Machine Guns - Forgotten Weapons

Leningrad’s Emergency-Production PPS-42 at the Range

November 12, 2022 Ian McCollum 18

Yesterday we looked at the history of the PPS-42 and how it was developed into the much more common PPS-43. Today we are taking it out to the range – the only time one of […]

Born in the Heart of Besieged Leningrad: the PPS-42

November 11, 2022 Ian McCollum 24

One would think that the Shpagin PPSh-41 was as simple as a submachine gun could get, but that wasn’t the case in World War Two USSR. Barely had the PPSh gotten into real production than […]

The Added Safety on German Inter-War SMGs

November 10, 2022 Ian McCollum 2

Police in inter-war Germany used a variety of submachine guns, and sometimes added a distinctive extra safety mechanism to them. No patent or documentation ha been uncovered (that I am aware of, anyway), but the […]

The US Adopts A Maxim: The Colt Model 1904

November 9, 2022 Ian McCollum 23

The US Army spent nearly 16 years languidly testing the Maxim gun, but was never willing to actually make a decision until a final trial in 1903 finally settled the matter. The Maxim was deemed […]

M240 Bravo: America Replaces the M60

November 7, 2022 Ian McCollum 43

In 1977, the US military adopted the FN MAG as the M240 in vehicular configuration to replace the less-than-successful M73/M219 machine guns. The USMC would get an early start adapting the 240 to ground configuration […]

An Early .45 ACP Reising Model 50 at the Range

November 5, 2022 Ian McCollum 22

The Reising was adopted by the US Marine Corps and used in campaigns through 1942 and early 1943, and it garnered a pretty poor reputation for reliability on the islands of the Pacific. However, it’s […]

First to the Fight: The Marines’ Reising M50 SMG

November 4, 2022 Ian McCollum 23

Eugene Reising developed a .45 ACP submachine gun in the late 1930s that was basically the opposite of the Thompson – it was light and handy, fired from a closed bolt with a delayed blowback […]

Thompson SMG Cases: Police, FBI, and Secret Service

November 3, 2022 Ian McCollum 9

The Auto Ordnance company made a couple different types of cases for the Thompson SMG, and today we are going to look at two of the most common and one exceptionally cool type. The two […]

Beretta 38/42 at the Range

October 29, 2022 Ian McCollum 28

The pre-war Beretta Model 38A was a magnificent SMG, but it included a fair number of fancy elements that would prove to costly to justify once wartime production needs grew. Beretta would simplify the design […]

Beretta 38/42: Simplified But Still Excellent

October 28, 2022 Ian McCollum 5

The Beretta Model 38A was an outstanding SMG at the beginning of World War Two, loaded with features and very easy to shoot. However, it was expensive and complex to produce, and pressures of war […]