Editor’s Note: Geo’s memoir, “Brothers of the Cloth,” a true account of special mission unit soldiers, has sold out in hardcover and will soon be coming out in paperback! You can keep an eye out for it here. In the beginning, Man created the gun and the cartridge. The gun was without form and […]
History
The Winchester Liberator – A Quad-Barrel Shotgun
The double-barreled shotgun is a weapon almost as old as the world as firearms. In the early days of firearms, having one shot was nice, but having two was infinitely better. Double-barrel shotguns have stuck around long past the advent of pump-action, semi-autos, and mag-fed shotguns. What happens when you keep adding barrels? Like a […]
Check out this underwater pistol Heckler & Koch built for the Navy SEALs
One of the things movies always get wrong about firearms is how water will affect the way a bullet travels. Even in the otherwise-almost-too-real “Saving Private Ryan,” bullets are shown flying through water almost exactly as they do in the air: on a straight trajectory and with a lethal amount of kinetic energy. The truth […]
These are the elite warfighting units throughout history that inspired modern American special operations
It can be said that the need to band together in groups is intrinsic to what makes us human beings. Long before the dawn of civilization, humans gathered together in like-minded groups in order to offer one another protection, defend resources, and share the mental and physical challenges of survival. Forming a cooperative group, or […]
The Andrée Expedition: A tragic tale of Arctic exploration and mankind’s indomitable spirit
It can sometimes be easy to lose perspective when talking about historical events. Once timelines stretch beyond the horizon of our own recollection, they tend to get fuzzy. Most people would be surprised to know, for instance, that Cleopatra’s lifetime was actually closer to ours than it was to the construction of the pyramids, or […]
Big Phil on Tour: Roman history at the Reculver Towers
The history of the site Big Phil’s visiting in this edition of Big Phil on Tour dates back even further than the imposing towers that dominate the landscape. Reculver has been the site of conflict dating back to the Roman era and consistently ever since. Serving as one of the earliest Roman forts built to […]
The Spanish Star BM 9mm service pistol
The Star model BM Spanish service pistol was an excellent firearm for its time. The pistol saw service with the Spanish military and police but also was used by the South African Defense Forces and found its way into the Rhodesian bush war. Although it looks strikingly similar to the 1911, the Star BM is […]
The Colt 1903 service pistol
The Colt 1903 was the predecessor to the famous Colt 1911 that is still in use today in some small capacities. The 1903 was carried primarily by officers but also favored for concealed carry because of its small size and “hammerless” design; something that is not entirely accurate because it does have a hammer contained […]
The Polish P-64 service pistol
The Polish P-64 is a unique pistol in that it probably draws more inspiration from the Walther PPK than other Eastern Bloc designs but the influence of the Makarov remains obvious — it even uses the Russian 9x18mm round for the military variant. Developed in the late 1950s at Poland‘s Institute for Artillery Research, the P-64 was designed by a team […]
Book Excerpt: ‘A Warrior’s Path: Lessons In Leadership’ from an Army special missions unit operator
The following excerpt is courtesy of Robert A. Trivino’s book A Warrior’s Path: Lessons in Leadership. Robert is a former member of the US Army’s 18th Airborne Corps, 75th Ranger Regiment, and an operational member of the Army’s elite special missions unit. The book humbly highlights Trivino’s own successes – and particularly his failures – throughout […]