What the hell is a centrifugal machine gun? In the plainest of terms, it’s a gun that requires no propellant powder and a system which has sparked the imaginations of inventors and gun designers for over 200 years.

Welcome back to the TFB Cinema room!  The ’80s were a time of Big Hair, Short Shorts, Glam Rock and of course Big Guns. With the Cold War winding down following the close of the Vietnam War, movie audiences still thirsted for fast-paced action and big muscled dudes wielding every gun under the sun. Today we’ll go over TFB’s Top 10 Gun Guy Movies from the 1980s.

Earlier this year the Netflix original series Stranger Things debuted its highly anticipated 3rd season. While not specifically targeted at the gun-toting audience, Stranger Things brings plenty of firepower to the Home Screen. Today we’ll look at a few guns from Guns of Stranger Things Season 3. Obviously, if you haven’t seen Season 3 of Stranger Things be warned, there are minor spoilers ahead. Also, get out from that rock you’ve been hiding under.

You know it was bound to happen sooner or later. So here we are guns ablaze picking out the top 10 sci-fi movie weapons to grace the silver screen. For these articles criteria, we are choosing only weapons that are based on real-world functioning firearms with sci-fi features added for the film. Also, with this article, we’ll be taking a deeper look at the actual firearm used in the movie instead of any particular scene. So strap in and load up as we blast away at TFB’s Top 10 Sci-Fi Movie Weapons.

Occasionally I’ll sit down in a restaurant with family or good buddies and strike up gun related conversations. A few years ago my dad jokingly said he would love to give me a million dollars to buy whatever gun parts I wanted, but the catch would be I only had an hour to spend it. He always laughed and said he had no doubt I could easily spend that on guns and gear if given the opportunity. It was a great conversation and whenever I go to trade shows or out to dinner with friends in the industry, I always ask the same question. Now don’t get me wrong, I know this article isn’t very scientific or informational but it’s something really fun to think about. Let’s dive into my choices for my 1 million dollar spending spree.

Occasionally police operations across the world churn up weapons produced solely for the criminal market. Some of these are improvised while others are semi-professionally produced in illicit workshops. Documented here are a handful of interesting examples uncovered in recent months.

General Dynamics have closely guarded their Next Generation Squad Weapon prototypes, despite my best efforts they stuck to their guns and saved the big reveal for this year’s AUSA Exposition in Washington, D.C.There have been murmurings that their submission would be a bullpup for sometime and it has now been confirmed, meet the General Dynamics RM277.

Thompson submachine gun is one of the first weapons of the XX century that become a true mass culture icon. Even now very few weapons are as legendary as an old Tommy Gun (“Chicago Typewriter”, “Trench Broom” or any other nickname you want to use). It was developed for the trench warfare of the First World War but became famous in the 20s, gaining an undeserved reputation of “gangster weapon”.

Recently the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapons program moved into its next phase, with three companies down selected, one of these was SIG Sauer. We had the pleasure of sitting down to speak with SIG Sauer’s CEO, Ron Cohen, at the 2019 Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) exposition in London. We were able to discuss SIG Sauer’s next generation of weapons with Cohen and find out a little about the company’s approach to the NGSW program and the development of not only their weapon prototypes but also the ammunition they designed around the US Army’s new 6.8mm projectile.

The first photo of AAI/Textron’s Next Generation Squad Weapon prototypes has emerged. The NGSW-Rifle and NGSW-Automatic Rifle were photographed at Fort Benning, Georgia, during the Annual Maneuver Conference at the Fort’s Maneuver Centre. The 2019 Maneuver Warfighter Conference was held over two days, 10-12 September, and was attended by dozens of vendors specialising in small arms systems, accessories and equipment. One of Textron’s submission partners, Heckler & Koch, were also in attendance.

As we have recently reported the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapons program has moved into its next phase, with three companies downselected, one of these was SIG Sauer, who had their NGSW prototypes on display at this year’s 2019 Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) exposition in London. TFB were on-hand to get our first detailed look at the new family of weapons.

Marketing to Law Enforcement in the 1970s – Apparently this is how it looked like in at least one instance, from The Law Enforcement Ordnance Company.

Last year, I had an opportunity to work with Larry Vickers during his visit to Russia, when he and his co-author James Rupley were working on the “Vickers Guide: Kalashnikov” series of books. One day we were at a so-called “dungeon” – the basement of Central Armed Forces Museum, one of the largest military museums in the world, and came across several interesting German weapons that eventually made it into Vickers Guide: WWII Germany.

The US Army has announced that two companies have been selected to produce mounted machine gun optic mounts, with the companies competing for the various orders within a $48,800,000 firm-fixed-price contract for the optics.

Following on from their recent procurement of .50 calibre heavy machine guns and 5.56x45mm FN Minimi’s to supplement their FN MAGs, the Norwegian Army is now seeking a ‘light weight machine gun’ in 7.62x51mm. An initial batch of 1,000 7.62 light machine guns is sought with the option of upping this order up to 4,000 to enable Norway to re-equip its Home Guard or Heimevernet units.

While at the Cody Firearms Museum symposium Arsenals of History, an interesting thought experiment was brought up after a presentation by Scott Gausen, of the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, on 3D printing and scanning in museums. While discussing this, several of us threw out a thought experiment that would be a radical change to how we view firearms images and especially reference images.

When it comes to the improvement of the main service rifle of the Armed Forces, different countries demonstrate various approaches. Some decide to completely replace the existing stock of weapons, like France, that replaced the venerable FAMAS with HK416. Other countries prefer to go a different route, modernizing the existing weapon instead of replacing it. And that is exactly what Finland did with RK62M.

As a kid, I used a large donut-shaped magnet that I found in the garage, attached it to a length of rope and scoured under brackish water bridges for lost treasure. Besides dozens of crab traps, a few shopping carts and random ferrous trash, my dream of reenacting a scene from The Goonies went largely unfulfilled. Perhaps my results would have been different if I had grown up near historic battlefields where guns, ordinance and gear were discarded in battle. A team of Dutch Magnet Hunters called Dutch-WW2Magnet Hunters have been using rare earth magnets to dredge ponds and rivers in Holland for WWII artifacts. Their latest find is a German Sturmgewehr 44 and multiple magazines. I’m amazed at how well preserved the metal, wood and plastic is after being submerged for 70 years.

The Dutch Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) ensures that military personnel have modern, robust and safe materiel to work with.

Today’s photo of the day is a blast from the recent past. It features Marines of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines Regiment, with a Weaponized Multi-Utility Tactical Transport vehicle. The MUTT has been mounted with an M2 .50 calibre heavy machine gun (fitted with a blank adaptor). Which the USMC have described as “a multifunction force multiplier configured to persist, protect and project the small unit”. The photo was taken during July 2016 exercise for Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory Marine Air-Ground Task Force Integrated Experiment at Camp Pendleton, California.

There are very few weapons as legendary as MP5. Developed in the mid-60s by German small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch, it became one of the most well-known submachineguns in history and weapon of choice for many special units all around the world.

Kalashnikov Concern have confirmed that their new light machine gun the RPK-16 has been adopted by Russia’s National Guard, the Rosgvardia. Back in September, the National Guard of Russia announced their purchase of a small number of the new AK-200 series of rifles from Kalashnikov Concern.

The Japanese 7.7mm Type 99 took after its predecessor the 6.5mm Type 96, both machine guns forming the basis of mobile fire support during the Second World War. Type 99 was a magazine fed, gas operated, light machine gun with a removable barrel that began production in 1941 and continuing until the end of the war. Interestingly it probably was one of the first few light machine gun designs that saw a mass issue with an optical sight, something that small arms design wouldn’t see again until the SUSAT on the SA80’s LSW.

As the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference ( SOFIC) starts today at The Tampa Convention Center (Florida) FN will be showing a prototype of a 6.5 Creedmoor Mk 48 Mod 2 Machine Gun.

The story of how Hungary came to equip its armed forces with Swiss machine guns, like many origins in WWII, goes back to WWI.  The treaty of Versailles prohibited or significantly inhibited arms production by any former Central Powers countries, Hungary being one of them.  Many small arms designers impacted by the same regulations turned to outside countries to circumvent these regulations, Switzerland being a favorite choice of the Germans.  Therefore Louis Stange (whose resumé also includes the FG42, MG39Rh, MG 81, MG 15, and the MG 34) of Rheinmetall took his MG 30 design to Switzerland to be produced by Solothurn Waffenfabrik (A company which was in itself a bit of a Rheinmetall creation).

For those not familiar with Colin Furze, he is an eccentric mad tinkerer in England. He has a substantial following on his YouTube channel and he makes some really cool gadgets. I first came across Colin 5 years ago when he made working Wolverine claws from X-Men. Then he made wrist mounted flame throwers based on the Marvel character Pyro. He also made a thermite launcher. Well, his Uzi machine gun briefcase was inspired by the movie Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle.

Let’s talk about the new B&T APC9 Pro. If you aren’t familiar with this pistol caliber carbine, then I have to go ahead and question your knowledge and support of firearms and the second amendment all together. Joking aside, these are some of the best sub-machine guns available. Not to worry, they make semi-auto versions as well. The new Pro series from B&T has some interesting new features that I think you will appreciate.

Below are pictures of a homemade submachine gun seized last month by the Municipal Civil Guard of Limeira in Sao Paulo along with cocaine base paste and marijuana. This illicit craft produced SMG model has been seized as far back as at least 2014 and has appeared more regularly in recent months. These weapons are certainly the product of a large criminal distribution network being supplied by an efficiently run and well equipped illicit workshop.

The catalog of Morphy Extraordinary, Sporting, & Collector Firearms April auction is now available online. Just like in the case of many previous auction-related TFB articles, we browsed the catalog to see what interesting, rare and unusual firearms are consigned. The Morphy catalog is full of such firearms. If I was to choose every rare gun, I’d probably end up talking about each and every lot seen there.

A lot of people these days are complaining, that the firearms industry in recent years is very boring and there is no real innovation anywhere. Companies are mostly tinkering with proven 60-year-old designs, inventing new, often useless, accessories, and trying to sell you, essentially, “that same old pig with a new brand of lipstick on its face”. But imagine if a large country would suddenly decide to move away from a proven design to a new, groundbreaking weapon system, wouldn’t that be great? Finally, some real innovation! Well, that actually happened in Russia with the Nikonov AN-94 assault rifle.