American gun designer Maxwell Atchisson developed his first selective fire shotgun by 1972. This weapon was intended for close combat in environments like city streets or jungles. It was to provide tremendous short range firepower for troops during ambushes, room clearance operations and other such combat situations. First prototypes were rather simple in design and used certain components of existing weapons. These were also highly unusual in that Atchisson used most unusual (for shotgun) method of operation – simple blowback with advanced primer ignition. This shotgun fired from open bolt, and had rather heavy (1,4kg) bolt. Firing pin was movably built into bolt along with the internal pivot lever that caused the firing pin to extend and ignite the cartridge just prior to full bolt closure. To reduce peak recoil and cyclic rate of fire, Atchisson used extra-long recoil system, in which bolt after each shot recoils much further back than it is usually required to reload the weapon. Read the rest of this entry »

The AXR (Advanced eXtensible Rifle) weapon was developed by US-based company Tactical Product Design (TPD) Inc. The AXR is based on the famous Austrian Steyr AUG assault rifle. Manufacture of this clone became possible because original patents for Steyr AUG have expired, and the demand for civilian version of this weapon in USA was not covered by import of original Austrian-made rifles. TPD designers created a faithful copy of Steyr AUG, so most parts are interchangeable between the AXR and AUG.Prime differences between AXR and its prototype are in materials (TPD claims to use most modern metals and polymers in its design, which are superior to those available 30 years ago in original Steyr rifle) and use of STANAG / M16 type magazines rather than proprietary magazines. Optional caliber conversion kit allows to upgrade the AXR from 5.56mm / .223 to more potent 6.8mm Rem SPC caliber. At the present time AXR is offered only in semi-automatic version, for civilian and police use. Read the rest of this entry »

The M76 sniper rifle has been developed by late 1970s at the Crvena Zastava Arms factory, in former Yugoslavia. It is still offered by the successor of Crvena Zastava, the Zastava Arms factory in Serbia. The M76 is based on famous Kalashnikov AK action, stretched and strengthened to accept much longer and powerful rifle ammunition. The trigger also has been limited to semiautomatic fire only. All controls and layout of the rifle are similar to AK, and it is fitted with typical side-rail on the left wall of the receiver, which can accept mounts fro day and night scopes. Standard sight is the 4X daylight telescope, and the M76 is fitted with adjustable open sights as a back-up measure. Read the rest of this entry »

The LR-300 rifle was manufactured by the small US-based company Z-M Weapons between 2000 and 2007, when all rights for the design were sold to the Para USA, the US-based subsidiary of the Canadian pistol maker Para-Ordnance Ltd. The reworked LR-300 rifle will be sold in USA as Para Tactical Target Rifle, with first sales sheduled to “early 2009″.
Original LR-300 (LR stands for Long Range) rifles were designed by Alan Zitta as an upgrade to the well known and popular M16 / AR-15 rifle. In fact, LR-300 and Para TTR both use standard AR-15-type lower receivers; only upper receivers are different and contain patented modified gas system. The key reason for tha modification was to prowide AR-15-type weapon with capability to mount side-folding stock rather than partially collapsible M4 carbine-type stock. Read the rest of this entry »

Melvin C. Johnson, an American arms designer, developed his semiautomatic rifle by the mid-1938, and submitted it to the US Army trials. Trials and development of the rifle continued until the early 1940, when the Army Ordnance Board finally rejected the Johnson rifle as being too long and heavy, and potentially unreliable with the bayonet attached. Same year Johnson submitted his rifle for trials to the US Marine Corps, where it was tested against M1 Garand rifle. First tests results were good for Johnson, but later on the M1 Garand rifle was found superior to it. Read the rest of this entry »

The FN P90 submachine gun (SMG) was developed in the late 1980s as a personal defense weapon for the troops whose primary activities does not include small arms, such as vehicle and tank crew members, artillery crews etc. Standard pistols and submachine guns chambered for pistol rounds were proved ineffective against enemy soldiers, wearing body armor; Therefore FN designers first developed a new round with enhanced penetration, initially known as SS90. To achieve necessary high penetration while keeping recoil impulse low, FN used a small-bore approach, creating a round that looked much like the scaled down 5,56NATO round. It must be noted that similar concepts were tried in other countries, most notably in USA, several decades before FN; for example, US Army tested M1 carbines chambered for .221 Johnson Spitfire round back in late 1950s; later on, Colt produced its .22 SCAMP and 5,6×30 MARS ammunition for special SCAMP machine pistol and MARS “mini assault rifle” (a scaled-down M16 rifle) respectively. Read the rest of this entry »

The Taurus pistols are manufactured by Brazilian company Forjas Taurus SA. The original PT92 pistol was exact copy of the original Beretta 92 pistol, and PT92 still carries some of the original Beretta features, such as frame mounted safety, but, since its introduction, Taurus PT92 had been significantly improved, and currently represents affordable pistol of high quality.
Technically, PT92 is a recoil operated, locked brech pistol, that uses shor recoiling barrel with underbarrel locking piece that tilts down to unlock slide from the barrel (Walther P38 / Beretta 92 type locking). The trigger is of Double Action type, with ambidextrous frame mounted manual safety. On models marked AF-D safety also acts as a decocker when pressed all the way down (below the “fire” position). When safety is in “safe” position, it locks the slide and disconnects the trigger and sear. Current PT92 and its derivatives also featured automatic firing pin safety. The frame and slide could be made either from carbon steel with blue finish or from stainless steel wit polished finish. Sights are of fixed type. Read the rest of this entry »

In around 1921 the Czechoslovak army also started a quest for a light machine gun. Early trials included foreign designs such as Berthier, Browning BAR M1918, Darne, Hotchkiss, Madsen and St.Etienne, and several domestic designs. Of those, the most important was the Praha II LMG, a lightweight, belt fed weapon built at ÄŒeska Zbrojovka (CZ) Praha (Czech Arms factory in Prague) and designed by brothers Vaclav and Emmanuel Holek. In the following year the Holek brothers abandoned the belt feed in favour of a top-feeding box magazine, and the resulting weapon, known as the Praha I-23, was selected. Since CZ-Praha was a relatively small factory with limited industrial capabilities, it was decided to transfer the production of the new light machine gun to a more advanced arms factory in the city of Brno, known as Zbrojovka Brno, or ZB in short. This transfer resulted in a long series of court trials over royalties, between the owners of the design (CZ-Praha) and the manufacturer (ZB). Read the rest of this entry »

The HK69 grenade launcher has been developed by the famous company Heckler-Koch from Germany. This launcher has been adopted by the Bundeswehr (German army) in 1974 as the “Granatpistole 40 mm”, or “GraPi 40mm” in short. This weapon is also offered for export under its original name, the HK69. Read the rest of this entry »

The “Bekas” (Snipe) pump-action shotgun was brought to the Russian hunting / home defense weapons market in 1997, chambered for once popular 16 gauge (70mm / 2 3/4″) shells. The popularity of the 16 gauge, for various but mostly unknown reasons, dropped significantly since Soviet times, so the gun was eventually redesigned to handle 12 gauge (70 mm / 2 3/4″) shells, and this version was designated “Bekas M”. It must be noted, however, that modified “Bekas” shotguns are still manufactured in both gages – 12 and 16, all being made to similar configurations. These shotguns are somewhat popular among Russian hunters and people who buy guns for home defense (it is legal in Russia), because of good handling and inexpensive price. These guns certainly lack the lackluster of European or American-made shotguns, and do not carry modern ‘tactical’ features such as polymer stocks, Picatinny rails etc, but they still can get the job done, be that bringing the meat to the table or protecting the one’s home from criminals. Read the rest of this entry »