Celebrating 170 years in the firearms industry, the company gets its name from the 1852 partnership between Horace Smith and D.B. Wesson. Just two years later, the company debuted the .41 Magazine Pistol, best known as “The Volcanic” — the first repeating American firearm capable of successfully using a fully self-contained cartridge. By 1857, S&W was producing the Model 1 and Model 3 revolver, guns that soon marched off to war and one that Mark Twain carried in his early travels in the West, writing in his 1872 book, “Roughing It,” that, “I thought it was grand.”
Fast forward to the present and Smith is still rocking and rolling. While they have made moves to shift black rifle construction and headquarters to a new factory in Tennessee, the company’s legacy plant in Springfield is still working around the clock and will continue to house its traditional revolver line.
With that, I got the rundown on the process from beginning to end and cover it in detail in the above 18-minute factory tour.
One thing I noticed during our time in Springfield was that, especially when it comes to revolver work, the more things change the more they stay the same.
Check out these images of S&W workers from 1956 compared to ones on the line today. While the machines and safety equipment have been upgraded, the invaluable human factors of attention to detail and quality endure, despite the generational change.
Spotted in Ukraine near Chernihiv on Christmas Day: the ever-lasting Pulemyot Maxima PM1910.
Note the timber has been cut out to accommodate the carriage and the 250-round belt at the ready in the can to the right. Machine guns in relatively sheltered fixed positions with interlocking fire are a source of real estate control all their own.
On its tripod the machine gun became a nerveless weapon; the human factor of chattering teeth, dripping sweat, and feces in a man’s pants was eliminated. A terror-stricken man could fire his machine gun accurately even by night.
Set up in a sustained fire role with plenty of ammo, thickly greased moving internals, and water for the jacket, such a heavy machine gun can still be as effective in a strong point as it was in 1914– at least until the bunker catches a 125mm HE round from a T-72 or a lucky hit from an RPG or three.
Developed directly from the water-cooled Vickers (Maxim) 08 .303, the Russian-made variant by Pulitov had minor changes beyond its 7.62x54r chambering and sights graduated in arshins rather than yards (the latter something the Soviets would change to meters in the 1920s).
The 1910 Maxim going for a drag
Fitted with a unique sled/two-wheeled shielded cart to a design by one Mr. Sokolov and often seen with an enlarged “snow” or “tractor” cap to the radiator, for obvious reasons, in all the Tsar and Soviets would make more than 175,000 PM1910s through 1945, leaving little wonder that they still pop up from time to time.
Twin-linked Maxim guns, with red dot sight, Ukrainian Conflict.
It has far outlived all of its water-cooled “Emma Gee” contemporaries, the Lewis Gun, assorted Vickers models, the various German Spandaus, and the M1917, all of which had been retired since the 1960s, even from reserve and third-world use.
With that, Jonathan Ferguson over at the Royal Armouries walks you through a PM1910 they have in the collection.
While I have carried a medical kit on me for most of the past decade or so– ever since the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, in which tourniquets had to be improvised from dozens of different sources to save lives– there is a theory, from a legal standpoint, that this could lead to greater liability in a self-defense scenario. While, to each their own, this is some food for thought from a pair of lawyers specializing in the question of if you should pair a trauma kit with your carry gun.
There are many accounts of individuals saving the lives of others because of their fast actions with a trauma kit on hand. So why don’t we recommend self-defenders carry a trauma kit? Armed Attorneys Emily Taylor and Richard Hayes break down the hidden perils of carrying a trauma kit if you also carry a gun for self-defense.
On 27 December 1932, the U.S. Patent Office granted Case File No. 1,892,141, for a “Semi-Automatic Rifle” to one John C. Garand, aged 44 of Massachusetts. The rest is history.
The 75-page patent application filled out and filed by Mr. Garand himself is so historical that it is fully digitized in the U.S. National Archives.
Filed in April 1930, it was endorsed by the Secretary of War with W.N. Roach, the Army’s Chief of the Patent Branch of the Ordnance Department, signing the drawing sheets and application forms as Garand’s attorney of record. His address was simply listed as Springfield Armory.
The petition, signed by Garand. (Photo: National Archives)
Among the most captivating pieces of the application were several pages of diagrams, all of which are suitable for framing in any man cave.
Firearms icon Savage Arms is expanding its new pistol line with a full dozen new 1911 offerings including rail guns.
Announced this week on the countdown to SHOT Show 2023, the new Savage 1911 line will be available in both 9mm and .45 calibers, three assorted color options– black Melonite, stainless, and two-tone– and either a standard or railed frame.
Nice to see more rail gun 1911s on the market…
Across the line, the Savage 1911s all use a forged stainless steel frame and slide, adjustable Novak Lo-Mount sights, Nitride-coated titanium firing pins, ambidextrous slide lock/safety levers, and a host of other features. All are full-sized, single-action Government-style pistols with 5-inch barrels and VZ G10 grip panels.
Between the three color options, two caliber choices, and the option for either a standard or railed frame, Savage will have a full dozen different 1911s to choose from. (Photo: Savage)
Ruger announced its new Small-Frame Autoloading Rifle, or SFAR earlier this year, and I’ve spent the past few months kicking the proverbial tires on this .308 Winchester-chambered AR.
Not an AR10 and, of course, not really an AR15, the SFAR is something different. But it’s a good sort of different.
At 6.8 pounds out of the box and just 9.45 pounds shown well-equipped with an Eotech EXPS3 red dot on a QD mount for a primary optic, Magpul MBUS3 backup sights, and a BFG Vickers sling on Magpul QD swivels with 20 rounds of Federal 185-grain Berger open-tip match loaded in a steel Duramag, this hard-hitting little 308 still delivers and only runs 34 inches overall with the stock collapsed.
Plus, it delivers on target due to the fact that Ruger, while they gave the SFAR a skimpy handguard and lots of lightening cuts, they didn’t skimp on the heavy profile cold hammer-forged 4140 chrome-moly barrel with 1:10 RH 5R rifling.
Plus folks really, and I mean really, like this rifle. I got this poem as feedback on the SFAR, which is one of the top-selling in its class:
The meme image (“THIS, I love!”) was added by me, but the poem is art.
Closing a chapter on 700 years of occupation, the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 would see most of Ireland carved away from the British Empire and a new Irish National Army formed to defend this new “Free State.”
The newly formed army first debuted at Beggars Bush Barracks when the base was turned over to the Irish by the British Army on 31 January 1922, capping what had been an escalating 70-year struggle by assorted Republican forces from the Fenians, to the Irish Volunteers, Irish Brotherhood, and IRA.
This meant putting on uniforms and forming actual military units with field manuals, tables of equipment, and standardization.
Dublin, 1922, Irish Free State National Army forces arriving at Viceregal Lodge.
Dublin, 1922, Irish Free State soldiers in as British troops leaving
The takeover of Richmond Barracks in Dublin, Irish Free State soldiers marching in on the right, and British forces marching out on the left.
As part of the Treaty, the brand new Irish National Army, under Michael Collins, was largely equipped with transferred, leftover, or signed-for British equipment and staffed in roughly equal amounts by former IRA and Republican men, career soldiers from the six disbanded Irish regiments of the British Army, and new recruits without prior service.
Among the kit “loaned” to the fledging Free Staters were nine Ordnance QF Mk I and Mk II 18-pounder field guns, sufficient to arm a battery of light artillery, although they came without any training to use them or support after the transfer.
Nonetheless, there was a cadre of Irish Great War vets familiar with the guns who could get them going– after all, some of the first shots of the British Army on the Western Front were fired on 22 August 1914 outside of Mons, Belgium by 18 pounders attached to the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards.
The QF 18-pounder was the only artillery weapon in Irish service between 1922 and the mid-1930s when newer 25-pounders were ordered to augment them. This one is in the collection of the National Museum of Ireland.
Two of these new (to them) 18-pounders were soon used by the National Army to bombard the Four Courts in Dublin in June 1922, firing on anti-Treaty IRA holdouts in the Irish Civil War. Of note, these first two 18-pounders in the Free State service were collected from the British at McKee Barracks on the night of 27 June and were firing at the Four Courts by 4:07am on the 28th, possibly the shortest turn-around by a newly-formed artillery branch from stand-up to combat in history.
Irish National Army using British QF 18 pounders loaned from the British Garrison against the Four Courts, June 1922
Corner of Bridge Street & Merchant’s Quay, Dublin City, Ireland. This photograph shows Irish Free State troops operating an 18-pounder Field Gun on the streets of Dublin during the Irish Civil War. It is believed they were engaged in shelling the Four Courts when this photo was taken.
The Irish Army eventually inherited or purchased 37 QF 18s of various marks by WWII, retrofitting older horse-drawn models with a Martin Perry conversion kit that included steel wheels and pneumatic tires to allow them to be towed at higher speeds by lorries, then kept them cleaned and in reserve post-war.
The Irish ultimately sold these old guns off in small batches to overseas scrap dealers until they were all gone from the Army’s inventory by the 1970s, with a few of the last guns preserved.
Among those sold in 1959 was William Beardmore & Company-produced Field Gun No. 9168, part of a huge batch of arms that was bought by Sam Cummings and George Numrich’s International Armaments Corporation (also known as “Interarms” or “Interarmco”) in the U.S. along with a treasure trove of 500 Lewis guns and Thompson submachine guns.
Here in the states, No. 9168 eventually ended up outside behind the Lazy Susan Dinner Theatre in Alexandria, Virginia.
After the theater closed in 2013, the ivy took over. Stored in rough weather for over 50 years, it became known as the “Ivy Patch Gun.”
However, its tell-tale Irish Army “FF” stamp surrounded by a sunburst on its breech ring, and traces of distinctive Irish grey livery over original Royal Artillery green paint sparked the interest of artillery nerds.
Eventually, the old gun was repatriated back home. It turns out, no. 9168 was probably one of those first six guns turned over in 1922 and could have even been one that fired on the Four Courts.
With the (gently) welded breech block washed open it was found that much of the gun was still in excellent shape– for instance, the gearboxes on the road gear were still covered in grease and in workable condition.
Now, following years of restoration work by technicians at the Defence Forces’ Ordnance Base Workshops (OBWs), No. 9168 is back in its 1922 condition including wooden road wheels and timbers, and is back on the Army’s inventory.
Further, in recognition of the force’s 100th anniversary, the Irish Defence Forces (Óglaigh na hÉireann) has released the below 30-minute video of its history, which makes for interesting viewing.
Theodore Roosevelt’s Smith & Wesson New Model No. 3 was shipped from the factory just days after the bespectacled former New York City Police Commish and Assistant Secretary of the Navy had been officially sworn in as a new lieutenant colonel in the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry in May 1898. Better known as the “Rough Riders,” Teddy would go on to lead his swashbuckling cavalrymen (sans horses, which they had to leave behind due to lack of transport) in the campaign against the Spanish in Cuba.
Later believed to have been used by the famed “Bull Moose” as a nightstand gun late into his life, the vintage .38 Long Colt chambered six-shooter had a provenance that tied it from the late 26th President to his longtime valet and finally to well-known S&W historian Jeff Supica (the guy who literally wrote the book on collecting Smiths).
One of Teddy’s biggest pals, Dr. Leonard Wood, became familiar with TR while Leo was on the White House staff in the role of a physician to Presidents Grover Cleveland and William McKinley. Leaving his position to become the colonel in the Rough Riders in 1898, Wood had some legit prior military chops, having spent several years as an Army surgeon in the Arizona Territory during the Apache Campaigns, and by the end of the SpanAm War had risen to a brigadier general (of volunteers), commanding the brigade that included the Rough Riders.
1st US Volunteer Cavalry Regiment (Rough Riders) command, taken at camp in Tampa, Florida before embarking for Cuba: From Left to right, Maj. George Dunn, Major Brodie, Maj. Gen. (former Confederate Lt. Gen.) Joseph “Fighting Joe” Wheeler, Chaplain Brown of the Rough Riders, Col. Leonard Wood, and Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt. National Archives – (NARA 111-SC-93549)
Coincidentally, Wood’s S&W .44 DA revolver, shipped to him in 1905 when he was the Governor of the Moro Province in the Philippines, also came to the gavel in the same auction as part of the Supica Collection.
A few years ago, I did a “Select Fire” factory tour over at FN’s South Carolina plant, which was cool, but I stumbled across something in their showroom that was even cooler– the just-released FN SCAR SC.
I mean, will you just look at it? How is this thing not in like 150 different movies? (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
Designed for mobility and flexibility while still using the SCAR format, the downsized SC (subcompact) model runs just a 7.5-inch barrel for an overall length of 21-to-25 inches depending on how far you extend the collapsible stock. Select fire with a 550-650 rounds per minute cyclic rate in 5.56 NATO, it still uses a short-stroke gas piston system with a rotating locking bolt and was created with special operation types in mind, specifically adapted for security missions.
Sadly, it isn’t commercially viable due outside of military channels due to that whole NFA and Hughes Act thing, both of which should be repealed (just saying).
The FN SCAR SC is just pure awesome, and always gets lots of attention at the company’s booth during industry shows. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
Anyway, we asked FN back in 2019 why they didn’t just deliver a semi-auto-only stock-less variant of the SCAR SC to the hungry masses as a large format pistol and kept asking that question every time we ran into them. The answer? A sort of a smile and a shrug, saying, in effect, “we can neither confirm nor deny such a thing may be on the drawing board.”
Well, it turns out that it was.
Meet the new FN SCAR 15P, a semi-auto-only stock-less variant of the SCAR SC:
And in the release for the gun, FN included this, which I am not saying is a personal ha-ha to me, but feels like a personal ha-ha to me, emphasis mine:
“This long-anticipated release carries the DNA of SCAR throughout from its short-stroke gas piston operating system, NRCH capabilities, cold hammer-forged and chrome-lined barrel, and so much more. We’re happy to deliver the FN SCAR 15P to our consumers who have eagerly anticipated this release.”
After a decade rocking a bone stock third generation Glock 19– finger grooves and all– I thought it was time to give the gun a little upgrade.
As covered in previous articles the Gen 3 G19 is probably one of the most popular compact(ish) 9mm pistols ever made and I’ve been carrying the same one off and on since at least 2012.
Sure, sure, the pistol had been released as far back as 1998 and I was late to the party, but I still got in the door during the model’s heyday. Although surpassed generationally by the Gen4 and Gen5 variants, the Gen3 remains in production likely due to a combination of the fact that it is still on California’s roster and folks just dig it. After all, it is “old reliable” in the 9 milly game– akin to a Toyota Tundra– with about the worst thing people can say about the Glock compact it is that it is boring or that it carries a lackluster trigger and sights.
About that.
I recently decided the time was right to refresh my old Gen3 G19 as it had passed its (still very young) 15K mark. This meant a teardown and swap out of all the small springs (firing pin spring, extractor depressor spring, mag catch spring, trigger spring, slide lock spring, and slide stop lever spring) just to be sure it would keep going bang for at least another 15K. This was the next level up from my normal post-range cleaning and swapping out a new recoil spring every 3K rounds or so. For the record, I always just went with the same old OEM Glock parts.
Then I thought to myself, how about some new sights, and maybe a barrel, and maybe a trigger…
The differences are subtle to the overall aesthetics, but ring true when you start her up
