Revolver
New Beretta-Imported MR73 at the Range
The Manurhin MR73 has always been one of the very best combat revolvers made, but they have been hard to find here in the US. That has now changed, as the Beretta group purchased Chapuis, […]
France
Uncategorized
Features: Full Auto FAMAS F1 vs Semiauto MAS 223
Since I happen to have simultaneous access to both a military-pattern F1 FAMAS and also a civilian semiautomatic MAS-223, I figured it would be nice to compare them side by side and see how they […]
Select-fire Rifles
VHS-2 Bullpup at the Range
Yesterday we took a look at the inner workings of the VHS-2, and today we are going to put some rounds through it. I am trying out both a short-barreled VHS-K2 that was limited to […]
Select-fire Rifles
French Trials VHS-F2 Croatian Bullpup
HS Produkt of Croatia makes an interesting modern bullpup rifle, the VHS. The rifle has gone through several major design iterations in the past two decades or so, and the most recent version (the VHS-2) […]
Select-fire Rifles
Ian Finally Takes a Full Auto FAMAS F1 to the Range
Huzzah! I finally have a chance to take a proper full-auto FAMAS F1 out to the range. My conclusions? It’s very nice, just like the semiauto civilian model. It has a limited 3-round-burst option for […]
Competition
Back-Up Gun Match Teaser with an MR-73
It came out recently that the Beretta Group has purchased Chapuis, the French manufacturer of the legendary MR73 revolvers. A bunch of people have asked me if I’m getting one of the Beretta-imported guns, and […]
Antiques
System Kuhn: A Novel Single Shot Breechloader
This is an interesting single-shot breechloading system built by Kuhn of Besançon – a city near Switzerland in eastern France. It is clearly a sporting rifle, firing an 11mm black powder cartridge and probably dates […]
Bolt Action Rifles
MAS-45: The French .22 Trainer Designed by Mauser
When the French occupied the Mauser factory in April 1945, they found all the tooling to produce .22 caliber rifles still in place and in good order (among other things). The French military did not […]
Semiauto pistol
1945: The French Occupy Mauser and Make Lugers
In July 1945, just a few months after the first French troops entered Oberndorf, the Mauser factory began assembling guns under French oversight. In addition to HSc pistols, P38 pistols, K98k rifles, and Model 45 […]
Ammunition
Clement Pottet: Father of the Shotgun Shell
Clement Pottet was one of the original fathers of the modern shotgun shell. He took the work of men like Pauly and developed a paper-walled, metallic-base shell for shotgun use. He had two main French […]