Duration: 16:51

After developing the AR-15 with Armalite, Eugene Stoner worked for a number of different companies. In 1972 he cofounded Ares Inc, where he and his partners worked on a wide variety of weapons platforms. Their work included rapid-fire cannons and full-fledged artillery as well as small arms. The first of those small arms was the Future Assault Rifle Concept - FARC. This was a gas piston, rotating bolt 5.56mm rifle design with a number of interested elements. The FARC-1 was a concept on paper only, leading to production of a few FARC-2 and FARC-3 prototypes. The project was cancelled in the wake of the end of the Vietnam War as funding for such things was much less readily available.

Thanks to the Institute of Military Technology for allowing me to have access to these prototypes and bring them to you! Check them out at:

http://www.instmiltech.com

Duration: 22:49

"Forged in Snow", my book on Finnish small arms, is available for pre-order right now along with all the other cool options at: https://www.headstamppublishing.com

In the fall of 1914 it became apparent that the minor fracas in Serbia was going to stretch a lot longer than anyone had expected, and governments began scrambling to secure weapons production. Japan was one source of small arms for the Entente powers, and Britain purchased about 150,000 Arisaka rifles and carbines from the Japanese in late 1914 and early 1915. These were used to equip Royal Navy crews and Army raining and reserve units, but by late 1915 Enfield production had caught up and the guns were no longer needed.

In the fall of 1915, the British sent most of their Arisakas (about 128,000) to Russia, which had also been purchasing large numbers from Japan. There they were again used to arm second-line units, including troops occupying the Grand Duchy of Finland. When Finland declared its independence in December 1917, most of the Russian soldiers went home and left their weapons in Finland. As a result, the Arisaka was the second most common type of rifle available at Finland's independence, and was used by the Civil Guard until about 1927.

This particular Type 38 Carbine was made at the Tokyo Army Arsenal in 1910, then sold tot he British where it was given a set of unit marks on the stock. It was subsequently transferred to Russia, where a metal clip was added to prevent accidental magazine release. It stayed in Finland through the Finnish Civil War and afterwards, only being imported into the US recently by Postrock of Garden City Kansas.

Duration: 19:00

The first version of this carbine was the Cosmopolitan, designed and patented by Henry Gross in 1859 and manufactured by Edward Gwyn and Abner Campbell. It is a single-shot .52 caliber carbine that loads from the breech with a paper cartridge and a separate external percussion cap. After producing a batch of the guns, Gwyn and Campbell realized that the breechblock design could be much simplified, and they patented that simplification - essentially pushing Gross out of his own invention.

Several successive contracts for the carbines were fulfilled during the Civil War, with about 8,200 produced in total. It was not the most popular or most numerous cavalry carbine of the war, but it is rather remarkable for actually being reliable and delivered consistently on time.

Cap & Ball video on the Gwyn & Campbell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlgWUb7In1g

"Cosmopolitan and Gwyn & Campbell Carbines in the Civil War" by Thomas Rentschler:

https://amzn.to/4kvApNp

Duration: 1:00:21

Today's Q&A is sponsored by Kyrö - get 10% off all their spirits with code FORGOTTENWHISKY10 at:

https://www.kyrodistillery.com

01:05 - Guns from Peru

JoLoAr video: https://www.floatplane.com/post/5hrJnIbAAu

03:23 - Why not blow-forward bullpups?

05:00 - Was the SKS used in WW2?

C&Rsenal SKS video: https://youtu.be/7x1jyDHxqO4

07:28 - Favorite gun breakdown?

Terni 1921 video: https://www.floatplane.com/post/zJ8PBLi59x

08:42 - Madsen LMG action still viable today?

11:28 - Valuable input from viewers in the comments?

13:17 - How long will Forgotten Weapons go?

15:45 - Is KelTec onto something with clip-fed pistols?

17:44 - Why not more innovative new pistols from big companies?

20:14 - What is barrel life?

22:48 - AK with bolt hold-open?

Early M70 video: https://www.floatplane.com/post/rJoWvkXvsY

25:15 - Future of stocked pistols and chassis systems?

27:11 - How to update a 1970s Soviet AK?

28:29 - Combination subsonic/supersonic cartridges

31:53 - AI and workflow

35:19 - Reproduction or resto-mod guns?

37:10 - Why not stainless for military barrels?

37:41 - Converting the Trapdoor Springfield to .30-40

39:50 - Thoughts on 6.5mm military cartridges

45:10 - Do high end rifles really make a difference?

48:04 - Anti-drone weapons

52:42 - Down-loaded cartridges in the PTRS and PTRD

54:43 - Why no American proof houses?

56:50 - Shotgun suppressors

57:42 - Why create Headstamp instead of using an existing publisher?

Duration: 12:11

Our book on Hungarian AKs, "Rifles on the Danube", is available here:

https://www.headstamppublishing.com/danube-book

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Mauser firm was not in good shape. It had no new products, and its ability to survive marketing its name and legacy pistols was waning. Without much vision for the future, it turned to rebranding production from other companies, like Renato Gamba in Italy and FÉG in Hungary. From FEG they got the "Mauser Model 80" - a licensed copy of the Browning High Power - and the "Mauser Model 90" - a rebadged FEG P9R.

The P9R / Mauser 90 is often assumed to simply be a double-action modification of the High Power, but this is not true. The slide is almost identical is appearance to the High Power slide except for the decocking lever, but the frame has several important differences. The barrel lockup is taken from the S&W series of automatic pistols instead of the High Power, and the trigger mechanism is a stirrup around the magazine well instead of moving through the slide like a High Power.

In total, FEG made 26,000 of these pistols for Mauser. The plan was to sell them in Europe, but by 1995 sales remained poor and about 18,000 remained in Mauser inventory. In order to get rid of them, they were offered on the American market, where they were gobbled up by importers like Century between 1995 and 2001.

Duration: 11:57

Aimpoint introduced its first tubular red dot sight in 1985, the Aimpoint 2000. They were still making direct rail-mounted optics like the Aimpoint Electronic, but recognized the customer demand for a sight that could fit into normal scope rings. The 2000 included a number of other innovations, like a light sensor to automatically adjust brightness.

In 1989 the Aimpoint 3000 came out, which streamlined the profile of the optic by using a smaller battery compartment mounted tight tot he tube, and abandoning the automatic light adjustment. This was followed in 1991 by the Aimpoint 5000, which was essentially the same optic in a 30mm tube instead of a 1" tube. Larger diameter optics were gaining popularity for increased light transmission, and the 5000 followed that trend.

A number of options were offered, especially on the Aimpoint 5000. Different colors were made, a "Mag Dot" option for pistol competition offered up to a 15 MOA dot, and even a version with a fixed 2x magnification was made for hunters who thought that would be a good idea (it really wasn't). The last in the line was the Aimpoint 5000 XD which introduced a new diode assembly with much longer battery life - this would go on to be the M68 CCO as adopted by the US military.

Duration: 06:39

Indumil in Colombia was originally founded as a state workshop to repair military small arms. Its first complete production gun was the Cassidy, a licensed copy of Llama's copy of the Smith & Wesson Model 10. This was developed by Llama for the .357 Magnum cartridge and retains that frame length, but Indumil only makes it in .38 Special because of legal precedents in the country. It is offered in three models, the regular Cassidy seen here, the larger Marshall (full sight rib and underdog, in 4" or 5" barrel length) and the compact Scorpio (round butt with a 2" barrel).

Thanks to Javier Traba Pistolas for giving me access to these examples to film for you! You can find him on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/@TrabaPistolas/videos

Duration: 11:08

The Czechoslovak military knew when they adopted it that the vz.52 pistol was not very good, and they initiated a replacement program as the same time as its adoption. Two pistols were developed to be its replacement; the CZ 531 and the ZKP 524. The ZKP was designed by the brothers Josef and František Koucký, based heavily on the Colt 1911 and Tokarev TT33 pistols. It was chambered for the 7.62x25mm cartridge as required by the military, and held 8 rounds in a single-stack magazine. In trials against the CZ-531, it proved to be more accurate, but less reliable and more expensive. It suffered a cracked slide after 4,198 rounds fired, and an improved second example was made. However, the vz.52 proved good enough despite its shortcomings, and the program to replace it fizzled out after this testing.

Thanks to the Czech Military History Institute (VHU) for graciously giving me access to this unique prototype to film for you! If you have the opportunity, don't miss seeing their museums in Prague:

https://www.vhu.cz/en/english-summary/

CZ 531 video: https://www.floatplane.com/post/M1tDhtc7rD

Duration: 16:37

After World War One, the Italian military spent some time studying the effectiveness of reduced-power cartridges, including both pistol calibers semiautomatic carbines and submachine guns as well as intermediate-caliber rifles. One of the rifles developed for the subsequent testing was the Terni Arsenal model 1921, of which 200 appear to have been made in total during the 1920s. This rifle used a surprising advanced 7.35x32mm cartridge, firing a 135 grain bullet at 1970 fps. It was a short recoil design and used a Fiat-Revelli style cube magazine. Ultimately the concept was not adopted (probably for reasons of cost), and some of the surviving rifles ended up in Ethiopia - where this example was found a few years ago.

Duration: 09:37

I did an experiment with an AI thumbnail for last week's video on the PBS-1. The result? You all hate it, but you also watched it about 30% more than when you saw the regular thumbnail...

Duration: 13:41

The Soviet Union had made fairly extensive use of silencers on Mosin Nagant rifles during World War Two, as tools for snipers and recon scouts among others. In the mid 1950s a new silencer was put into development for the new 7.62x39mm family of weapons, called the PBS (Прибор Бесшумной Стрельбы; Pribor Besshumnoi Strelyby; Silent Shooting Device). This was originally intended to be a multi-weapon silencer, but the abandonment of the SKS and reliability problems with the RPD led to it being limited to just the AK. Compared to the Mosin Nagant silencers, this new design was much more difficult, as it had to allow the rifle to cycle reliably using specialized subsonic ammunition, and also continue to run reliably with the silencer removed and standard ammunition used. This led to the most unusual element of its design; a thick rubber wipe just in front of the muzzle to help boost back pressure.

The remainder of the design was pretty simple, with 12 plain flat plate baffles. The first production PBS model used a clamshell main body, but this was replaced by a solid tube on PBS-1 improved model in 1962. These suppressors were used until the late 1970s, when the 9x39mm cartridge was developed for better subsonic effectiveness, along with a number of unique new firearms designed for it.

Bramit Suppressor for Mosin Nagant: https://www.floatplane.com/post/3paK8DXSdl

Duration: 13:13

Francis Bannerman is really the father of the modern military surplus industry, and in many ways a father of gun collecting as we know it today. Before Bannerman, "gun collecting" was generally something for the wealthy and revolved around fancy and bespoke guns. It was not about have representative pieces of normal arms, it was about having the fancy and exclusive things. Bannerman changed that by offering all manner of ordinary surplus at affordable prices to anyone who was interested. In addition to complete guns and other equipment, Bannerman also dealt in huge numbers of bits and pieces, and sometimes assembled them into various odd hybrid guns for sale, which we still see occasionally today...

Sample Bannerman catalog (1903):

https://archive.org/details/francis-bannerman-military-goods-catalogue-1903/

Duration: 10:43

Suit from Grayman & Co: https://grayman.co

Today I'm speaking with Mike Branson from Gideon Optics at SHOT Show 2026 about what he sees in the industry. Specifically, the three categories that customers fall into...

Duration: 12:57

Interested in learning how to source your own meat, from field to table? Outdoor Solutions has a bunch of classes running:

https://www.fromfieldtotable.com

This past December I met up with my friends Greg Ray and Chef Joe from Outdoor Solutions for an ambitious (more ambitious than I realized at the time!) elk hunt. We had tags for cow elk in Unit 356 or New Mexico, and this was to be a overland hunt over several days...

Duration: 12:45

When the first carbine variants of the AR-15 were developed by Colt (the Model 607 initially, and later the XM-177E1 and XM-177E2), one of the complaints was that they were painfully loud. This should not be surprising, given the blast and concussion created by 10.5" and 11.5" 5.56mm barrels. Colt's solution was to design a muzzle device that acted as a very limited-capacity suppressor, which reduced the blast and noise of a carbine to the same level as a regular (unsuppressed) M16A1 rifle. The actual sound reduction was only a few decibels, and they did the intended job.

It is worth noting that the other rationales sometimes attributed to these moderators (improving reliability and making the carbine sounds like an AK) may have been byproducts of their use, but were not part of the design intent. These were created to take the edge of the muzzle report of an AR carbine, and nothing more.

Today I have one of the Liemohn Manufacturing reproduction moderators. It is extremely well made, and does the job just as Colt originally intended. With SBR and suppressor tax stamps now reduced to $0, it is much more viable to make proper XM-177 clones, and these moderators are ideal for that.

Disclosure: The moderator and cutaway in this video were provided to me free of charge by Liemohn.

Duration: 14:32

When the German Army tested last-ditch Volkssturm rifles late in World War Two, one of the particularly obscure submissions was August Coenders' Coenders-Rochling Volkssturmkarabiner. This was a bowl action rifle chambered for 8mm Mauser with a 5-round magazine. However, instead of using a traditional bolt action system it had a fixed breechblock and the handle was attached tot he barrel. Cycling the action meant unlocking the barrel and sliding it forward, while the breechblock held the fired case in place. When the barrel was fully forward, the next round in the magazine would kick out the empty case, and pull the barrel rearward seated the next cartridge, ready to fire. In testing, the rifle was, frankly, terrible.

Thanks to the Springfield Armory National Historic Site for giving me access to this unique specimen from their reference collection to film for you! Don't miss the chance to visit the museum there if you have a day free in Springfield, Massachusetts:

https://www.nps.gov/spar/index.htm

Duration: 16:42

Javier Traba Pistolas: https://www.youtube.com/@TrabaPistolas/videos

When the Colombian government wanted a locally produced service pistol for its military and security services, it turned to Indumil - the government-owned small arms factory. Indumil already had a license from IMI to produce Galil rifles (both the older AR and the new Ace), and they leveraged the tools and materials from the Galil into the new pistol. Named "Córdova" after

José María Córdova, a young military hero from Colombia's (and Bolivia's and Peru's) fight for independence from Spain, the gun uses a modular fire control system in a polymer frame, with a slide design modeled in part from the IMI Jericho. It is a DA/SA, hammer fired, 9x19mm pistol with a Browning tilting-barrel locking system.

Production began in 2014, and has continued ever since with tens of thousands now made and in use by Colombian military and police units. This pistol has gone through several improvement cycles during that time and it is a quite good handgun, if not particularly unorthodox. In addition to the Standard (Estandar) model in the video, they also produce a compact model and a tactical model.

Many thanks to Indumil for giving me access to film in their factory, and to Javier for letting me use his Cordova!

Duration: 1:30:17

Today's Q&A is sponsored by Kyrö - get 10% off all their spirits with code FORGOTTENGIN10 at:

https://www.kyrodistillery.com

0:02:41 - Could the US scale up small arms production to wartime mass levels?

0:08:57 - How were wood gunstocks made?

0:13:36 - Barrel attachment; alternatives to threading?

0:15:50 - Decline in gunsmiths and gunsmithing

0:20:34 - What would emergency small arms look like today?

Video - "Last Ditch" M16: https://youtu.be/1SDL4n8yUe8

Video - Croatian Crogar M91: https://youtu.be/Ruif6Qym3zw

Video - Croatian Vila Velabita: https://youtu.be/vLOwArnKWV8

Video - Croatian Sokac: https://youtu.be/d82b4xb6bAA

0:23:36 - Lost manufacturing methods

0:25:19 - Metallurgy and alloys in gunmaking

0:29:31 - Manufacturing tolerances

0:41:54 - Simplification of designs

0:44:18 - Why don't we have stamped guns today?

0:46:49 - Venezuelan AK-100s in the US?

0:48:58 - Home-scale metal 3D printers?

0:50:43 - 3D printing applications besides suppressors?

0:54:17 - AI and 3D printing for reproduction guns?

0:56:46 - Books about the gunmaking business

0:57:37 - What if Stoner didn't get into guns?

0:59:37 - Ammunition production quality

1:05:46 - Do I have my own gun design I want to make?

1:06:46 - Historical metallurgy in gun manufacture

Book - "Fighting Iron": https://amzn.to/3Z89Fsk

1:09:04 - Why are magazines so hard to make?

1:14:47 - Advice for new reproduction gunmakers

1:19:47 - Pros and cons of different manufacturing methods

Duration: 14:00

The Ross model 1912 Cadet rifle was introduced in 1912 as a diminutive rimfire companion to the 1905 and 1910 military Ross rifles. It was a single-shot straight pull rifle, with a somewhat unusual locking bolt system. Somewhere between 13,000 and 17,000 appear to have been made, for civilian commercial sale, Cadet Corps, and Militia use. Production ended in March 1917, when the Ross company collapsed. Today these are quite rare rifles.

Duration: 04:40

Available directly from Vickers Guide:

https://www.vickersguide.com/purchase/heckler-koch-vol-4-standard

The fourth and final volume of the Vickers Guide to Heckler & Koch covers the post-roller-delayed long guns made by H&K. This begins with the G11, and then the G36, HKM4/HK416, HK417, MG4, and MG5 families. It also covers a number of other related groups of guns including H&K grenade launchers, the OICW, the L85A2 and A3, and more. While it is formatted primarily as a coffee table book with outstanding photography, it actually has more information than any other source I am aware of on its topics. For anyone interested in H&K firearms or simply in modern military small arms, these volumes are excellent reference works.