Video
WWI Trench Hand Weapons
Karl and I recently did some work with a wide selection of hand weapons from WWI (some original, some reproductions) for a video in collaboration with the excellent YouTube channel The Great War. Have a […]
Video
Lever Action Rifles
RIA: Marlin 1897 Bicycle Rifle
Marlin’s 1892 lever action rifle in .22 rimfire caliber proved to be a very popular firearm, and so the company released an improved version in 1897, offered only as a rimfire takedown model. The 1897 […]
Revolver
RIA: An Overview of the Pinfire Revolver System
The pinfire system was an early cartridge type which saw widespread use in Europe, but was not widely adopted in the United States. First invented by a French designer named Pauly, it was made commercially […]
Shotgun
RIA: Colt Shotguns of the Old West (1878 & 1883)
When someone says “Old West Colt”, the first thought is usually not double barreled shotguns. However, Colt made two quite high-end side-by-side shotguns during this period, and they played a role in the remarkable Colt/Winchester […]
Semiauto pistol
RIA: Warwinck Copy of the Savage Automatic Pistol
The Eibar region of Spain is known as the center of a lot of pistol production from WWI through the Spanish Civil War, typically pistols called Ruby clones. Well, the various small gunmakers there were […]
Bolt Action Rifles
RIA: Danish 1889 Krag-Jorgensen Rifle
The Danes were the first military to adopt the Krag-Jorgensen rifle, with this infantry variant in 1889. It is chambered for the Danish 8x58R cartridge, which was also used in Remington Rolling Block rifles (although […]
Lever Action Rifles
RIA: Whitney-Scharf Lever-Action Rifle
The Whitney-Scharf was the final rifle manufactured by the Whitney company before it was bought out and closed down by Winchester in 1888. Only about 2,000 of these rifles were made before that time.
Lever Action Rifles
RIA: Whitney-Kennedy Lever Action Rifles
Eli Whitney Jr., son of the inventor of the famous “cotton gin”, ran the Whitneyville Armory for many years, producing a wide variety of firearms until nearly the end of the 1800s. Among other gun […]
Bolt Action Rifles
RIA: G33/40 Gebirgstruppen Carbine
The G33/40 carbine was made by the excellent Czech factory at Brno under German occupation (between 1940 and 1942). It was essentially a copy of the Czech vz.33 carbine, and was specifically issued to the […]
Gunsmithing
Spoils of War: A 1907 St Etienne Full of Bullet Holes
The 1907 St Etienne heavy machine gun is a really neat gun mechanically, but I can’t shot you that today because this one is jammed together from the 7 bullet impacts that rendered it unusable […]