Heavy MGs
Vintage Saturday: Smoke Break
This is a really good photo of a Belgian Maxim, although it appears to be staged – the man has his thumbs on the trigger, but there does is not ammo belt in the gun.
Belgium
Revolver
RIA: Extra-Fancy 20-Shot Pinfire Revolver
The pinfire cartridge was a popular development in Europe in the mid-1800s that never saw much exposure in the United States. A huge variety of pinfire revolvers were made by a myriad of large and […]
Handgun
James D. Julia: LeMat Grapeshot Revolver Design Evolution
The LeMat grapeshot revolver is one of the most distinctive and powerful sidearms of the US Civil War, sporting both a 9-round .42 caliber cylinder of pistol bullets and a shotgun barrel as cylinder axis. […]
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 […]
Gunsmithing
Warsaw Uprising Bergmann 1910/21
I was sent those photos by reader Marcus K (thanks, Marcus!) showing a pistol in the Polish Home Army Museum in Krakow. The gun is a Bergmann M1910/21 semiauto pistol which has been modified in […]
Bolt Action Rifles
Belgian 1886 Rifle Trials Report (Translated to English)
Our friend Thibaud has spent some time translating a report from the Belgian 1886 rifle trials into English – thank you, Thibaud! He notes that the text has a lot of specifically Belgian terminology and […]
Caseless
RIA: Colette Gravity Pistol
Colette was a Belgian gun manufacturer that made this interesting parlor pistol. It used a rocketball type of cartridge, in which the powder and primer were encased in the hollow base of the bullet to […]
Handgun
RIA: Stocked FN Model 1903
The FN Model 1903 was a Belgian-made scaled-up version of John Browning’s model 1903 pocket hammerless pistol. The pocket hammerless was made in .32 ACP and .380 calibers for (primarily) the civilian market in the […]
Bolt Action Rifles
RIA: Liegeoise 1888 Trials Rifle
The Belgian Army held rifle trials in the late 1880s to choose a new infantry rifle, and the winner was the Model 1889 Belgian Mauser. Quite a few different guns were involved in the competition […]
Biography
Biography: Léon and Émile Nagant
Note: Today’s post was written by our friend and occasional contributor Robert White. Thanks, Robert! One of the oldest pistols still in service is the Russian M1895 Nagant, designed by Léon and Émile Nagant. Léon […]