries

08:10 - Stage 3: Mogadishu Marathon, sponsored by Polaris Logistics

10:22 - Stage 4: Home Invasion, sponsored by Refuge Medical and Magpul

13:02 - Stage 5: Siege of Camp A-107, sponsored by Flux Defense

15:29 - Stage 6: Bound Forward, sponsored by Aimpoint

17:39 - Stage 7: Double-Wide...

Stamm-Saurer Model 1907: A New Swiss Straight-Pull Bolt Action Rifle (Ad-free)

After leaving the Zeller company, Hans Stamm went looking for work at major gun manufacturers like WF Bern and SIG. He ended up hired in 1907 by a company caller Saurer. This was an automotive firm looking to open a weapons division, with hopes of winning the upcoming trials for a new Swiss military rifle. To that end, Stamm and his team of 8 develop a quite nice straight-pull rifle.

The rifle goes through a series of military trials ending in 1913 - even after formal adoption of the K1...

North Korea's Huge Type 88 Helical Drum AK Magazine (Ad-free)

Everyone who gets a Kim Jong Un patch or t-shirt will also receive -100 social credit points in China:

https://www.varusteleka.com/en/product/forgotten-weapons-best-korea-propaganda-t-shirt/81932
https://www.varusteleka.c...

Negev 7: Israeli Scales up to a 7.62 NATO Machine Gun (Ad-free)

The Israeli Negev machine gun had a rather long development cycle, beginning in 1985 but not seeing final completion and issue until 1997. Once on the market, it proved to be a pretty successful weapon, used by the Israeli military and also a number of export client around the world. In 2012, IMI released an improved newer version, the Negev 7. This was made exclusively as a 7.62mm NATO caliber gun, as opposed to the original Negev which was only made in 5.56mm NATO.

Thanks to Sellier ...

Savage 1915 at the BackUp Gun Match (Ad-free)

Savage launched its model 1907 pistol with a lot of marketing fanfare. It was "10 Shots Quick!" and promoted with testimonials form personalities like Buffalo Bill Cody and Sheriff Bat Masterson. It was intended as a pocket pistol for personal protection and home defense, with a lot made of how it was simple and effective for inexperienced people (especially women) to use. A few years later in 1915 a relatively small number (about 10,000) were made in the 1915 pattern, which shrouded the hamm...

Virtual Tour: Estonian War Museum (Ad-free)

The Estonian War Museum (Eesti Sõjamuuseum) is located at Mõisa tee 1, 74001 Viimsi, Estonia (just outside the capital Tallinn). For opening hours and entry fees, please check their web site:

https://esm.ee

The museum is housed in what used to be the residence of the Estonian Army commander, converted into a museum after Estonian independence. It has two main floors; the bottom houses a series of exhibits on Estonian militar...

Erma EMP36: External Form Factor of the MP40 (Ad-free)

The German military began looking for a new submachine gun design in secret in the mid 1930s. There is basically no surviving documentation, but the main contenders appear to have featured: Hugo Schmeisser's MK-36,II and Erma's EMP-36. Today we are taking a look at one of two known examples of the Erma design at the VHU in Prague. Designed by Heinrich Vollmer, this is a plain blowback open bolt system chambered for 9x19mm. It is massively more complicated than such a simple design has any rig...

Schmeisser MK-36,II - The Mechanics of the MP40 (Ad-free)

The German military began looking for a new submachine gun design in secret in the mid 1930s. There is basically no surviving documentation, but the main contenders appear to have featured: Hugo Schmeisser's MK-36,II and Erma's EMP-36. Today we are taking a look at the two known example of the Schmeisser design at the British Royal Armouries. It is a simple blowback design with a full wooden stock, and chambered for 9x19mm (although the second example, made for Hungarian trials, is in 9x25mm)...

How Awesome is This? Moons Out 2025 Night 2 (Ad-free & uncensored)

00:00 - Intro; overall match sponsor Q

00:51 - Stage 6: Bound Forward, sponsored by Aimpoint

03:14 - Stage 7: Double-Wide of Death, sponsored by B&T

04:15 - Stage 8: Bakhmut Night Assault, sponsored by Varusteleka

08:41 - Stage 9: Radio Freq Out, sponsored by T-Rex Arms

11:22 - Stage 10: Assault on Camp A-107, sponsored by Trijicon

Moons Out 2025 is our annual night rifle match, presented this year by Q. Shooters must use active or passive IR (no ...

The Best Night Rifle Match Yet: Moons Out 2025, Night 1 (Ad-free & uncensored)

00:00 - Intro; overall match sponsor Q

02:30 - Stage 1: Rambo's Reading Rainbow, sponsored by TNVC

05:57 - Stage 2: Seal Team Extraction, sponsored by Nocturn Industries

08:07 - Stage 3: Mogadishu Marathon, sponsored by Polaris Logistics 1

0:40 - Stage 4: Home Invasion, sponsored by Refuge Medical and Magpul

12:52 - Stage 5: Siege of Camp A-107, sponsored by Flux Defense

Moons Out 2025 is our annual night rifle match, presented this year by Q. Shooters...

The Swiss Suomi: MP43/44 (With Bayonet) (Ad-free)

During World War Two, the Swiss had adopted Adolf Furrer's toggle-locked MP41 submachine gun, and they found it too fragile, complex, and expensive. Looking for an alternative, one easy choice was the Finnish Suomi. Used and appreciated by the Finns, Danes, and Swedes it was reliable and available. It was adopted into service in the fastest set of trials in Swiss military history, and a batch was purchased from Tikkakoski along with a license to produce them at Hispano-Suiza in Geneva. The in...

Type 56C: China's Last Military AK (And It's Totally Non-Standard) (Ad-free)

The Type 56C is the final iteration of Chinese Kalashnikov, originally intended for export but primarily used by Chinese police and special forces. It is a short-barreled carbine with a folding stock, and remarkably few standard AK parts. The receiver takes a number of cues from the Type 81 rifle, and is shorter and has different geometry than the standard AKM stamped receiver. The gas block includes an adjustable gas plug, and the sights are also reminiscent of the Type 81.

March Q&A: Competition Shooting

In light of having just finished running Moons Out 2025, this month's Q&A theme is competition shooting. From full-on Brutality matches to BackUp Gun matches, especially shooting historical guns. What would you like to ask?

Enjoying Black Powder Episode 9: 1869 Swiss Vetterli (Ad-free)

For the full episode with the hand loading instructional section, click here:

https://forgottenweapons.vhx.tv/videos/ep-9-swiss-vetterli-app

Black powder military rifles of the 1860s-1880s are a really enjoyable group of guns. A lot of them are relatively reasonably priced, and they are actually pretty easy to reload for. The unavailability of factory ammunition (for most, althou...

Optic and Reticle Choices (featuring Mike Branson) (Ad-free)

I'm speaking with Mike Branson of Gideon Optics at SHOT Show 2025, and today the topic is scope and reticle choice. What is good, what is bad, and what is best for you?

ZB37: Czechoslovakia's Super-Heavy Machine Gun (Ad-free)

The ZB37 began in 1930 as a design by none other than classic Czech arms designer Vaclav Holek. The Czechoslovakian military was still using the Schwarzlose heavy MG, and wanted something to replace it. To fill all the roles intended, there would eventually be three different models of the ZB37 - one for infantry, one for fortresses, and one for vehicle mounting.

Note that the factory designation for this gun at Brno began as the ZB50, and iterated to the final version being the ZB50. H...

Rifles on the Danube: Hungarian AK-Pattern Firearms - NOW SHIPPING (Ad-free)

Order your copy here:

https://www.headstamppublishing.com/danube-book

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, Hungary would soon be producing domestic copies of Mikhail Kalashnikov’s Avtomat Kalashnikova. Hungarian e...

What Camo for Moons Out 2025?

I am shooting Moons Out 2025 twice (once in Passive and once in Active), and so naturally I can take two different camo patterns to use. Which of these do you think would be best? These are the ones I have that include suitable cold weather outer layers. You only get one vote; top two will be used (unless I decide to ignore the poll results; no guarantees here, but Patreon gets a lot more weight than the YouTube version of this poll).

Beretta Tries a Machine Pistol: the Model 951A (Ad-free)

Beretta's first machine pistol was actually a full-auto variant of the Model 1923, complete with shoulder stock - but that did not sell well. They tried again in the 1950s with an automatic model of the new Beretta Model 51 (aka M951). This was a 9x19mm pistol using a P38 style locking wedge, and it was a fairly successful design for the company. The automatic model was the 951A, and it included a folding wooden front grip for stability, a much heavier slide, a selector switch and auto trip. ...

Stamm-Zeller 1902: A Swiss Straight-Pull Converted to Semiauto (Ad-free)

Today's rifle was designed by a Swiss inventor named Hans Stamm while working for the Zeller et Cie company in Appenzell Switzerland. The company originally made embroidering machinery, but turned to military rifle parts subcontracting to bring in additional revenue in the early 1890s. Stamm had shown a good aptitude and interest for this work, and when the company decided to lean into the small arms business he was put in charge of its new weapons division.

There, Stamm spent several y...