Lercker M53 Experimental .380 Italian SMG (or PDW?)
Between 1952 and 1956 an Italian designer named Cesare Lercker from Bologna developed a series of pistols and submachine guns. He worked with Beretta, although it is unclear if he did the work at...
View ArticleSaco Defense M683: A Super-Simple SMG for the US Army
During the 1980s, the US ran the Joint Service Small Arms Program to reduce the number of different small arms in US inventory. The most significant outcome of this program was the M9 pistol, but the...
View ArticleMAS SE 1935 SMG: Emblematic of French Interwar Gun Development
Submachine guns made their entrance into military thinking during World War One. The French military saw this and decided to adopt one in the years after the war, although they saw it in a bit of a...
View ArticleA WW2 German Mystery: Knorr Bremse FG42 Prototype?
This is really a mystery rifle, or half of a mystery rifle. It is part of the collection at Springfield Armory National Historic Site, but its exact provenance from World War Two is not recorded. It...
View ArticleThe Very First FAL Prototype (in 8mm Kurz)
Dieudonne Saive at Fabrique Nationale began developing the FAL to submit for the British post-war program to adopt new small arms. He built the first example in the German 8x33mm Kurz cartridge, as...
View ArticleColt’s Vietnam Prototype AK/M16 Hybrid: the Model 703
“From Hartford to Vietnam” is available here for preorder: Or you can find it bundled with “Tiger Stripe: The Vietnam Camouflage Story” on Kickstarter:...
View ArticleFNA Brescia’s Last Project: The X4 and X5 SMG and Machine Pistol
FNA (Fabbrica Nazionale d’Armi) Brescia was a factory in the Val Trompia in northern Italy, the same valley that is home to Beretta and many other, smaller Italian arms shops. During World War Two the...
View ArticleAimpoint Square: An Ambitious Failed Prototype
Between 1990 and 1993, Aimpoint experimented with a red dot optics that was pretty ambitious on several fronts. It used a rectangular window to maximize field of view for hunting rifles and shotguns...
View ArticlePrototype MAS 1925M Pistol: Cartridge Counting in 7.65 French Long
After World War One the French military created a plan to replace basically all of its small arms, including the array of handguns it had in use. The trials to adopt a single new replacement...
View ArticleH&R T223: In Vietnam Before the HK33
The very first iteration of the HK 33 roller-delayed rifle was included in early US rifle testing in Vietnam. H&K worked with Harrington & Richardson as their US representative, who did final...
View ArticleIver Johnson Prototype .25ACP Blow Forward Pocket Pistol
This is a one-of-a-kind prototype of a .25ACP blow forward pistol made by Iver Johnson. It was patented in 1916 (patent applied for in 1912) by William O. Barnes of Massachusetts, and assigned to Iver...
View ArticleTRW Low Maintenance Rifle: America’s Roller Locked Flechette Rifle
TRW’s Low Maintenance Rifle seems to have been the result of a program to use a blank slate and a modern space age scientific mindset to develop a rifle that would be more reliable and effective than...
View ArticleAustrian Sniper Prototype: SSG-1917A4 (M1917 and 03A4 Springfield Hybrid)
In the years after World War Two when the Austrian Army began looking for new sniper rifles, one of their experiments was to use available M1917 rifles and M73B1 scopes (from M1903A4 sniper rifles)....
View ArticleM15 Automatic Rifle (aka T44E5): Adopted But Not Produced
When the US replaced the M1 Garand, the plan was to adopt both a select-fire infantry rifle and a heavy-barreled support weapon on the same platform. During development, both the T44 (later M14) and...
View ArticleEugene Stoner’s Future Assault Rifle Concept (F.A.R.C.)
After developing the AR-15 with Armalite, Eugene Stoner worked for a number of different companies. In 1972 he cofounded Ares Inc, where he and his partners worked on a wide variety of weapons...
View ArticleZKP-524: A Prototype Czech 7.62x25mm 1911 Copy
The Czechoslovak military knew when they adopted it that the vz.52 pistol was not very good, and they initiated a replacement program as the same time as its adoption. Two pistols were developed to be...
View ArticleCoenders’ Bolt-Less Last Ditch Bolt Action Rifle
When the German Army tested last-ditch Volkssturm rifles late in World War Two, one of the particularly obscure submissions was August Coenders’ Coenders-Rochling Volkssturmkarabiner. This was a bowl...
View ArticleRoller Locked Czechnology: the CZ 482 Pistol (Which Eventually Became the vz.52)
The Czech vz.52 service pistol actually began as a commercial export program at CZ. It was developed by two brothers, Jan and Jaroslav Kratochvíl. They actually designed two pistols with similar shape...
View ArticleStamm-Saurer Model 1916 Short-Recoil Light Machine Gun
Hans Stamm developed a series of firearms in Switzerland in the early 1900s, and today we are looking at a Model 1916 light machine gun. This was developed while Stamm was working for the Saurer...
View ArticleThe Real T26 “Tanker” M1 Garand
Check out Headstamp Publishing’s extensive catalog of excellent books: https://www.headstamppublishing.com/home-forgotten The name “tanker” has been applied to shortened M1 Garand rifles for a long...
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