I Have This Old Gun

Rimfire bolt-action rifles are often used to teach marksmanship skills and encourage participation in competitive shooting. The rifle pictured is an example from a place we don’t often associate with civilian marksmanship: China. In the 1950s, the communist Chinese government initiated an effort to encourage fitness and competitive sports.

Think of a semi-automatic pistol issued to U.S. military personnel during World War II, and the Model 1911A1 immediately comes to mind. But like the M1911A1, the Colt 1908 Pocket Hammerless was drafted from peacetime to wartime service.

Some officials taken with the strength and efficiency of the Remington Rolling Block succumbed to the arm’s siren call and, using barrels recovered from U.S. Model 1861 and 1863 rifle-muskets, mated them to Remington actions. The results were promising.

Engineers at the Fémáru és Szerszámgépgyár NV (Metal Products and Machine Tool Factory Company) in Budapest developed a military-appropriate sidearm by combining the R-61’s lightweight alloy frame with a 4" barrel in 9 mm Makarov, which is how the PA-63 was born.

Six years after his tape primer’s appearance, Dr. Maynard debuted a unique drop-barrel carbine. It was light, simple and easy to operate. One merely lowered a lever to permit the gun’s barrel to tilt downward off the frame and expose the chamber.

Like its exposed-hammer predecessor, the Model 1897, the Winchester Model 12 transitioned from peacetime popularity to wartime warrior and back again. The Model 12’s journey from battlefields to hunting fields and trap and skeet ranges spanned more than 50 years.

In an effort to outdo Smith & Wesson’s fast-loading, top-break revolvers, Colt brought a solid-frame, swing-out-cylinder revolver to the market in 1889. Its initial models were large-frame handguns in .38 and .41 calibers designed for military use.

Approximately 80,000 Model 12 trench guns were manufactured between 1941 and 1944, and later production featured a Parkerized metal finish. Careful inspection will reveal four rows of holes in the handguard for barrel heat venting, changed from six during 1917.

Until the mid-19th century, Japan was a feudal society living in self-imposed isolation. Excepting a controlled, limited relationship with Portuguese traders, contact with the West was considered anathema by the Japanese rulers.