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Private Notes
Some times fame comes calling from the oddest directions. For the Walther PPK, fame arrived in the form of a letter to the author Iain Fleming. Host Joe Mantegna and numerous experts explore the history of James Bond’s famous firearm.
The Browning Auto-5 was the first mass-produced semi-automatic shotgun. It was designed by John Browning in 1898 and patented in 1900. It was produced continually for almost 100 years by several manufacturers with production ending in 1998. It features a distinctive high rear end, earning it the nickname “Humpback”. The top of the action goes straight back on a level with the barrel before cutting down sharply towards the buttstock. This distinctive feature makes it easy to identify A-5s from a distance.
The shotgun was also used in military service worldwide between World War I and the Vietnam War.
The Lee-Enfield bolt-action, magazine-fed, repeating rifle was the main firearm used by the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century. It was the British Army’s standard rifle from its official adoption in 1895 until 1957.
The Bullpup rifle design with the magazine and action behind the pistol grip seems like an excellent solution to the constant military demands of shorter and lighter. But after decades of service, the verdict is still out on the bullpups.
Think of it as the Lamborghini of revolvers. The Colt Python in .357 Magnum with its sleek lines and credible finish, superb accuracy and flawless trigger pull , is described as the finest production revolver ever made.
Think of it as a jigsaw puzzle that, when fully assembled, creates one of the most recognizable gun profiles of all time. The C-96 Mauser, as its more commonly known, the Broomhandle Mauser, is not only a machine of warfare, but the finest expression of Victorian Era gun-making, maybe the ultimate “Steampunk” pistol.
If there was ever a gun perfectly suited to its time, it’s the Ruger Standard .22 semiauto pistol, Bill Ruger’s enduring triumph of modern manufacturing, the relentless pursuit of a vision and, and this is important, an uncanny sense of what the American public wanted.
The date was May 9, 1864, and Union General James Sedgwick had just admonished his troops in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House to stop flinching from Confederate fire almost 1000 yards away. “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance,” he shouted. Within seconds, the Confederate sniper’s bullet hit the General just below his left eye, and the Union troops learned the battlefield-controlling power of the sniper.
Host Joe Mantegna and numerous experts take a look at the firearms used by the Seventh Cavalry during the Battle of Little Big Horn. Was Custer’s last stand due to the choice of arms during the battle, or were his tactics and bravado the root cause of his defeat during the most studied battle in American History.
For over a hundred years, experts and historians have claimed the Native Americans under Sitting Bull’s command had a superiority of firepower over George Custer’s Seventh Cavalry at the Little Big Horn. But recent excavations of the battle site, combined with historical interviews of the time, paint a different picture of the quality and number of arms they were able to bring to bear against the US Military.
In the mid-1800s, as the height of the British Empire, explorer Sir. Richard Francis Burton returned from Darkest Africa with amazing stories and a new word, safari, the Swahili word for “long journey.” Then the rush was on as young gentlemen explorers and hunters headed to Africa and India in search of game and adventure. And with them they brought perhaps the finest firearms ever made, the magnificent English double rifles.
Few firearms have had such a profound effect on warfare as John Browning’s massive .50 caliber M2 heavy machine gun, the most successful machine gun ever made. Affectionally called the “Ma Deuce” by American soldiers through 5 wars and numerous smaller actions around the world,and still is the go-to gun for the U.S. military.
