Forgotten Weapons

These mittens would be used to handle machine gun barrels while changing from an overheated barrel for a new one during prolonged firing....

For anyone who wondered what made a minigun 'mini'....

Fitted with a "red dot" Aimpoint optical sight, this target semi-automatic could be used in today's Camp Perry matches....

Technically of Snaphance configuration, but made well into the 'true' flintlock era. The separate steel and pan arrangement and back-action lock are dictated by the use of a revolving cylinder and especially the design choice of having priming pans integrated into said cylinder. The weapon is utilitarian in appearance and is...

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/HistoryArtifacts/t/840713...

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/historyporn@lemmy.world/t/846857

The Maxim Silencer was the first commercially successful firearm sound suppressor. Developed by Hiram Percy Maxim (son of Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim, who invented the Maxim machine gun) in tandem with the automobile muffler in the early 1900s, it was patented in 1909....

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/781808d2-eba7-401f-add5-bf9b2c8634b4.jpeg

Another trend often employed was the use of a house key to serve as a hammer. The use of one is out of convenience as it requires little to no modification, already having a pivot hole in place and a suitable striking surface....

This improvised .25 caliber zip gun is made of a door bolt, rubber band, and pipe....

The rifle was originally owned by White Man Runs Him, General George A. Custer’s famous Crow scout at the Battle of Little Big Horn (June 25, 1876). Custer’s scout adorned the rifle with cultural symbols and regarded it as sacred, often using it in tribal ceremonies....

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/HistoryArtifacts/t/826182

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/HistoryArtifacts/t/837475

...the most powerful production revolver in the world anyway, and that’s just according to the manufacturer. For whatever reason, Russian designers took to creating a revolver to fire their 12.7x55mm cartridge (speculated to be a cut-down .338 Lapua case...), it has been suggested for the purpose of destroying locks and other...

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/historyporn@lemmy.world/t/725666

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11194249

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/historyporn@lemmy.world/t/827852

The Thorneycroft was the first military bullpup rifle, developed in the United Kingdom in response to combat experiences in the second Boer War showing the British infantry rifles to be overly long and cumbersome. Scotsman James Baird Thorneycroft figured he could address this by moving the action and magazine of a rifle behind...

With no markings or provenance at all, the origins of this revolver are a mystery. Its features all point to the 1880s or 1890s, and someone clearly spent a lot of time working on it – but we don’t know who. What makes it interesting is the very unusual operating mechanism. It is similar to a “zig-zag” system like the...

From Max Popenker, we have a set of photos of a very funky German submachine gun from the first world war (presumably 1918). The weapon is currently in possession of the weapon design department at Tula State University in Russia, and that’s where these photos were taken. Until now, the only photo available of this gun was...

The Paint Creek–Cabin Creek Strike, or the Paint Creek Mine War, was a confrontation between striking coal miners and coal operators in Kanawha County, West Virginia, [USA] centered on the area enclosed by two streams, Paint Creek and Cabin Creek....