On the April 20th, 1897, now-legendary firearms-designer John Browning received four patents for various pistol designs. These included two recoil-operated systems, a blowback design and — most interestingly — a pistol using a gas-operated toggle action. Browning had developed the gas-operated design a few years earlier in 1894 and ’95. It was actually Browning’s first pistol design. Unfortunately, it also…
Tag: Historical Firearms
Know Your Weapons: The Spetsnaz AS VAL Assault Rifle & VSS Sniper Rifle
Russian Commandos Carry Suppressed Rifles That Can Shoot Through Body Armor The AS Val and VSS are fearsome weapons In the early 1980s, the Soviet Union’s Central Institute for Precision Machine Building — TsNIITochMash — developed the AS Val suppressed assault rifle and the derivative VSS sniper rifle specifically to outfit Russian special forces and intelligence agencies….
Military Weapons From The Past: The EMC-49 SMG Was Too Futuristic For The British Army
Following the end of World War II, the British Army sought a replacement for the STEN Gun which had been the British military’s workhorse submachine gun since 1940. The Army did not choose the futuristic Experimental Machine Carbine, 1949 from BSA. But maybe it should have. The STEN was simple, cheap and arguably nasty. While…
Military Weapons From The Past: The Suppressed M3 “Grease Gun”
The U.S. Army’s M3 submachine gun from World War II drew inspiration from the British STEN. Likewise, the suppressed M3 followed the suppressed versions of the STEN — the Mk. II and Mk. VI. The U.S. Office of Strategic Services formed in June 1943, modelling itself on the British Special Operations Executive. Like the SOE, the…
Know Your Weapons: The Walther P-38, Germany’s Most Popular Wartime Pistol
In 1929, German gun-maker Waffenfabrik Walther began developing a new nine-millimeter pistol for military use. The development violated the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I, so Walther kept it secret. Early Walther attempts focused on scaling up its “PP” line of pistols to chamber the larger nine-mil round. This pistol, the Militarpistole, wasn’t…
Military Weapons From The Past: The Burton Machine Rifle aka Winchester Model 1917
We don’t know much about Frank Burton’s Winchester-Burton Machine Rifle — a.k.a., the Winchester Model 1917. Little documentation of the rifle survives, but historians believe Burton meant it to be an anti-balloon weapon. During World War I, observation balloons helped armies on both sides of the conflict direct artillery fire and track enemy troop…
Military Weapons From The Past: The British De Lisle Silenced Commando Carbine
British firearms-enthusiast and engineer William Godfray De Lisle designed his De Lisle Silenced Commando Carbine around the action and stock of the Mk. III Lee-Enfield rifle. Chambered in .45 ACP and accepting slightly-modified .45-caliber Colt 1911 pistol magazines rather than the Lee-Enfield’s standard 10-round .303 magazine, the De Lisle boasted an 8.2-inch integral barrel sound-suppressor….
Military Weapons From The Past: Smith and Wesson Model 39 Suppressed “Guard Dog Gun”
Navy SEALs in Vietnam needed a quieter handgun Smith & Wesson developed its Model 39 handgun in the early 1950s in response to requests from the U.S. Army for a new, lighter service pistol chambered in nine-by-19 millimeter. When the initial interest from the Army evaporated, Smith & Wesson was left with a modern semi-automatic…
Military Weapons From The Past: A Side-Loading M1 Garand? It Was Never Meant To Be
In 1951 and ’52, the U.S. military’s official Springfield Armory began experimenting with re-chambering the M1 Garand with the new T65E3 light rifle cartridge. As part of these experiments, the armory tested several alternate feed and magazine systems. In order to re-chamber a standard M1 in the new cartridge, the armorers replaced the barrel and…
Military Weapons from the Past: The ‘Hotchkiss Type Universal’ was a TINY Submachine Gun
The odd-looking Hotchkiss Type Universal represented an extraordinary attempt at creating an extremely compact submachine gun. The need was obvious. In World War II, soldiers found themselves getting in and out of vehicles, jumping from planes and fighting in close quarters. They needed a weapon that wouldn’t get in the way. Submachine guns had become…