The origins of the Ross rifle lie in the late-1890s patents of the noble Canadian Sir Charles Ross, who developed his own pattern of the straight pull rifles, broadly based on Austrian Mannlicher M1890 / 1895 system. British and Canadian forces tested Ross rifles circa 1900-1901, but these rifles, while being quite fast in action, completely failed the reliability tests. The only fact that Britain refused to supply Canada with enough Lee-Enfield rifles during the second Boer war resulted in adoption of the .303 caliber Ross Mark I rifle in 1902. First rifles were delivered to Canadian military and Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1905. These rifles were manufactured at the Ross Rifle Co, in Quebec. In 1907, Ross introduced a slightly improved Mark II rifle. Between 1907 and 1912, Ross turned out several star-marked modifications of the basic mark II pattern, which differed in barrel lengths, safety arrangements and other such minor modifications. Read the rest of this entry »

This rifle first appeared in Chinese press as 12,7mm M99B, but it also was recently publicized as M06. It must be noted, however, that in official advertising literature, distributed by Poly Technologies Ltd, an export sales organization of the PLA, this rifle is designated as M99B. It appears that M06 rifle, which is slightly longer than M99B and is listed only with one caliber (12,7×108) is a “domestic use” version for PLA or PAP, while shorter and bi-caliber M99B is an export proposition.
This rifle is offered as anti-materiel / anti-sniper weapon, and is available for export in two calibers – 12,7×108 (M99B-I) and 12,7×99 / .50BMG (M99B-II). No firm facts are available on accuracy of this weapon, but it is believed that it shoots about 2 MOA with Chinese standard issue ammunition (available information suggests R50 accuracy as less than 200mm at 600m). This is way below Western “sniping” standards but more or less enough for anti-materiel work or short-range enemy snipers suppression. Read the rest of this entry »

The FN FAL (Fusil Automatique Leger – Light Automatic Rifle) is one of the most famous and widespread military rifle designs of the XX century. Developed by the Belgian Fabrique Nationale company, it was used by some 70 or even more countries, and was manufactured in at least 10 countries. At the present time the service days of the most FAL rifles are gone, but it is still used in some parts of the world. The history of the FAL began circa 1946, when FN began to develop a new assault rifle, chambered for German 7.92×33mm Kurz intermediate cartridge. Read the rest of this entry »

Ruger SR-556 semi-automatic rifle is the most recent product of the famous American arms-making company Sturm, Ruger & Co. Ruger company previously manufactured 5.56mm / .223 caliber semi-automatic Mini-14 rifles, which were known for excellent durability and reliability, but the SR-556 is the first step of this company into the one of most lucrative segments of American rifle market, the “Ar-15 niche”. Following the general trend, Ruger, however, developed an improved version of the basic weapon that has many factory-standard features which, otherwise, are considered as expensive aftermarket options. Most important of these features are short-stroke piston-operated gas action (as opposed to original direct impingement gas action of the classic Ar-15 rifles), cold-hammer forged barrel with flash hider, as well as quad-rail forend, folding detachable iron sights and quality 30-round magazines. This rifle is obviously intended for civilian and law enforcement markets. Read the rest of this entry »

Caliber: 9×19mm Luger/Para
Weight: 4.22 kg unloaded
Length: 813 mm
Barrel length: 247 mm
Rate of fire: 700 rounds per minute
Magazine capacity: 32 rounds
Effective range: 100-200 meters

Evelyn Owen, an Australian, developed his first automatic weapon, chambered for .22LR cartridge, by 1939, and offered it to Australian army. This weapon was a strange-looking revolver-type contraption with fixed “cylinder” instead of magazine, and thumb-operated trigger. Read the rest of this entry »

The Glock family of pistols, once started by famous Glock 17 pistol, was developed by Austrian company Glock Gmbh., previously known for quality knives and entrenching tools. The Glock 17 pistol first appeared at the Austrian Army trials, won it and was adopted by Austrai Army and Police in the early 1980s under the designation of P-80. Since then, the Glock 17 and its descentants become very popular military and law enforcement firearms, being exported in more than 50 countries. Currently, Glocks are chambered in all major pistol calibers, namely 9×17mm Short (.380ACP), 9×19mm Luger, .357SIG, .40SW, 10mm auto and .45ACP. Also, Glocks available in full-size service models, semi-compact models, compact models for concealed/backup carry, and in longslide competition models. Training versions, firing non-lethal practice ammo, also available. Training versions are distinguished from “live” ones by frame colour – blue frame for guns that fire non-lethal ammunition and red frame – for non-firing guns. Read the rest of this entry »