Winchester’s Liberator Shotguns (Video)
In the early 1960s, an influential but little-known (today) firearms designer by the name of Robert Hillberg came up with an idea for a cheap-but-effective armament for the masses. With encouragement...
View ArticleWhat Was the First Automatic Pistol? (Video)
What was the first true semiautomatic pistol? Let’s take a look… Before there were self-loading pistols, there were manually operated repeating pistols with magazines – like the 1850s Volcanics. A...
View ArticleNomar M1911 Magazine-Stock (Video)
In 1936, Lewis Nolan Nomar patented this device, which is basically a large 40-round magazine for the 1911 pistol. He envisioned a military use for the device in trench raiding, giving men a compact...
View ArticleLewis Gas Operated Pistol (Video)
Isaac Newton Lewis is best known as the designer of the Lewis light machine gun, of course – but that was not his only work in the firearms field. In 1919, he patented a semiauto handgun using the...
View ArticleWinchester Experimental Mag-Fed Garands (Video)
Even during World War Two, it was clear that the United States was interested in improving on the M1 Garand rifle. A company that could develop and update to the Garand to make it selective-fire and...
View ArticleWinchester Proto-M14 Rifle (Video)
In the aftermath of World War II, the United States spent 12 years looking for a successor to the M1 Garand rifle. The new standard infantry arm was expected to be select-fire, lightweight, accurate,...
View ArticleBergmann Transitional No 1/2 Pistols
Today we have a pair of interesting transitional Bergman factory prototypes which fall between the early No.1 / 1894 design and the 1896 No2/3/4 commercial production guns. These are both in the...
View ArticleBergmann Transitional No 4/5 Pistols
Another pair of transitional Bergmann transitional prototypes today, this time ones that sit between the 1896 and 1897 designs (No2/3/4 and No5). One of these is basically an 1896 frame with an 1897...
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Woodhull Export Model 35 Carbine
Does anyone recognize this rifle? It was designed by Fred Woodhall in 1945 (after his unsuccessful entry in the M1 Carbine trials), and now his son Tad Woodhull is trying to track it down. If you know...
View ArticleBergman 1920s Trials Prototype Pistol
This was, as far as I can tell, the final iteration of the Bergmann pistols, developed by AEP in Liege for potential military contracts. It retains the locking system of the 1910 pattern pistol, but...
View ArticleSavage .25 ACP Prototype Pocket Pistols (Video)
Savage was very successful with their .32 ACP and .380 ACP pocket pistols, and in the 1910s was interested in also breaking into the .25 ACP market, to compete with the Colt 1908 “Baby Browning”....
View ArticleMaxim Silverman Model 1896 Automatic Pistol (Video)
Hiram Maxim is obviously best known for the Maxim Machine Gun, but he and (most significantly) his assistant Louis Silverman also dabbled in handgun design. It appears that the work was primarily...
View ArticleSosso 1941 Italian Prototype Pistol (Video)
The Model 1941 Sosso is a huge Italian experimental semiauto pistol designed by Giulio Sosso. It uses a short recoil locking mechanism and is chambered for standard 9x19mm Parabellum ammunition, but...
View ArticleSchwarzlose 1901 Toggle-Delayed Prototype (Video)
Andreas Schwarzlose was a German designer who created several very interesting and unusual handgun designs (in addition to his 1907 heavy machine gun, which was adopted as a standard arm of the...
View ArticleBritish Submachine Gun Overview: Lanchester, Sten, Sterling, and More!
Armament Research Services (ARES) is a specialist technical intelligence consultancy, offering expertise and analysis to a range of government and non-government entities in the arms and munitions...
View ArticleRoss Experimental A2 Prototype (Video)
This is a very rare Ross automatic pistol, patented in 1903 by Charles Ross, of the Ross Rifle Company in Quebec. It is a short recoil, toggle locked design, made for the .45 Ross proprietary...
View ArticlePoland’s Battle Rifle: the wz.38M at James D Julia
Had it not been for the German and Russian invasions in 1939, Poland might have entered the 1940s with a very modern semiauto infantry battle rifle – the wz.38M. Designed by Josef Maroszek (notably...
View ArticleCanadian Experimental Lightweight No4 Enfield at James D Julia
In 1943 the need for a lighter and handier version of the Lee Enfield rifle became clear throughout the British Commonwealth, and experimentation began in Canada, Britain, and Australia. The work in...
View ArticleUS Test Trials .45 Caliber Knoble Pistol at James D Julia
One of the domestic American pistols entered in the US 1907 pistol trials was this short recoil, toggle locked design by W.E. Knoble of Tacoma Washington. Knoble submitted two experimental pistols to...
View ArticleAustralian Experimental Jungle Carbines at James D Julia
In 1943, experimentation began in Great Britain, Canada, and Australia into developing a shortened and lightened version of the Lee Enfield rifle. In Australia, the work was done on the No1 Mk3*...
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