Hoplophilia

Firearms, Bushcraft, Conservation, & Adventure hoplophilia.blogspot.com @hoplophilia

[hoplophile]

The LeFaucheux 20-Round is one of the rarest Civil War Era firearms It has two banks of chambers which would alternately fire out of the over-under double barrel configuration. The French firearm was chambered for 7.65 pinfire ammunition.

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Steampunk Gatling gun based on a Ruger 10/22. Has electric motor to spin the barrels, dry ice "boiler" for simulated steam.

[hoplophile]

The Fostech Arms Origin shotgun will ship in the next three weeks according to the company rep I spoke with at the NASGW show. There have been many pre-orders, and Fostech Arms expects it would take about 6 – 8 months to deliver a shotgun ordered today.

If you are not familiar with the Origin, it is a gas operated, box magazine fed 12-gauge shotgun. The company sells stick magazines with 5-, 8- and 10-round capacities. Additionally, the company will offer 20- and 30-round drums. The gun will only run 2 3/4″ shells.

The gas system bleeds gas from the chamber, rather than farther down the barrel. According to Fostech Arms, the guns are extremely reliable with a wide range of ammunition.

All controls are designed to be accessible without the need to remove the hand from the pistol grip. For example, the safety has oversized paddles to allow for shooters with smaller hands to easily operate it.

Diamond Head sights and a Mission First Tactical Minimalist stock are standard. The guns break down easily and ship with a hard case. Total weight is 9 pounds, 2 ounces. Short barrel options are available.

The MSRP starts at $2,600 and goes up depending on options.

via The Firearms Blog

[hoplophile]

The Colt SAA revolver is a famous piece of Americana, known as "The Gun That Won the West". The Colt Single Action Army which is also known as the Single Action Army, SAA, Model P, Peacemaker, M1873, and Colt .45 is a single action revolver with a revolving cylinder holding six metallic cartridges. It was designed for the U.S. government service revolver trials of 1872 by Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company – today's Colt's Manufacturing Company – and was adopted as the standard military service revolver until 1892.

The Colt SAA has been offered in over 30 different calibers and various barrel lengths. Its overall appearance has remained consistent since 1873. Colt has discontinued its production twice, but brought it back due to popular demand. The revolver was popular with ranchers, lawmen, and outlaws alike, but as of the early 21st century, models are mostly bought by collectors and re-enactors. Its design has influenced the production of numerous other models from other companies.

Bound by the Rollin White patent (#12,648, April 3, 1855) and not wanting to pay a royalty fee to Smith & Wesson, Colt could not begin development of bored-through revolver cylinders for metallic cartridge use until April 4, 1869. For the design, Colt turned to two of its best engineers: William Mason and Charles Brinckerhoff Richards who had developed a number of revolvers and black powder conversions for the company. Their effort was designed for the United States government service revolver trials of 1872 by Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company and adopted as the standard military service revolver. Production began in 1873 with the Single Action Army model 1873,[3] also referred to as the "New Model Army Metallic Cartridge Revolving Pistol".

The very first production Single Action Army, serial number 1, thought lost for many years after its production, was found in a barn in Nashua, New Hampshire in the early 1900s. It was chambered in .45 Colt, a centerfire design containing charges of up to 40 grains (2.6 g) of fine-grained black powder and a 255-grain (16.5 g) blunt roundnosed bullet. Relative to period cartridges and most later handgun rounds, it was quite powerful in its full loading.

The Colt Single Action Army revolver, along with the 1870 and 1875 Smith and Wesson Model 3 "Schofield" revolver, replaced the Colt 1860 Army Percussion revolver. The Colt quickly gained favor over the S&W and remained the primary US military sidearm until 1892 when it was replaced by the .38 Long Colt caliber Colt Model 1892, a double action revolver with swing-out cylinder. By the end of 1874, serial no. 16,000 was reached; 12,500 Colt Single Action Army revolvers chambered for the .45 Colt cartridge had entered service and the remaining revolvers were sold in the civilian market.

via Wikipedia

[hoplophile]

One of the most successful, and certainly one of the most famous Winchester rifles was the Winchester Model 1873, manufactured between 1873 and 1919. Originally chambered for the .44-40 cartridge, it was later produced in .38-40 and .32-20, all of which were also popular handgun cartridges of the day, allowing its users to conveniently carry one type of ammunition for both their rifles and pistols. Due to feeding problems, the original Model 1873 was never offered in the military standard .45 Colt cartridge, although a number of modern reproductions of the rifle are chambered for the round. The popularity of the Winchester in .44-40 led Colt to manufacture a version of the Single Action Army revolver chambered for the same round, called the "Frontier Model"; Winchester produced three variations of the Model 1873: the rifle, carbine, and musket (although the musket variation accounted for less than 5–10 percent of those produced). The rifle variation used a 24" barrel, while the carbine used a 20" barrel. The carbine was the most popular due to its portability.

Winchester established a One of One Thousand grade in 1875. All barrels were test-fired for accuracy during the manufacturing process. Barrels producing unusually small groups were fitted to rifles with set triggers and special finish and marked One of One Thousand to be sold at a price of $100. A second grade of barrels producing above average accuracy were fitted to rifles marked One of One Hundred and sold for a price $20 higher than list. Approximately 136 One of One Thousand Model 1873 rifles were sold with only eight Model 1873s of the One of One Hundred grade.

Winchester rifles were readily available on the frontier and became hugely popular, with over 720,000 produced. This popularity has led the Model 1873 to be credited as "The Gun that Won the West", and inspired the 1950 Western film Winchester '73 starring James Stewart and directed by Anthony Mann. Production of the latter movie included a search for One of One Thousand and One of One Hundred rifles by Universal Studios with advertisements in sporting magazines and posters in sporting goods stores.

In 2013 Winchester brought back this iconic rifle. The rifle is manufactured under license from the Olin company by FN/Browning in the Kochi Prefecture of Japan by the Miroku Corporation. This marks the third of the classic Winchester rifle models to be re-introduced, the previous models being the Model 1892 and the Model 1894. The new model is available with a 20" round barrel and chambered in .357 Magnum/.38 Special only. It is nearly identical in design to the original Model 73s including the trigger disconnect safety, sliding dustcover, and crescent shaped buttplate, but with two notable exceptions. An additional safety mechanism, a firing pin block that prevents it from moving forward unless the trigger is pulled, was integrated and the cartridge carrier was changed to eject used casings away from the shooter. The fixed, tubular magazine has a maximum capacity of ten rounds. via Wikipedia

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The FN P90 is a personal defense weapon (PDW) designed and manufactured by FN Herstal in Belgium. Created in response to NATO requests for a replacement for 9×19mm Parabellum firearms, the P90 was designed as a compact but powerful firearm for vehicle crews, operators of crew-served weapons, support personnel, special forces and counter-terrorist groups.

Designed by FN in conjunction with the FN Five-seven pistol and FN 5.7×28mm ammunition, development of the weapon began in 1986, and production commenced in 1990 (from which the "90" in its name is derived), whereupon the 5.7×28mm ammunition was redesigned and shortened. A modified version of the P90 with a magazine adapted to use the new ammunition was introduced in 1993, and the Five-seven pistol was subsequently introduced as a companion weapon using the same 5.7×28mm ammunition.

Featuring a compact bullpup design with an integrated reflex sight and fully ambidextrous controls, the P90 is an unconventional weapon with a futuristic appearance. Its design incorporates several innovations such as a unique top-mounted magazine and FN's small-caliber, high-velocity 5.7×28mm ammunition.

via Wikipedia

[hoplophile]

The AF2011-A1 Double Barrel Pistol comes actually as the very first industrial double barrel semiautomatic pistol of all times. The original idea came about ten years back to Swiss armourer Vivian Mueller, who at the time experienced cutting and welding together multiple parts of the famous Sig P210: the result was a long slide, double barrel 9mm, highly decorated collector piece, which indeed shot very well.

Our idea took the challenge further: to commemorate the legendary Colt 1911-A1 in the Centenary by making a true industrial market-ready double barrel .45 caliber pistol. We achieved success in the brief span of 6 months, after intense and round-the-clock 3D designing, stereolithographic modeling and parts machining.

The gun can be handled by any shooter able to shoot with a .45 Acp and it is not only very pleasing, but very accurate and great fun. The AF2011-A1 holds amazing and surprising target performance for the shooter: in fact, it will group all the 8 double .45 caliber rounds (16 bullets) held in the duplex, single columns magazines, in a target of the size of an orange at 15 yards and of a water melon at 25. The stopping power of the AF2011-A1 is tremendous: 2 bullets for a total of 460 Grains weight impacting at 1 to 2 inches apart (depending on the distance of the target) will knock down a bull, while the whole 18 bullets, for a payload exceeding 4000 Grains, can be delivered to the target in about 3 seconds.

The AF2011-A1 obviously features a number of very special parts, such as the single slide, the single frame, the single spur double hammer, the single grip safety, the single body double mainspring housing and the single double cavity magazine floor plate, the long and double magazine latch, the special barrel bushings and the hold open lever and side lever safety with long shafts: but the most interesting feature of the new pistol which we strived to keep during the development of the project, is the interchangeability of most internal parts, which come as standard 1911 replacement parts.

These include the firing pins, the firing pins plates, the sears groups, the triple springs, the inner parts of the mainspring housings, the recoil springs and recoil springs rods, the magazine bodies and inner parts, the sights (including after market adjustable sights) the grips and grips screws and bushings. The AF2011-A1 (“Twenty Eleven” for aficionados) can be ordered either with 2 independent triggers and one sear group (left or right, with user-interchangeability for right or left operations) or with 2 triggers permanently joined and the choice of 1 or 2 sear groups. The AF2011-A1 is available in mirror finish Deep Blue or with a 3400 Vickers surface hardness White Ash Nitrite coating.

[hoplophile]

The Vector's action was originally developed by French engineer Renaud Kerbrat. This action, the so-called KRISS Super V System (KSVS), is an articulated mechanism which allows the block and bolt to recoil off-axis into a recess behind the weapon's magazine well. The Vector family of weapons is the first to use this action; the company claims the .45 ACP chambering was chosen to demonstrate that the action could "tame" such a powerful round. Variants chambered for the .40 S&W and 9×19mm Parabellum round are currently in development. All KRISS Vectors operate with standard Glock magazines with the .45 ACP caliber weapons using the 10 and 13-round G-21 magazine.

The Vector's barrel is in line with the shooter's shoulder as in the M16 rifle, but also in line with the shooter's hand as with many target pistols. Combined, these factors reduce felt recoil and muzzle climb by eliminating the distance between the shooter's hand and the bore axis along with the action of the Super V System.

via Wikipedia

[hoplophile]

The Saiga-12 is a Kalashnikov-pattern 12 gauge combat shotgun available in a wide range of configurations. Like the Kalashnikov rifle variants, it is a rotating bolt, gas-operated gun that feeds from a box magazine. All Saiga-12 configurations are recognizable as Kalashnikov-pattern guns by the large lever-safety on the right side of the receiver, the optic mounting rail on the left side of the receiver and the large top-mounted dust cover held in place by the rear of the recoil spring assembly.

The looser clearances offered in an AK style design result in high reliability—an enormous boon on a semi-automatic shotgun, as this class of weapon had previously tended towards unreliability.

The Saiga-12 is manufactured by the arms division of Izhmash, in Russia. It was previously imported into the US by European American Armories, although their agreement expired in 2005 and Izhmash is now exporting through the Russian-American Armory Company. Izhmash also manufactures Saiga 20's and Saiga 410's in 20-gauge and .410 bore, as well as the Saiga semi-automatic hunting rifles in a number of centerfire calibers.

via Wikipedia

[hoplophile]

The CheyTac Intervention is an American bolt action sniper rifle manufactured by CheyTac LLC for long range soft target interdiction. It is fed by a detachable single stack magazine, which holds 7 rounds. It fires .408 CheyTac or .375 CheyTac ammunition. CheyTac papers state that the entire system is capable of delivering sub-MOA accuracy at ranges of up to 2,500 yards (2,300 m), one of the longest ranges of all modern-day sniper rifles. It is based on the EDM Arms Windrunner.

via Wikipedia