Competition
Hogue Avenger vs M1911 at the Range
Yesterday we looked at where the Hogue Avenger came from and how it works; today I’m out at the range to test it out against a nicely customized M1911…
Austria
Conversion
Hogue Avenger: Precision Accuracy Via Delayed Blowback
The Avenger is a flapper-delayed blowback, fixed barrel conversion upper assembly for the Model 1911 pistol. It was designed by Austrian Peter Spielberger, and manufactured by Hogue in the US and PowerSpeed in Austria. It […]
Bolt Action Rifles
SSG-69: Steyr’s Cold War Sniper Rifle
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 […]
Bolt Action Rifles
SSG-98k: Austria Repurposes German Sniper Rifles
In the aftermath of World War Two, the Austrian Army was basically disarmed and disbanded. When it was allowed to reform in the 1950s, it needed new armaments, and in 1958 it adopted the SSG-98k […]
Prototype
Roth Theodorovic Prototypes: From Very Awkward to Mostly Ungainly
Today we are going to take a looks at a series of six prototype Roth Theodorovic pistols. These were a design that competed in Austrian pistol trials around the turn of the century, and eventually […]
Accessories
Austrian Troop Training: Erma EL-24 .22 Kit for the Steyr M95 Carbine
The German company Erma (Erfurter Maschinenfabrik) developed a .22 rimfire kit for the Mauser 98 for the German Army in the 1920s. It was used for training, both to allow for more effective fundamental practice […]
Submachine Guns
A Special MPi-81 for an Infantry Fighting Vehicle
One interesting specialized version of the Steyr MPi-81 is this model, built for the Steyr/Saurer 4K 7FA armored personnel carrier. The vehicle could carry 8 infantrymen and their compartment had four firing ports fitted with […]
Submachine Guns
MPi-81: Steyr Basically Makes the Uzi
The MPi-69 was adopted by Austria to replace its aging MP40 submachine guns, and it included an unorthodox charging handle design connected to the sling. Clearly this didn’t turn out to be such a great […]
Museum Review
Virtual Tour: Austrian Museum of Military History
02:30 – 17th Century hall 06:12 – 18th/19th Century hall 09:29 – World War One hall 17:13 – World War Two hall 20:24 – Naval history area I recently had a chance to visit the […]
Slow motion
Steyr’s Take on the Uzi: MPi-69 at the Range
I expected the MPi-69 to be a rather difficult gun to shoot well, with its very simple construction and wire stock, but I was pleasantly surprised on the range. The rate of fire is quite […]