Finland’s Prototype Belt-Fed GPMG: L41 Sampo
During the 1930s, there was interest in Finland in replacing the Maxim heavy machine gun with something handier and more mobile. There were experiments with large drum magazines for the LS-26 light...
View ArticleLandstad 1900: A True Semiautomatic Revolver
The Landstad Model 1900 is a magazine-fed, semiautomatic revolver designed by Norwegian Halvard Folkestad Landstad, who lived in Kristiana (now called Oslo). He designed the gun on his own dime, and...
View ArticleColt 608: The AR15 as a Pilot’s Survival Rifle
As part of its effort to build out the AR-15 family of small arms, Colt introduced the Model 608 in 1965. This was intended to be an aircraft survival rifle, able to pack disassembled into a small...
View ArticleWF-51: A Swiss Intermediate-Cartridge Copy of the FG-42
After World War Two the Swiss needed a new self-loading military rifle to replace their K-31 bolt actions. Two major design tracks followed; one being a roller-delayed system based on the G3 at SIG...
View ArticleThe Experimental SOE Welrod MkI Prototype
The Welrod was a program to develop a silent assassination pistol for British SOE (Special Operations Executive) late in 1942. It needed to be chambered in the .32 ACP cartridge, be effective to a...
View ArticleWF-54: The Swiss FG-42 Scaled up to 7.5×55
https://youtu.be/OJrcPi5ItKo After World War Two the Swiss needed a new self-loading military rifle to replace their K-31 bolt actions. Two major design tracks followed; one being a roller-delayed...
View Articlesa81 KRASA: Czechoslovakia’s Ultra-Compact Lost PDW
The Krása project (which translates as “beauty”, but is also a shortening of “short assault rifle” – “KRÁtký SAmopal”) is a fascinating piece of Czech small arms development. In 1976, the...
View ArticleZB47: A Truly Weird Czech SMG
The ZB47 was developed at Brno as a contender for Czech military submachine gun adoption in the late 1940s. The Czech Army had technically adopted a submachine gun prior to World War Two (the vz.38;...
View ArticlePraga I: A Blow-Forward Bullpup Semi-Auto-Selectable Vickers Gun
The Praga I was the first machine gun design from noted Czech arms designed Vaclav Holek. Three examples were made for Czech military testing in 1922, but they were not acceptable. Instead, this...
View ArticleSamostril Netsch: Bizarre Prototype Czech Automatic Rifle
When Czechoslovakia began looking for new small arms in the early 1920s, one of the things they were interested in was a “samostřil” – something akin to the automatic rifle in English. A select-fire...
View ArticlePraga I-23: Prototype Belt-Fed Predecessor of the ZB26
Vaclav Holek’s first machine gun design for the Czech military was the Praga I, built in 1922 and based heavily on the Vickers/Maxim system. However, it became clear that the military wanted something...
View ArticleAimpoint’s Only Gun: The PC-80 Symmetrical Action
Today we are looking at the entire scope of Aimpoint’s firearms development division…which is actually just this one firearm. Aimpoint was founded in 1975 as a partnership between Arne Ekstrand (a...
View ArticleSchmeisser MK-36,II – The Mechanics of the MP40
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...
View ArticleErma EMP36: External Form Factor of the MP40
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...
View ArticleStamm-Saurer Model 1907: A New Swiss Straight-Pull Bolt Action Rifle
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...
View ArticleOne of a Kind Prototype vz.38 Pistol in .32ACP
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...
View ArticleExperimental AG-42B Conversion to 7.62mm NATO
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...
View ArticleHaenel’s Prototype Simplified Sturmgewehr StG45(H)
In December 1944, the Haenel company received permission to produce a simplified version of the StG-44 Sturmgewehr. The idea was to keep the mechanical system and controls as similar as possible to...
View ArticleDSA’s Unique Titanium FAL Project
DS Arms got some billet titanium and decided to make a batch of titanium receivers and other parts. This turned out to be a nightmarish amount of work, and two of the receivers had to be scrapped,...
View ArticleModern Stocked Pistol: B&T’s Universal Service Weapon (USW)
The genesis of the B&T USW was a two and a half hour car ride home from a youth hockey game, when Karl Brugger and a friend were thinking about how to improve police effectiveness with handguns....
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