The President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, visited Ukraine together with the President of Slovakia, Zuzana Čaputová on April 28, 2023. Both met with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. On that occasion, President Pavel presented President Zelenskyy with a hand-engraved CZ 75 pistol from the Order of the...
This one was made in Nuremberg by Hans Stopler, so I suppose raise a stein to German engineering. Once again it never fails to impress. Revolvers wouldn't become commercially successful & produced in mass quantities until the 1800s....
The 40mm M79 Grenade Launcher used by the US famously in Vietnam, and in conflicts after that, had a radar system made by the Radio Corporation of America that would give an audio que to denote target range and speed. Almost like a mix of a policeman's speedometer and a range finder, on a grenade launcher. It apparently worked...
In the early 1970s, Poland wanted to replace their 7.62x39mm Kalashnikov rifles. The Soviet Union was developing the 5.45mm AK-74, but the Poles wanted to make a more ambitious advance in small arms systems. They launched Project Lantan... The plan was to create a modular system similar in concept to the Stoner 63 – a single...
By the end of the WW2 and right after it, Soviets experimented with curved barrel concept. They had some captured Nazi Germany samples of such firearms and tried to make their own versions. One of the host firearms for such a project was a PPSh SMG. This gun had a 30° curved barrel. The test firing showed that the accuracy was...
Developed in the mid 1990s by South African designer Tony Neophytou, the Neostead 2000... was the first truly high-capacity shotgun put into production, with two magazine tubes over a single barrel... This configuration gave it a capacity of 12+1, and a selector switch allowed the shooter to control whether only one tube was fed...
Also known as the RO636, this direct blowback gun features suppressor made by Knight's Armament Company, and a shield deflector to block gas from the action from blowing back into the user's face....
These items were seized from American U2 pilot Frank Powers in 1960 after he was shot down by the Soviets. Notably including a cyanide pill hidden in a coin, a poison tipped needle, and a integrally suppressed High Standard 22lr pistol.
For the non-Americans, the Lewis & Clark Expedition was ordered by President Jefferson in 1804 to explore the land acquired in the Louisiana purchase and beyond....
Back in 2007/08 a company called Monolith Arms was promoting a pump-action 12 gauge shotgun they designed. The shotgun was notable because it fed from a horizontally mounted magazine inspired by the FN P90. They shotgun was promised to be on sale in 2007, when they did not ship it in 2007 they promised it in 2008, but...
In 2004 the German company Heckler & Koch's product catalog was released at an industry trade show. Unfortunately their photographer didn't notice that their cartridges had been loaded backwards into the magazine....
The barrel is octagonal, slightly swamped and with a plain muzzle. Simple triangular foresight and a single backsight decorated by a concave forward section. The barrel is fastened to the stock by four pierced lugs underneath. On the upper surface of the barrel near the breech is a mon inlaid in silver in the form of a circle...
Bleeding Kansas was a period of violence spurred on by President Pierce admitting Kansas into the US as a state with the requirement it would vote as to if slavery would be permissable there....