Austria - Forgotten Weapons

Bronze M1870 Gasser Revolver Made for Polar Exploration

August 31, 2026 Ian McCollum 15

In 1872, two Austro-Hungarian military officers named Julius Payer and Carl Weyprecht set out on an expedition to find a northeast passage to reach the Orient by traversing across the Arctic Ocean above Russia. The […]

Austrian Mosin Nagant Rifles Rechambered for 8x50mm in WWI

March 27, 2026 Ian McCollum 18

The Austro-Hungarian Empire captured a very large number of Mosin Nagant rifles from Russian forces during World War One. They decided as early as November 1914 to convert many of these rifles to the 8x50mm […]

Austrian Sniper Prototype: SSG-1917A4 (M1917 and 03A4 Springfield Hybrid)

March 25, 2026 Ian McCollum 12

In the years after World War Two when the Austrian Army began looking for new sniper rifles, one of their experiments was to use available M1917 rifles and M73B1 scopes (from M1903A4 sniper rifles). The […]

Steyr M1912/16 Automatic “Repetierpistole”

December 8, 2025 Ian McCollum 7

In the latter half of World War One the Austro-Hungarian military experimented with a number of select-fire pistol type weapons. One of these was the Steyr Repetierpistole M1912/16, an automatic adaptation of the regular M1912 […]

Steyr’s New Modular Pistols: AT-C Competition and AT-D Defense

September 6, 2025 Ian McCollum 19

Steyr has just released its first new handgun since the M9. This new design is call the AT (Austria), with a competition model (AT-C) and a service/carry/defense model (AT-D). The gun is a Browning short […]

Glock 26: Glock’s First Sub-Compact Pistol

May 14, 2025 Ian McCollum 36

The Glock 26 was introduced in 1995 alongside the Glock 27. These were sub-compact pistols with 3.43 inch barrels chambered for 9x19mm (the 26) and .40 S&W (the 27). These were Glock’s first foray into. […]

Voere SAM-180 – Semiautomatic American 180 SMG Made in Austria?

April 16, 2025 Ian McCollum 11

The American 180 is a .22LR machine gun that fires at a high rate (1300 rpm more or less) from a super-high-capacity magazine (177 rounds). Conceptually it was designed by Richard Casull in the 1960s, […]

Glock 18 & 18C Machine Pistols: How Do They Work?

March 3, 2025 Ian McCollum 54

After the success of the Glock 17 in Austrian military trials, the company chose two specific markets to target for expansion. One was competition shooters, for whom the Glock 17L was released. The other was […]

Steyrs for the Luftwaffe: The G29(ö) aka Gewehr 12/34

December 9, 2024 Ian McCollum 14

When the German government bought up the controlling interest in Steyr in 1938, they made use of its production facilities to start making rifles for the Luftwaffe. Steyr had tooling for the Mauser 98, but […]

MP9 and TP9: A Complete History From Steyr to B&T

October 21, 2024 Ian McCollum 9

Steyr introduced their TMP (Tactical Machine Pistol) and its semiauto SPP counterpart in 1989, but it was never a very popular item. After the company was purchased, the new ownership decided to scrap the TMP […]