Welcome to my website
On this site I aim to describe, document, and celebrate my fascination with the most popular and iconic firearms of the 20th Century.
“The firearms industry was revolutionised in the latter half of the of the 19th Century”
The firearms industry was revolutionised in the latter half of the of the 19th Century by a number of technical innovations.
The evolution of smokeless propellent combined with the development of of the metallic cartridge lead to a rapid improvements in overall design, effectiveness and efficiency.
Long guns evolved quickly from single shot mussel loaders to breech loaders, which greatly increased the achievable rate of fire.
The introduction of multi-shot bolt action and lever action rifles, increased the rate of fire by an order of magnitude.
The race to produce semi-automatic weapons was initially concentrated on side-arms.
The Borchardt C93 was the first mass produced semi-automatic pistol, with over 3000 produced.
It greatly influenced the development of the Mauser “Broomhandle” C96 which was the first commercially successful semi-automatic pistol. Mauser manufactured over a million C96s, with many more being made under license in China and Spain.
“Iconic firearms are always collectable. Collectable firearms are not always iconic.”
How I Define Iconic – The Rules
Iconic firearms are always collectable. Collectable firearms are not always iconic.
My definition of an iconic gun is simply that it meets one or more of the following criteria:
To be iconic a gun must be immediately recognisable. Even in silhouette you should be able to pick out the general make and maybe even the specific model. The best examples of this would be the Luger P08 with its uniquely angles grips or the Kalashnikov AK-47 with its unmistakable banana shaped magazine.
Iconic guns could also have usually been the mainstay of national military or law enforcement organisations or played a major part in one or more of the many wars and conflicts of the 20th Century. Examples of hand guns would be the Colt 1911, the Walther P38, or the Webley Mk VI Break Action Revolver. For rifles, the M1 Garand or Carbine, the Mauser K98, Short Magazine Lee-Enfield or the Mossin Nagant.
A weapons could also be classed as iconic if it has featured predominantly in films, TV, or even more recently in computer games. The most famous of these would be James Bond’s Walter PPK, Dirty Harry’s Smith & Wesson Model 29, chambered in . 44 Magnum or the A-Team’s Mini 14s.
The last category is when a gun is classed as iconic within a specific country or region, but not necessarily globally. This covers a lot of less well known firearms which are outstanding in their own right, but may not have a universal appeal. As an example, I do not believe anyone from within the Swiss gun community, who would not class the SIG 210 Pistol or Smith-Ruben K31 Straight Pull Rifle as iconic. However, these two are probably not that well known outside Switzerland.
NB: These are my rules for my website. If you have any comments or suggestions, please leave a comment on the contact page.
“firearms design continued to develop at a rapid pace, driven by the numerous conflicts, both global and local”
As the 20th Century evolved, firearms design continued to develop at a rapid pace, driven by the numerous conflicts, both global and local.
The Luger, another Borchardt descendant, was manufactured in Germany and Switzerland, from the beginning of the 20th Century. In parallel the Colt 1911 was the culmination of a series of evolving designs by from John Browning. Both the Luger and Colt 1911 were used throughout WW1 and and WW2.
WW1 was characterised by static Trench warfare on the Western Front and the introduction and large scale use of the Heavy Machine Gun like the Maxim, Vickers and Browning.
Trench warfare also lead to the evolution of shorter more manoverable rifles and the need for portable personal weapons with greater firepower.
WWII saw the even greater development of infantry firepower, with the introduction of Semi Automatic and Select Fire Automatic Rifles like the M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, BREN, and BAR and the continued evolution of Sub Machine Pistols such as the Thompson, STEN, and PPSH-41. Although, it has to be noted that, the mainstay of the ordinary infantry soldier (excluding the Americans of course) was still the bolt action rifle.
The AK47, designed by Kalashnikov was introduced by the Russians after WWII. It was subsequently copied extensively by the Chinese and most of the Eastern European Soviet Block Countries, like Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Rumania etc.. It was used throughout the Korean war by the Communist side and as the go to weapon of choice in Middle East conflicts and many African wars of independence, civil wars and local uprisings. They AK47, in all its variations, is the most numerous firearm ever manufactured, with an estimated 100 million produced.
The Vietnam War saw the introduction of lighter polymer materials in rifles and pistols, in part to accommodate for the harsh natural conditions..