The history of Danish Machine guns is closely tied to one company and one name, although there were, in fact, far more names behind the whole story. The company in question was originally known as Dansk Rekyl Riffel Syndikat A/S, and the name that became a symbol of a Danish military industry was the Madsen. Vilhelm Herman Oluf Madsen was the War Minister of Denmark who, among other things, supported the development of domestic automatic arms. This development commenced circa 1890, when Jens Theodor Schouboe, a lieutenant in the Danish army, started development of a semi-automatic rifle. When this rifle was adopted by the Danish Marines in 1896, a new company was founded to produce this rifle and its derivatives for domestic use and export, and it was the aforementioned Dansk Rekyl Riffel Syndikat. Further development of the rifle continued under the leadership of Schouboe and the factory director Rasmussen, and by the 1902 the top-loading semiautomatic rifle evolved into a magazine-fed machine rifle, which in fact became the world’s first mass-produced light machine gun.
In a relatively short time Madsen machine rifles found their way into a number of European countries, being adopted or purchased in significant numbers by Austro-Hungary, France, Great Britain, Russia, Sweden, and a number of other powers. During the Great War, license manufacture was planned to be established in Russia and UK, although this did not happen in either country – in Russia because of the turmoil of the revolution of 1917 and in the UK because of financial disagreements. Nevertheless, large numbers of Madsen light machine guns (so named after the greatest promoter of the gun) were built and exported from Denmark from about 1905 and until about 1950, when mass production of this remarkable weapon ceased. It must be noted, however, that the Madsen LMG was offered through company catalogues up until mid-1960s, apparently on “made on order” basis, in ‘any military rifle caliber between 6.5 an 8 mm’, including then-new 7.62×51 NATO. Read the rest of this entry »

The Benelli M1 semi-automatic shotgun based on the proprietary Benelli system, which utilizes the gun recoil and inertia of the moving parts to operate the action. This system was developed by Benelli by the mid-1980s, and is simple and reliable in operation. System utilizes the rotating bolt head with two locking lugs that lock into the barrel extension. The bolt is mounted inside the massive bolt body (bolt carrier), and fixed to it by the locking pin, which allows the bolt head to move slightly forward and back and rotate simultaneously within the bolt body. The massive inertia spring is interposed between the bold body and head, and separate recoil spring is located in the buttstock, pressing the bolt body forward via the link at its rear. When bolt is in the battery, the locking lugs of the bolt head are engaged with the barrel and locked it. Inertia spring, pressing on the both bolt body and head, holds the head in the forward position relative to the body. When gun is fired, it recoils and moves back slightly against shoulder of the shooter. Due to the inertia of the bolt body, it resists the initial recoil movement, so the bolt head, locked rigidly with the barrel and the rest of the gun, moves back relative to the bolt body, compressing the inertia spring and rotating itself to unlock due to the head locking pin being encaged in the cam slot in the bolt body. Read the rest of this entry »

The M10 line of bolt action rifles was developed in Australia by Australian International Arms Pty, a small company dedicated to produce quality rifles for civilian use. Initial intent was to produce bolt-action rifle with high capacity, detachable magazines. Starting with time-proven design of the famous SMLE No.4 Mk.2 rifles of British origin, AIA engineers developed new and improved version of the venerable “Rifle, Short, Magazine, Lee-Enfield”. The AIA rifles feature all-new components machined from modern steel and quality wood. First prototypes of the AIA improved No.4 mk.2 rifles appeared in 1998-99, and since then company has produced several versions of the basic design, of which most notable are M10 rifles and carbines, chambered for popular 7.62×39 M43 Russian and 7.62×51 NATO / .308 Win ammunition. The 5.56×45mm / .223 Rem version of the same design was planned but apparently is still not in production at this time. Read the rest of this entry »

The development of this interesting weapon began in mid-1980s, when Austrian company Steyr-Mannlicher AG decided to develop a long-range anti-materiel rifle (AMR) – a modern equivalent of the WW2-era antitank rifles. Main targets for AMR are light armoured vehicles, helicopters, installations such as radar cabins, missile launchers, fuel tanks etc. To achieve desired effective range of at least 1000 meters, Steyr engineers first decided to use APDS (armour piercing, discarding sabot), or sub-caliber, ammunition. Development started from 12.7mm cartridges, and later Steyr developed a 14.5mm APFSDS (Arnour percing, fin stabilised, discarding sabot) ammunition in 14.5mm caliber and built few prototypes with smooth bores and semi-automatic actions, called Steyr AMR 5075. Further development led to even bigger caliber of 15.2mm fith same ultra-high velocity APFSDS projectiles. This system is called Steyr IWS 2000 (Infantry Weapon System 2000) and currently is probably in Adsvanced Development status or ready for adoption. Read the rest of this entry »

The Steyr AUG (Armee Universal Gewehr – Universal Army Rifle) had been in development since the late 1960s, as a replacement for venerable but obsolete Stg.58 (FN FAL) battle rifles for Austrian army. It was developed by the Austrian Steyr-Daimler-Puch company (now the Steyr-Mannlicher AG & Co KG) in close conjunction with Austrian Army. The major design is attributed to the three men – Horst Wesp, Karl Wagner and Karl Möser, who developed most of the rifle features. From the Austrian Office of Military Technology the project was supervised by the Colonel Walter Stoll. The new rifle has been adopted by the Austrian Army in 1977, as the Stg.77 (Assault rifle, model of 1977), and production began in 1978. Since then, the AUG gained serious popularity, being adopted by the armed forces of Australia, Austria, New Zealand, Oman, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Ireland and some others. It also was widely purchased by various security and law enforcement agencies worldwide, including the US Coastal Guard. The Steyr AUG can be considered as the most commercially successful bullpup assault rifle to date. Since the 1997, the Steyr-Mannlicher produced an updated version of the AUG, the AUG A2. Read the rest of this entry »

The Steyr M1895 rifle, also known as Steyr-Mannlicher M95 straight pull rifle, was developed by famous Austrian arms designer Ferdinand Ritter Von Mannlicher. Based on his previous M1890 design, this rifle was manufactured in Austro-Hungarian Empire at state arms factories in Steyr (Austria) and Budapest (Hungary). More than 3 millions of M95 rifles were produced between 1895 and 1918. This rifle was issued to Austro-Hungarian army, and, after the fall of the Empire, to the Austrian and Hungarian armies. Originally produced in 8×50R caliber, in 1924 some of M95 rifles were converted to the German 7.92×57 Mauser (also known as 8×57 Mauser) ammunition. These converted rifles featured shorter 58 cm barrels, were designated as M95/24 and used in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. This conversion gave away with original Mannlicher en bloc clip, and replaced it with Mauser stripper clips. Since 1930 Austria converted most of the M95 rifles to the more powerful 8×56R M30 ammunition, using the same Mannlicher en bloc clips. These rifles were designated as M95/30, and marked with the letter “S” on the receiver ring. Hungary started to convert their rifles to the same 8×56R ammunition in 1931, with the upgraded rifles being marked with the letter “H” on the receiver ring. Many of the M95 rifles were used during the Word War 2 by the Hungarian, Bulgarian and Italian armies, as well as by some German police forces. Read the rest of this entry »

The “Shipka” SMG was developed by Bulgarian company ARSENAL for police and military use, and currently is offered for export. It appeared on the market circa 1996. According to some sources, it is used by Bulgarian police and security forces.

“Shipka” (named after historical place in Bulgaria) is a straightforward design, using simple blowback operation and firing from open bolt. The lower receiver along with pistol grip and triggerguard is made from polymer, the upper receiver is made from steel. Simple buttstock is made from steel wire and folds to the left side of gun. Read the rest of this entry »

The Ballester-Molina pistol, originally known as Ballester-Rigaud (so marked during first years of manufacture, circa 1938 to 1940), were made in Argentine by Hispano Argentina de Automotives SA (HAFDASA) company. Manufacture started in 1938 in attempt to provide Argentinean police and military with less expensive alternative to the Colt modelo 1927 pistol, domestically made licensed copy of the American Colt M1911A1 pistol. Production of the Ballester-Molina ceased in the early 1950s. While Ballester-Molina pistol is externally very similar to Colt, it has significant differences, especially in the safety and trigger unit arrangements. Actually, the only parts exchangeable between Ballester-Molina and M1911A1 are the barrel with link and the magazine. The trigger and safety arrangements were more or less copied from the Spanish Star pistols, with the pivoting trigger, single trigger to sear link, and no grip safety. Ballester-Molina pistols were used by Argentinean military and police, as well as supplied to the Britain during Second World war. Britain issued these pistols to their Special Operations Executives agents, which usually operated behind enemy lines. Read the rest of this entry »

After much experimentation with locally built copies of Soviet AGS-17 grenade launcher, Chinese experts developed their own concept of such infantry support weapon. For some reasons they decided to trade some firepower for mobility, and to develop the lightest possible weapon, which can be operated and carried on battlefield by a single man. Furthermore, they developed their own 35mm grenade ammunition. To achieve minimum weight of weapon, they used locked breech action (that minimizes weight of recoiling parts) and discarded the complicated belt feed in the favor of much simpler magazine feed. early experiments were conducted with weapons known as W-87. these were distinguishable by wood buttstocks, bottom pistol grips and large conical flash hiders. W-87 launchers used top feed with box or drum magazines. With the time the design evolved, and several years ago PLA adopted the QLZ-87 automatic grenade launcher, that is a further development of W-87. At the present time (early 1987) the QLZ-87 launcher is being used by Chinese troops of Hong Kong garrison, as well as by some units located near the strait that separates mainland China and Taiwan. From available information it seems that QLZ-87 still has some teething problems and probably will be gradually improved in coming years. Read the rest of this entry »

During the late 1920s Waffenfabrik Solothurn, a Swiss private business that emerged in the watch-making industry but later turned to the production of small-arms parts, was bought by the German concern Rheinmetall, to serve as a research and development facility away from the watchful eyes of the Allied Control Commission, established in 1918 as a result of Treaties of Versailles. In 1929 Waffenfabrik Solothurn brought out its first practical machine gun, known by the factory as the S2-100, and in export catalogs as the MG 29. Next year Solothurn announced an updated version, the S2-200, also known as the MG 30. It was, in essence, a typical light machine gun – recoil operated and magazine fed, although Solothurn also offered a complicated universal tripod for this gun. The Solothurn MG30 earned its place in history by being adopted by Austria in 1930 and Hungary in 1931 (in both cases chambered for 8×56R ammunition), and it also served as the starting point for several German machine guns, such as the MG 15 (aircraft) and MG 34. It is also must be noted that most of components of the MG30 were produced in Austria at the Steyr factory; Solothurn carried out the final assembly and test-firing. Read the rest of this entry »