Austria - Forgotten Weapons

Hogue Avenger: Precision Accuracy Via Delayed Blowback

January 5, 2024 Ian McCollum 14

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 […]

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 […]

SSG-98k: Austria Repurposes German Sniper Rifles

February 27, 2023 Ian McCollum 14

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 […]

Roth Theodorovic Prototypes: From Very Awkward to Mostly Ungainly

February 17, 2023 Ian McCollum 32

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 […]

Austrian Troop Training: Erma EL-24 .22 Kit for the Steyr M95 Carbine

February 11, 2023 Ian McCollum 21

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 […]

A Special MPi-81 for an Infantry Fighting Vehicle

July 25, 2022 Ian McCollum 20

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 […]

MPi-81: Steyr Basically Makes the Uzi

June 17, 2022 Ian McCollum 13

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 […]

Virtual Tour: Austrian Museum of Military History

May 20, 2022 Ian McCollum 19

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 […]

Steyr’s Take on the Uzi: MPi-69 at the Range

May 14, 2022 Ian McCollum 18

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 […]

Austria’s Take on the Uzi: Steyr MPi-69

May 13, 2022 Ian McCollum 11

Designed in the 1960s by Steyr and adopted by the Austrian Army in 1969 to replace it aging MP40s, the MPi-69 is an economical and simple 9x19mm SMG. It uses many features seen in the […]