Semiauto pistol
1938 Swedish Army Trials Luger
Lot 524 in the September 2019 RIA auction. Sweden tested the Luger in 1904, along with all the major semiauto pistols available at the time. The Luger was found to be the most accurate gun […]
Germany
Needlefire
Dreyse Model 1835 Needlefire Breechloading Pistol
Lot 408 in the September 2019 RIA auction. Johann Nicolaus Dreyse, later promoted to the aristocracy as Nicolaus von Dreyse, designed the first mainstream military breechloading rifle. His rifle was adopted by Prussia and changed […]
Revolver
Scheintod Revolver: A German Tear Gas Pepperbox
Lot 3129 in the September 2019 RIA auction. First appearing in the decade of so before World War One, the Scheintod guns were designed to fire either flash or irritant cartridges, not lethal projectiles. The […]
Bolt Action Rifles
Walther KKW: Competition Shooting in Nazi Germany
Lot 3620 in the September 2019 RIA auction. The KKW (“Klein Kaliber Wehrsportgewehr”, or small caliber military sporting rifle) was developed by BDW in 1937 as an amalgamation of various .22 rifle elements form other […]
Prototype
P7A13: H&K’s Entry into the US XM9 Pistol Trials
The US held three series of pistol trials beginning in the late 1970s to find a replacement for the venerable M1911 handgun. H&K was a participant in all three – in the first the entered […]
Semiauto pistol
Abercrombie & Fitch Luger
Back before World War One, when Abercrombie & Fitch was still a true sporting goods company catering to the likes of Joseph Steinbeck and Theodore Roosevelt, they decided to offer Luger pistols for sale. This […]
Uncategorized
Tirmax: A Pre-WW1 .32ACP Light Carbine
The Tirmax is a handy little carbine made between 1909 and 1914 in Liege by a German company. It is a semiauto action using a 5-round detachable magazine. The guns are quite scarce today because […]
Prototype
Walther Experimental Hybrid Olympia/Woodsman
In the early 1930s, Walther began to experiment with changes to its Olympia target pistol in hopes of beating the Colt Woodsman out of its place as the most popular pistol of the type. The […]
Prototype
P7M7: The Mythical Lost .45 ACP H&K
The P7 was one of the most interesting and original handgun designs of the last few decades. Originally created for West German police trials, it was chambered in 9x19mm. As it became popular beyond Germany, […]
Prototype
Toolroom Prototype .32 ACP Walther Olympia
In the late 1930s, Walther experimented with the idea of an Olympia target pistol in .32 ACP. They used the frame from a 1936 pattern standard (.22LR) Olympia with a .32 caliber barrel, increased mass […]