Light MGs
Vintage Saturday: Italians in the Snow
Italian soldiers on the Russian Front, with a Breda M30 machine gun and a Carcano carbine. Thanks to Max Popenker for the photo!
Italy
Light MGs
Vintage Saturday: Unsure
Forcemen of 5-2, First Special Service Force, with an M1941 Johnson light machine gun on the Anzio beachhead, Italy, April 1944. They are in the process of disassembling (or reassembling) the gun. Thanks to Michael […]
Submachine Guns
Additional Photos: Orita
I had a different post planned for today, but Michael Heidler sent me some additional photos of the recently-discussed Orita submachine guns that ought to be shared. They are both of the second model, but […]
Submachine Guns
The TZ-45: Italy’s Late-War SMG with a Special Safety
Today’s article is another guest piece from Michael Heidler, author of several very useful books for the collector. This time, he is taking a look at the Italian TZ-45 submachine gun, and it’s unusual implementation […]
Light MGs
.455 Villar Perosa Photos
Italy has produced some fine guns, but they also have a pretty impressive collection of really poorly thought out ones, like the Fiat-Revelli M1914 and the 1915 Villar Perosa. The latter was basically a very […]
Semiauto pistol
Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover
You may have seen this video on YouTube – it got a bit of buzz when it came out a few months ago: Well, Arsenal (no relation to Arsenal Bulgaria/Arsenal USA of AK fame) has […]
Machine pistol
Lercker machine pistol
We don’t have very much information on today’s forgotten weapon, which is an Italian machine pistol designed by a gunsmith named Lercker. He worked for Beretta, but also had his own shop, where he designed […]
Submachine Guns
Comparison Video: MP41 & Beretta 38/44
We had the chance to shoot a couple of the lesser-known submachine guns used in World War II, a German MP41 and an Italian Beretta 38/44. Both are pretty typically submachine guns, firing 9mm Luger […]
Select-fire Rifles
Italian Cei-Rigotti self-loader
We have blogged about the Cei-Rigotti before, but I figured I’d do a re-cap on it, considering the new information we’ve found on its caliber. I’ve also uploaded a gallery of photos of the rifle […]
Commentary
The Importance of Primary Sources
One of the problems when trying to learn about rare and unusual firearms (rare and unusual anything, actually) is the lack of primary source material. In other word, information about the gun written by someone […]