Molot Arms, best known as the manufacturer of VEPR shotguns recently shared a photo of a new belt-fed machine gun on their social media. According to Molot’s Facebook post, the weapon can feed from belts and magazines and is chambered in 7.62x39mm.

In the late 1970s, while designing the GAU-8 Avenger for the A-10 Warthog, General Dynamics developed a smaller NATO friendly counterpart.  The GAU-12 Equalizer would incorporate similar design features while using the slightly smaller 25mm ammunition.  A small but notable step down from the 30mm ammo used in the GAU-8 Avenger. Using five barrels instead of the GAU-8’s seven, the smaller lighter cannon saw more diverse use.  

The Bren light machine gun was one of the more robust and successful light machine gun designs to see service in the Second World War among the Allied forces. During the war, it was even produced full scale not only in Britain but also in Canada and Australia where it saw extensive service with the forces of those countries. Derived from the ZB26 and ZB30 linage, it served at the “section” level within the British infantry. Even after the war was over, the Bren remained in service with numerous countries, rebarrelled to 7.62x51mm NATO (UK, Pakistan, India, etc…)

Of all the questions in the gun world, What Is An Assault Rifle, seems to be the one answered and used by those least competent to do so. And since TFB is (arguably) the world’s leading resource on firearms, I thought we should take a minute to settle the debate once and for all. So, what is an assault rifle?

On the 20th February, FN Herstal was awarded a ‘major contract’ for rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers by NATO’s Support & Procurement Agency (NSPA) on behalf of the Portuguese Army. The contract is said to be for “5.56mm and 7.62mm NATO caliber FN SCAR assault rifles, FN40GL grenade launchers, MINIMI 5.56 and 7.62 Mk3 light machine guns.”

Everyone knows about the Soviet “burp gun” – PPSh-41. But its predecessor, PPD 34, is much less known, both in Russia and internationally.

At their pre-SHOT Show range day SIG Sauer have demonstrated their new light machine gun, the SLMAG. TFB reported back in October 2018, that SIG Sauer had displayed their new light machine gun at the 2018 Association of the United States Army exposition. Now, thanks to footage from SIG’s range day we get our first glimpse of the SL MAG, chambered in .338 Norma Magnum, in action.

Delta P Designs has developed a 3D printed suppressor for the M2 50 caliber machine gun. It suppresses the sound to the point of being hearing safe while standing right next to the weapon! Pretty cool stuff. Check it out.

Composite munitions manufacturer True Velocity has announced their partnership with General Dynamics – Ordnance & Tactical Systems in working to win the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon system program. Back in July 2018, TFB reported that General Dynamics was one of five manufacturers to be awarded prototype development contracts as part of the Next Generation Squad Automatic Rifle program.

The Ultimax 100 is the light machine gun for the Singaporean Army. Formerly ST Kinetics, ST Engineering is the Singaporean company who makes the Ultimax and they were at Range Day. Unfortunately they opted to be a non-shooting vendor at Range Day but we got to check out the newest version, the Ultimax 100 MK8.

A beltfed 50 caliber machinegun conjures up images of utter dominance over enemy solidiers, vehicles and structures. The muzzle blast alone is enough to strike fear into the hearts of men. Unfortunately it’s that blast that will pummel the shooter, crew and LAV drivers if the gun is vehicle mounted. Even the best helmets and ear protection can’t stop the concussive forces that will end up injuring our war fighters. Not to mention the reduced ability to communicate. So when Delta P Design set out to suppress the Ma Deuce, they weren’t chasing decibels – even though you can hold a conversation 20 feet from where the modified crew-served weapon is being fired.

Some of you may or may not know of the infamous “shoe string machine gun”. A piece of string can be tied to the charging handle of an MI1 or similar firearm, then wrapped around the trigger guard and looped onto the trigger. With the correct length and tension, the travel of the bolt will pull the trigger and continue firing until there is a malfunction or you run out of ammo. Well now there is a new DIY method for an AR-15. The coat hanger machine gun.

The Czech ZB30 was probably one of the better light machine gun designs that saw extensive use during the Second World War. Nations such as Japan and Britain copied aspects of it in the Bren and Japanese Type 99 LMG. It was also license-produced in some other countries as well. It was a top mounted magazine-fed, gas operated, light machine gun that incorporated a bolt hold open catch when rounds ran out. A variant of the ZB26, the light machine gun had a number of unique features that came to be standard on light machines of the time.

Profense has been shaking the Minigun game up since introducing their competitor to Dillon Aero’s domination of the international market in 7.62x51mm NATO M134 Minigun platforms manufactured in the United States. Taking things up (or down) a notch, Profense introduced a 5.56x45mm NATO variant of their 7.62x51mm NATO M134 while at AUSA in April this year. A 5.56x45mm version of the Minigun has historically been done before, with the XM214 “Microgun” from General Electric during the Vietnam War. However, the 5.56x45mm cartridge was too inaccurate for fast-moving vehicles such as aircraft and the U.S. Army wasn’t interested in the project as an infantry portable HMG. Fast forward to today and the increasing use of special operations forces combined with small craft such as speedboats and all-terrain vehicles, having a Minigun that takes up less space and weight and is needed for suppressive fire at shorter ranges, a 5.56x45mm NATO Minigun might have some merit.

The Canadian-based division of Rheinmetall was present at the show with the latest variant of their Field Ranger RCWS system that is designed to accommodate 7.62x51mm FN MAG/.50 BMG M2/ and 40x53mm Mark 19 grenade launchers and machine guns. On display was the “Multi” system, but there are also “Light” versions (7.62x51mm only), “Dual” (designed to take both a GPMG and a Heavy MG), and the “20” designed for a 20mm cannon. Not on display was the “Rapid Obscuring System” (ROSY) which consists of a smoke grenade discharging system mounted below the weapon system. The system has been purchased and has been in active service for around two years with Rheinmetall clients around the world.

The catalog of the upcoming  Rock Island December 2018 Premiere Firearms Auction includes a lot of incredibly interesting and rare firearms. Fellow TFB writer  Matthew Moss has already written an article about some of the coolest guns of this auction. In this article, I’ll tell you about five other rare and unusual guns consigned to the December 2018 auction.

Continuing our series of articles about the most expensive firearms  sold in the major US auctions, today we’ll take a look at the five most expensive lots sold in the Morphy Firearms, Militaria, & Sporting Auction that was held from October 30 to November 02, 2018.

In fact, it isn’t an M249 SAW at all.  It looks like a SAW, probably sounds like a SAW when fired, operates similarly to a SAW, but it isn’t one. What you are actually looking at is an RPD derivative that has been externally modified to fit the overall external profile of an M249 SAW light machine gun. The photographs were posted by the Instagram user Akalphonso who spotted them in use by an Iraqi Shi’a militia group named سرايا السلام‎/Sarea-Al-Salaam, or “Peace Companies” in English. The group is an organized self-defence force that was created at the height of the Daesh resurgence in Iraq and Syria, to protect vulnerable Shi’a communities in Iraq. Looking through the social media of the group, one sees numerous other small arms modifications that were done to make the weapons “look” like more effective small arms that they actually aren’t. One particularly gruesome example is of a PSL rifle that has been configured to “look” like a PKM GPMG from afar, complete with an M249 200 round plastic drum “attached” to the magazine well and the belt draped over the receiver of the rifle. This sort of practice has been going on in Iraq for some time, previously even among actual Iraqi special operations forces with Mad Bull airsoft replicas.

Today we’re taking a closer look at the General Dynamics GAU-19.  

The RPD was the culmination of Soviet light machine gun designs that began with the DP-28 of pre-World War Two days, and ending with the RPD, or Ruchnoy Pulemyot Degtyaryova. It was a lightweight, belt-fed from a drum, gas operated machine gun chambered in the Soviet M43 7.62x39mm cartridge. Some call it one of the first true squad automatic weapons, being introduced at least a decade before the Minimi ever came on the scene. It was produced by the Soviet Union, Poland, Egypt, China, and North Korea under various designations. In China it has been asserted that it might have been part of a covert export line of light machine guns, being marked without Chinese markings and with the designation “M23”.

The Myanmar Military (“Tatmadaw” in Burmese) is one of the only Southeast Asian nations that manufactures the majority of its small arms and light weapons (up to 120mm mortars) and has been doing so since the early 1950s in collaboration with a number of foreign allies. The majority of Burmese small arms production has typically been licensed produced of designs from Europe but usually with a few modifications that the Tatmadaw requested from the Directorate of Defence Industries. So although not truly innovative in the field of small arms design, the Burmese production small arms are still somewhat of an oddity and a true gem to research and to look into. TZ45 and Uzi submachine guns, G3 rifles, Lee Enfield rifle grenade launchers are all equally represented here.

In what is probably one of the coolest historical recreations to happen at a national machine gun shoot in recent years, the folks from the Bomber Camp program out of Stockton Aviation Field Museum actually got a Sperry Ball Turret (as used on the prolific B17 and B24 Heavy Bombers of the Second World) working with live ammunition at the recent Big Sandy Machine Gun Shoot in Arizona. What appears to be twin .50 BMG M3 aircraft machine guns were fed from several hundreds rounds of linked ammunition and as the saying goes, “Money was turned into smoke” on the plains of an Arizona desert. Perhaps the only thing cooler than shooting from the ball turret on the ground, is shooting live rounds from it in the air. Legally that would be near-impossible to accomplish anywhere in the United States as a private enterprise.

We’ve been comparing the guns of the Fallout series of post-apocalyptic video games to their real-world counterparts and today we’re going to examine the handmade rifle.

What would it be like to try and attempt to shoot historical small arms in some of the ways that they were actually used in the past? We try and do that in this episode with German small arms in a small team setting, assaulting an objective across open terrain using a base of fire complimented by fire and maneuver. We were able to get access to fully automatic machine guns such as the MG42 and MG34, in addition to the MP40 submachine gun and landmark STG44 rifle. Of course we also had on hand Mauser K98s that complimented the historical firepower. There was a G43 that was on hand but the rifle suffered some malfunctions that didn’t allow us to use it in the live fire.

Although the L1A1 SLR (FN FAL) service rifle served the Australian “Digger” faithfully for an extremely long period of time, infantrymen in the Vietnam War realized that the rifle could be “tweaked” to fit the combat that the soldiers had to fight in day after day. Undergoing field modifications that would be against regulations anywhere in the world, the troops did it anyways because it fit a necessary field requirement. 

Today there are two types of camouflage methods that immediately come to mind when we consider the task of trying to better conceal infantrymen and their weapons throughout the world.

SIG Sauer have unveiled their newest entry into the small arms market at the 2018 AUSA exposition, which began today in Washington, DC. Described as the Light Weight Machine Gun, the new weapon was reportedly developed for US Special Operations Command’s medium machine gun requirement and is chambered in .338 Norma Magnum – a rival to General Dynamics’ Lightweight Medium Machine Gun.

We’ve got another guns seized in Brazil post, but this ones a real doozy! Police in Barra da Tijuca, a neighborhood in the west side of Rio de Janerio, Brazil recently found and seized an M2 Browning machine gun chambered in .50 BMG.

In two previous articles on TFB we looked at the Burmese MA-Sniper in-depth while being used in the field by Tatmadaw Infantrymen. If readers recall there were a number of different variants of the MA-Sniper, to include early attempts at modifying MA-2 Light Machine Guns with optics. An interesting twist in this history is that variants of the MA-Sniper were actually modified to be used in the ASEAN Armies Rifle Match competition that is held annually. These variants have not been seen in service in the field and are very different from what we have seen in service with the Burmese Army’s operational forces. Although there isn’t much information available on these rifles, one of the variants was actually on the logo of the 23rd AARM competition held in Burma in 2013!

Photographs have emerged of a captured Islamic State weapons cache which has an impressive range of firearms. The stockpile of weapons and explosive materials was captured by a rival Syrian group HTS. The cache included a wide variety of pistols, submachine guns, rifle and light machine guns from sources all over the world.