This advert shows off a magazine fed revolver that fired caseless triangular cartridges or 'trounds'.

I made another post a month ago with more info on this design but I had this saved on my phone and figured I'd post this before deleting the PNG.

https://lemmy.world/post/8643292

The Treeby chain gun was a .54 caliber percussion rifle that could fire 14 rounds in rapid succession. Designed in 1854, it was unlike anything else available at the time. Only two were ever made, with the hope of receiving a contract from the British Army...

Firing the Treeby rifle requires following a specific process. First, of course, each of the 14 chambers must be loaded with powder and ball, and a percussion cap placed on the firing nipple on each one. Once the weapon is all loaded, the lever on the barrel must be rotated up. The barrel is connected to the frame by way of a very coarse thread, so lifting the barrel lever pulls the barrel forward, away from the chamber. Next, the hammer is manually cocked, which rotates the chain of chambers and indexes one into position. Then the barrel lever is rotated back down, pulling the barrel in and sealing it against the chamber. Only now can the trigger be pulled, which fires the round currently sealed up to the barrel.

After firing, the process repeats until all 14 rounds are expended... The manual of arms for this rifle is likely one of the reasons is was not pursued by the British Army...

... by sealing the chamber for each shot it provides higher velocities than revolver-type designs with a gap between barrel and cylinder. The Treeby also would be very unlikely to suffer from chain-firing, in which the spark from the main chamber ignites one or more adjacent chambers... Since the chamber is fully sealed, no sparks or blast can escape in the vicinity of the open chambers.

Read the full passage: https://www.forgottenweapons.com/rifles/treeby-chain-gun/

Or watch Ian's video: [3:00] https://youtu.be/sXpJYNQJAcQ?si=

Or the more recent Royal Armories one: [6:56] https://youtu.be/uI-jWltuSyA?si=

Duck’s foot pistols are one of the iconic classic “weird gun” categories. This one exemplifies the typical pattern, with four barrels arranged in a wedge, fired simultaneously with a single flintlock action.

Traditionally, these are attributed to people like prison wardens and ships’ captains, who might have to confront mobs of prisoners or a mutinous crew. Whether this is actually supported by historical fact or is just apocryphal communal belief, I do not know…

Ian's video: [7:37] https://youtu.be/vDvyLuSeJyk?si=

https://www.forgottenweapons.com/prisons-and-pirate-mutinies-the-ducks-foot-pistol/

The Gepard PDW (Russian for Cheetah) is an experimental weapon, based on the AKS-74U. It was designed by Gennady Sitov and Aleksandr Shevchenko in 1995-1997 and suggested for law enforcement agencies but never put into service. The most interesting feature is that the Gepard can shoot no less than five different calibers without any swapping. With swapping out the bolt and barrel, the number of available calibers increases to fifteen.

Depending on the caliber, the weapon fires by blowback, delayed blowback, or gas operation; for most caliber changes, only a change in the recoil springs, bolt, and barrel is necessary.

Over 100,000 of these fans were issued to British troops on the Western Front during the First World War. Invented by Mrs Hertha Ayrton, a civilian scientist, they were used to clear the gaseous residue that collected in shell-holes and craters after a gas attack.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30028169

Between 1914 and early 1916, ‘flechettes’, or aerial darts, were dropped from aircraft onto troop and cavalry formations below.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30000305

This gauntlet dagger – sometimes also known as a ‘punching’ dagger – is designed to be worn on the bearer’s arm like a glove during close quarter combat.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30002988

Cross post for anyone not on the other community who didn't see this yesterday.

This armored mask featured very small eye slits, a cut away to get a cheek weld on a rifle, and a bend at the bottom to prevent spalling from striking it's wearer.

Big red arrows and circles pointing out the bit you're supposed to see through:

One of the earliest pistols, this firearm was designed and produced by Peter Peck, a maker of watches and guns. The two locks combined in one mechanism provided the barrels with separate ignition. Made for Emperor Charles V (reigned 1519–56), the pistol is decorated with his dynastic and personal emblems: the double-headed eagle and the pillars of Hercules with the Latin motto PLUS ULTRA (More beyond).

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/22387

Ian Explains what the deal is with wheellocks: [12:10] https://youtu.be/Rk-pISvud6w?si=

https://www.forgottenweapons.com/light-machine-guns/villar-perosa/

Royal Armories: [8:20] https://youtu.be/1FRsjjyXZ6o?si=

Introduced in 1957, Franchi’s LF-57 submachine gun has a very distinctive sci-fi look to it, but was never able to become a major player in the Cold War arms market.

It is in all ways a fully satisfactory design, including a grip safety, bolt lock to prevent accidental discharge, reasonably stable folding stock, and compact size. It has a crossbolt style of selector switch for semi and full automatic modes, and simple fixed notch sights. It uses standard Beretta 38 family magazines, which are of excellent design and are available in 20-, 30-, and 40-round capacity.

However, between its pricing and feature set, the Franchi was unable to provide a significant advantage over competitors like the H&K MP5 and Uzi.

Here's one used by Mr. Freeze in the 1997 film Batman & Robin (the one with George Clooney):

Ian's Video: [11:35] https://youtu.be/GGa2ZqyqbXQ?si=

Ian's vide on the M55 and on the M50 on which it was based.

Reisings were designed and produced by Harrington & Richardson (H&R) Arms Company. The design is closed bolt, which makes it different from the more commonly known Thompson and Grease Gun SMGs which fired from an open bolt. Like those other guns, the Reising was chambered in .45 ACP. It had a cyclic rate of fire of around 500 rounds per minute which put it between the fire rates of the Thompson and Grease Gun.

The M55 variation on the original M50 design was shortened by replacing the original wood buttstock with a folding metal wire stock. Otherwise the other noticable difference was the removal of the M50's compensator, leaving the M55 with a simplified muzzle.

The Reisings were produced beginning in 1941, but withdrawn from frontline service in 1943, following complaints about reliability. Despite this, the guns saw were ordered from H&R by US law enforcement into the 1950s.

The ZKZM-500 is the subject of a July 2018 article in the South China Morning Post describing a laser gun purported to have been developed by Chinese researchers of the Xian Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shaanxi. The article described the device in conflicting terms, both as "non-lethal" but also capable of "instant carbonisation of human skin and tissues".

Outside of China, universal doubt was expressed regarding the existence of such a weapon.

SCMP probably propaganda video: [0:45] https://youtu.be/07XpBUzlxxE?si=

British made and Birmingham proofed percussion key pistol. Approx. .45 cal. Made 1850 – 1860.

Some of the key guns were very basic, requiring the jailer to use a a cigar, cigarette or match to ignite a touchhole, while others used sophisticated percussion cap and flintlock mechanisms.

Ian's video discussing a similar design: [3:49] https://youtu.be/kTSaZAOCla0?si=

For some other ones: https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2011/07/05/key-guns/

Besides looking like it has a beard this machine gun has a number of other weird features like a bicycle seat and the ability to fire at a staggeringly slow 8 rounds a minute.

The Modele 1907 St Etienne gun is a magnificently Victorian machine gun, with a downright Swiss-like rack and pinion system running its action. It would have been truly at home on a Napoleonic battlefield – but not a World War One battlefield. The gun was not well suited to the muddy hell of trench warfare, despite its beautiful machining and quality. Looking for both a lot more guns and also a more field-reliable system, the French began buying a great many Modele 1914 Hotchkiss machine guns, and they would replace the Modele 1907 by the end of the war.

One cannot fault the French for this change, and yet it still seems sad to see such a gorgeous piece of metal fabrication be sidelined – complete with its hydraulically adjustable rate of fire, its fine toothed feed spool, its sights with the spring and lever system to accommodate heat-induced change of aim and its magnificently extravagant flash hider.

Here it is being used in an anti aircraft role (without the muzzle device):

Ian's Video: [29:38] https://youtu.be/ofZnarVq8pw?si=

https://www.forgottenweapons.com/the-st-etienne-mle-1907-frances-domestic-heavy-machine-gun/

This seized .22lr improvised hand was made by modifying a staple gun, like you would use for upholstery, with a bent piece of sheet metal. The common but unofficial explanation I found for this was it was made in a prison.

https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2014/01/30/peer-reviewed-forensic-analysis-weaponized-stapler-engineering-developments/

In 1978, the KGB used an umbrella like this—modified to fire a tiny pellet filled with poison—to assassinate dissident Georgi Markov on the streets of London.

https://www.spymuseum.org/exhibition-experiences/about-the-collection/collection-highlights/bulgarian-umbrella-replica/

In the 18th and 19th centuries, grave-robbing was a serious problem in Great Britain and the United States. Because surgeons and medical students could only legally dissect executed criminals or people who had donated their bodies to science (not a popular option at the time), a trade in illegally procured corpses sprang up. This cemetery gun, held in the Museum of Mourning Art at the Arlington Cemetery of Drexel Hill, Pa., was one dramatic strategy...

The gun, which the museum dates to 1710, is mounted on a mechanism that allows it to spin freely. Cemetery keepers set up the flintlock weapon at the foot of a grave, with three tripwires strung in an arc around its position. A prospective grave-robber, stumbling over the tripwire in the dark, would trigger the weapon—much to his own misfortune.

Grave-robbers evolved to meet this challenge. Some would send women posing as widows, carrying children and dressed in black, to case the gravesites during the day and report the locations of cemetery guns and other defenses. Cemetery keepers, in turn, learned to wait to set the guns up after dark, thereby preserving the element of surprise.

Because the guns were rented by the week and were prohibitively expensive to buy, the poorer people most likely to end up beneath the anatomist’s knife—historian Michael Sappol writes...

https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/01/cemetery-gun-invented-to-thwart-grave-robbers.html

The MP5 PIP has some interesting features, including a weaver-style top rail, a “chute” type magazine well, a centrally located button that appears to be a bolt catch/release, and a round magazine catch. Also, the MP5 PIP appears to be the origin for the distinctive “flipper” charging handle of eventually used in the G36.

Ultimately the PIP would stay a prototype but some features from the design would go on to be in other later HK designs like the UMP.

https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/09/26/firearm-showcase-heckler-koch-mp5-pip-improving-greatness-high-res-pics/

Not Ian's video but this guy is the guy on Heckler and Koch stuff: [14:13] https://youtu.be/tLi05QgleTw?si=

Okay, so the name may not be considered very PC today – you could also call this a cross-dominant stock. The concept was to allow a shooter to mount the gun in one shoulder but sight with their opposite eye. This was useful for cross-dominant shooters (ie, right handed but left eyed) or shooters who had suffered a crippling injury to one hand or one eye.

The craftsmanship involved in properly making such a gun is quite impressive. The frame and tang are made with a slight curve to them, and then the stock must be made paying careful attention to the direction of the wood grain, so that it can withstand the bending moment created when firing. A fantastic piece of work, and something generally restricted to the rather wealthy.

For non-native English speakers using the word "cripple" can be considered as a very offensive way to refer to someone with a disability or handicap. Please don't call people that.

Funnily it appears normal from a side view.

Ian's Video: [3:58] https://youtu.be/_mcVFrk7omk?si=

The Khyber Pass is a well known center of arms production, with gunmaking there going back at least 100 years. The quality of craftsmanship varies greatly, from excellent and safe weapons to thoroughly unsafe guns made with little more than hand files and drills. In the last decade or so, much of the production has centered around making guns for sale to Western soldiers to take home as souvenirs. Since antique guns can generally be imported to places like the US and UK with minimal paperwork, gunsmiths build copies of the arms used by the British in their last occupation of Afghanistan – Martini Henrys. This particular one is a .303 caliber pistol, adorned extensively with decorations and with a laughably crude copy of British service markings.

Ian's Video: [6:16] https://youtu.be/zTvxFNRLbiw?si=

When Gaddafi fell his pistol was famously held up as a symbol of the rebel's victory. It had been reportedly found next to or on his body.

The Hi-Power originally invented in the 1930s was famous for it's then higher capacity than most pistols at 13rds of 9mm in a magazine.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35466077

Here's Ian talking about the first militarily adopted Hi-Power: [11:42] https://youtu.be/vzwQUjYcfQE?si=