Weapon 2024, November

Last time we stopped at the fact that already during the war years, soldiers of the belligerent armies began to distribute questionnaires to find out their opinion about a promising submachine gun. For example, on May 6, 1943, the Australian Army sent out a questionnaire to a large number of soldiers with combat experience. The questionnaire was

In the last article, we looked at a whole arsenal of submachine guns, right up to the original Australian Owen. But many very original images of PP were also offered by Soviet designers. Moreover, being in rather cramped conditions for creative activity for a number of reasons

Last time we stopped at the fact that during the war years, samples of submachine guns began to appear, as close as possible to the requirements of the time. That is, to the maximum extent they are technologically advanced, respectively - cheap, "soldier-resistant", although they are not devoid of a number of shortcomings. The soldiers took

Well, what was the most interesting design of the first generation submachine gun? If we put them all in one row, then … the choice will not be difficult. On the aggregate of all indicators, this will turn out to be … yes, do not be surprised - not German, not Swiss (although it is also German in essence) and not

The year 1938 was marked in the history of the PP by the fact that at that time a number of armies received their samples, which no longer copied the MP-18. That is, he, of course, was also their ancestor, but already quite distant. The second generation of submachine guns was launched, and many of them met on the field

Surprisingly, there was a time when the creators of the same submachine guns were proud, you know what? By polishing their wooden parts and their high quality! And it should be really high enough for the mechanism to sit firmly in them, and the tree does not swell from dampness, but … the main thing in the weapon

Why the stars are burning, Why are the stars burning, Why are the stars burning. It's not clear. Get me a machine gun, Find me a machine gun, Buy me a machine gun. will not say, but who decides to say will immediately lie down. ("Dear Boy", 1974

The Model REC7 automatic rifle is the latest development of the Barrett Firearms Company. This small American company has gained worldwide fame for its large-caliber sniper rifles, the most famous of which is the M82A1, the "legendary" "Light Fifty". Earned

The Glock 18, released in 1986, was created on the basis of the Model 17 for the EKO Cobra (Einsatzkommando Cobra) anti-terrorist special unit of the Austrian federal police, which required a light compact weapon with the ability to fire in bursts. The main difference from the Glock 17 is

In late 2003, the US Special Operations Command (US SOCOM) issued a request to weapons manufacturers for a new modular assault rifle for US SOCOM fighters, designated SOF Combat Assault Rifle - SCAR (Special Forces Combat Assault Rifle)

The special services of Russia did not stay away from the global trend in the light version of the weapon. In service, in particular, there is a shock-shock shot with an elastic element VGM 93.600, which is fired from a GM-94 pump-action grenade launcher. The kinetic element is extremely simple in design - it has a mass

They shoot non-lethal ammunition at limited distances from almost everything: they use carbines, grenade launchers and cannons that send projectiles at a distance of 10 to 150 meters. The main problem in the design of kinetic ammunition that does not kill, but only hurts, becomes

The mortar differs unfavorably from barrel artillery in the large amount of dispersion of ammunition, which makes it necessary to increase the consumption of mines to hit the target. Most artillery design bureaus around the world have come to the conclusion that the introduction of mine control systems in flight is inevitable

"BAD CZAR" AND GOOD RIFLE Not so long ago on the pages of VO there was material dedicated to the 1891 model rifle created in Russia. It seems to be a "next" piece of information, no more and no less. All the same, only in a more concise form, we can read in the encyclopedia "Firearms

Usually I write about handguns, but in this article I will change my specialization a little and try to make the material according to a slightly different model. It will be about a throwing weapon, namely a crossbow, but a crossbow with a design that is somewhat different from the already widespread options

In the late 80s, domestic weapons design bureaus began a kind of arms race. The main emphasis in this race was placed on submachine guns, although the engineers did not forget about the submachine guns. In addition, the engineers had a reason: more and more often the special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense spoke negatively about

The last two decades in the history of domestic small arms can rightfully be called the second era of submachine guns (the first was in the Great Patriotic War). Moreover, in this second era, much more samples of automatic weapons were developed for a pistol cartridge

At the beginning of this century, the command of the US Marine Corps was concerned with increasing the mobility of fighters and units by rearming them. Until now, the Marines used the M249 SAW as a light machine gun - a variant of the Belgian FN Minimi, modified for American requirements and

The main anti-tank weapons in service with the infantry at the beginning of World War II were high-explosive hand grenades and anti-tank guns, that is, means that originated in the last years of World War I. "Anti-tank rifle" (ATR) is not an entirely accurate term - this

If we approach the issue formally, then the service life of this, undoubtedly, an outstanding representative of the classic type of hand grenades, will not be one hundred, but eighty-nine years. In 1928, the F-1 antipersonnel defensive grenade - "lemon" was adopted by the Red Army. But let's not

Everyone knows that the Second World War brought many new developments in the world of weapons and even forced to radically reconsider certain aspects of the conduct of hostilities, as well as changed the view of soldiers' weapons. Precisely due to the fact that the Germans showed the effectiveness of the intermediate cartridge

Despite the general skepticism towards Georgian firearms, it should be noted that gradually the samples that are being developed and produced are getting better and better. We will not touch on the topic for what reason this happens and with whose help, but rather we will analyze one of the enough

One of the popular pistols of the Wild West was the Sharps Four Barrel Pepperbox Pistol. The appearance of the pistol is certainly familiar to many fans of the history of weapons. The creator of the pistol is Christian Sharps (Christian Sharps 1810-1874), whose arms company

There are not so many pistols, the ancestors of which were submachine guns. There are several reasons for this. First of all, the submachine gun is slightly larger in size than the pistol. He also has more weight. The location of the controls on the submachine gun is still more convenient for

Many quite rightly believe that firearms of armored vehicle crews, pilots and others are secondary weapons and in most cases absolutely useless, due to the fact that characteristics are often sacrificed for the sake of reducing size and weight. However, among similar samples

Recently, one can observe a huge interest in weapons designed by designer Baryshev. Small recoil when firing and, as a consequence, the high accuracy of the weapon gives rise to a lot of controversy that the work of the designer was underestimated and his developments would be much better than those that

Among all the variety of modern weapons, those samples that are called "special" are especially interesting. Usually these weapons are designed for a narrow range of tasks, unsuitable for widespread distribution. However, its individual characteristics, which, for obvious reasons

As you know, the Soviet Union provided maximum support to the Warsaw Pact countries by supplying them with its weapons, as well as transferring production rights to armored vehicles, hand-held firearms, and so on. As a result, the USSR received little, but the contribution of foreign designers to the process

Over the entire existence of hand-held firearms, a huge number of the most diverse options for means of destroying their own kind and not only have been developed. Many of the ideas of the designers turned out to be successful and are even used to this day. Many, despite their obvious advantages

I think that those who are interested in firearms have repeatedly come across references to compact revolvers as a means of self-defense, united by the general name Velo-Dog. This "name" was given to many compact revolvers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, it was conceived

Sniper rifles made on the basis of AR15 / M16 and their other "relatives" are far from uncommon. They are stamped by all and sundry, many honestly talk about kinship with the developments of Stoner, many come up with fairy tales about incredible characteristics and make "breakthroughs" in the arms business, so there is a lack of

Over the past fifteen years, a lot of interesting ammunition has appeared for snipers. Many of them remained unclaimed and very rare, despite their characteristics. Many have become mass-produced and generally recognized as cartridges in demand and necessary for

We have already repeatedly got acquainted with the Japanese weapons genius, and practically all samples of weapons had interesting technical solutions that, in one way or another, affected their application, reliability, and efficiency. In this article, we will not break the tradition and get acquainted with another seemingly ordinary

There will always be a demand for self-loading rifles that are relatively accurate and use common ammunition. It seems that such samples have already been created in an infinite number, and they all appear and appear, and they are fundamentally no different from their own

Sniper weapons have recently become the most popular among people who are fond of studying hand-held firearms. In general, everything is clear and logical in this phenomenon. For many years we have been taught that a lone hero can do everything, and a sniper himself is not the closest to this

As has been said many times, hand-held firearms are currently at an impasse, and the options offered by the designers are either too expensive or not adapted to be embodied in a full-fledged reliable sample. As a result, at the moment the constructors are crumpled in place

In one of the previous articles, one of the rather interesting options for Mannlicher pistols with an automatic system built on a fixed bolt and a forward-movable barrel was considered. The idea of creating such a sample was not the most successful, since such an automation system could not use

Recently, in articles on handguns, we have been bypassing revolvers. On the one hand, this weapon is quite simple, and only the lazy will not figure out how it works. On the other hand, among the revolvers, there are interesting samples that have given certain technical solutions already for

In the world of hand-held firearms, it is far from always possible to understand where the legs grow from for this or that type of weapon. The merger of companies, the separation from large firms of separate representative offices with already different names and their joint work with other companies very well obscures the tracks. What's the most

I think that everyone knows about the M16, since it is very often opposed to the Kalashnikov assault rifle. It is no secret to anyone that the main problem of the M16 as a mass weapon is the automation system, which took a very, very long time to work in order to achieve acceptable results