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Home2023March

Month: March 2023

Select-fire Rifles

The Very Rare FN CAL at the Range

March 20, 2023 Ian McCollum 3

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 […]

Submachine Guns

VMP 1930 at the Range: does the Monopod Help?

March 18, 2023 Ian McCollum 9

Yesterday we took a look at the mechanics and history of Heinrich Vollmer’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 […]

Submachine Guns

SMG With a Monopod? The Vollmer VMP-1930

March 17, 2023 Ian McCollum 11

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 […]

Crude Copies

Crude Khyber Pass Webley Revolver Copy

March 13, 2023 Ian McCollum 20

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 […]

Heavy MGs

Russia’s Big Fifty on the Range: DShK-38

March 11, 2023 Ian McCollum 20

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!

Heavy MGs

DShK-38: The Soviet Monster .50 Cal HMG

March 10, 2023 Ian McCollum 4

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 […]

Select-fire Rifles

FG-42: Perhaps the Most Impressive WW2 Shoulder Rifle

March 8, 2023 Ian McCollum 92

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 […]

Antiques

Prototype Birdshead Grip S&W No.3 Russian

March 6, 2023 Ian McCollum 12

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 […]

Competition

Beretta’s New 80X Cheetah at the BUG Match (feat. Symtac)

March 4, 2023 Ian McCollum 9

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 […]

Bolt Action Rifles

SSG-69: Steyr’s Cold War Sniper Rifle

March 2, 2023 Ian McCollum 15

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 […]

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