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73 years ago today: Of mustaches and Mausers
Here we see the good Major Stewart Fotheringham and CSM Low of ‘X’ Company, Scots Guards (then under command of 1st Welsh Guards) as they watch mopping up operations during the advance on Brussels, 4...
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Feeling froggy? Like 1944 froggy?
IMA has a great grouping from a frogman of Underwater Demolition Team 7 during WWII.They include a set of Owen Churchill of LA swim fins, a Waterproof Bag BG 160 by U.S. Rubber Company, a wetsuit with...
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Castle nuts: To stake or not to stake, that is the question
The castellated nut– also called a castle nut or slotted nut– gets its name from its resemblance to the top of a medieval castle tower or keep due the notches cut into the ring. The larger set of...
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If you have 23 12-packs, you have enough raw aluminum for an AR-15 lower
With some 10th-grade metal trades skills, the guy over at Farm Craft brewed up an AR lower from 265 beer/soda cans. Nothing really high-tech involved. He melts the cans down in his foundry furnace,...
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A look at a half-dozen fixed blade carry knives ‘in the rotation’
That’s pretty stabby On the cutting board, I give you six sub-$125 (most sub-$50 if you shop around) light fixed blade knives that are small enough to carry every day (depending on clothing options)...
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74 years ago today: A silent testimony
In command of occupied Wake Island after the American surrender of that U.S. Territory in the opening weeks of WWII, Rear Adm. Sakaibara Shigematsu was cut off from resupply by U.S. submarines, and...
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Natocane update
Thanks for all the well-wishes. We came through Hurricane Nate just fine even though the eye passed directly over the suburban ponderosa. Lost power for about nine hours and some of the plants have...
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If you follow the pew-pew life, but don’t carry a blowout kit, there is...
One thing often tragically neglected by people who think they are prepared is the ability to respond to a serious causality incident, where a trauma kit and some knowledge of how to use it can save...
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66 years ago today: ‘Spitting death at the Communists in North Korea’
Seaman Leroy Kellam weighed down with belts of 20-millimeter cannon ammunition, hustles up the flight deck of USS Essex (CVA-9) to load a waiting Banshee fighter (examples seen behind him) as the...
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Working on the old rusty sword
Matt Easton of Schola Gladiatoria goes in-depth on cleaning and restoring an antique cavalry officer’s sword blade and scabbard. In this case a 1821 Pattern Light Cavalry Officers “pipe back” with a...
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Ping! Cutting edge plans some 85 years ago this month
Here is Patent Case File No. 1,892,141, Semi-Automatic Rifle, Rec’d 27 Dec 1932 from inventor John C. Garand– any of which makes great man cave or shooting house wallpaper. Via NARA (70663520). Enjoy.
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A hot December
74 Years ago today, these Devils would probably rather be back home over an open fire than on a sandy beach. Click to big up 1280×1582 Caption: The Marines Land. Marines hit three feet of rough water...
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Greetings, 2018
Yet, I always feel a century or two behind… German sentry welcomes in the new year, 1918. Photo colourised artificially
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The Kansas Raygun
This interesting handgun, which looks like something right out of 1930s Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon, is likely a one of a kind pistol from a Renaissance man in Kansas. Rock Island had it up for auction...
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The bayonet, in reflection
[Unidentified soldier in Union sack coat and forage cap with bayonet scabbard and bayoneted musket] LOC 2010650281From Capt. Henry Thweatt Owen, Company C (Nottoway Rifle Guards), 18th Virginia...
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50 years ago today: A Chicago typewriter in Hue
His hand bandaged, Lance Corporal C.D. Bradford, a New Jersey native from Longbranch, hefts an M1A1 Thompson submachine gun with its stock removed during the building-to-building battle for Hue City....
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Yours for Democracy…
A very proud Doughboy, and recent college graduate, armed with a brand new Enfield M1917 30.06 rifle and ready to go “Over There.” The back of this photo was signed “Forrest G. Johnson, Yours for...
View ArticleTalking mud and weird guns with Ian and Karl
While at SHOT, I ran into Ian and Karl and managed to shanghai them into a meeting room to talk about what the mud tests over at InRangeTV and, of course, some Forgotten Weapons…
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Happy birthday, Lee
The great Lee Marvin would be 94 today. Here he is seen as Sgt. Turk in the “Bridge at Chalons” episode of Combat! (1963) And if he looks natural with that Garand, he came about it honestly. Leaving...
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Here’s something to chew on
From Fort Bowie National Historic Site, near Wilcox, Arizona. “In the mid-1800s, Apache warriors were procuring muskets but correct size ammunition was hard to find. To alleviate that problem, the...
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