Historical Guns

The British Sten gun was effective at close range, cheap, and easy to make, but nearly botched the assassination of one of Hitler’s henchmen.

The M3 submachine gun was built for WWII. The stamped steel gun was nicknamed the “Grease Gun,” but it cost Uncle Sam only $18 to make.

The M1 was a flawed, bulky design. It also brought state-of-the-art firepower to the hands of infantrymen across multiple wars.

The 1911 pistol is as much a part of the fabric of America as is baseball, fast cars, and pretty girls. Literally, countless young men headed off into harm’s way with one of Mr. Browning’s hand cannons tucked into their belts.

The M1 carbine was designed as a Personal Defense Weapon of sorts. It combined the portability of a handgun with the magazine capacity of an autoloading rifle.

The M1911 was the finest combat handgun at the time of the World Wars. For close range firepower and reliability, nothing beat the M1917 revolver.

The Thompson Submachine Gun was a weapon respected by Prohibition-era gangsters before being toted across Europe by American soldiers in WWII.

The Victory .38 was a wartime version of the original Smith and Wesson Model 10 first introduced in 1899. The gun was variously known as the S&W Military and Police or the S&W Hand Ejector. Total production exceeded six million copies. While civilian variants typically sported a deep blue finish and a variety of barrel lengths, the Victory model was bred purely for combat.

The Gewehr 98 Mauser rifle is one of the most historically significant and technically influential firearms in history. In one variant or another, it armed men on both sides of two world wars and continues to be seen in conflicts around the world to this day. Rifle actions are still being based on it or using its features.