History WebVideo / ForgottenWeapons

** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQpMpWYefyw Ljutic rifle]], designed [[WeekendInventor almost offhandedly]] when designer Al Ljutic was invited to do some shooting with a Winchester representative.

* {{Defictionalization}}: For AprilFoolsDay 2022, he took a look at [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm0tUvouv-I a working prop of the Type 93]], AKA the Chinese Assault Rifle from ''Videogame/Fallout3'', all while presenting the backstory of that series as if it is real history and even giving explanations for some of the weird things about the model, like the oversized RPD-style handguard (which was apparently meant to give a more effective grip when using a bayonet to fight in melee).

** Since so many commenters have asked why [[{{BFG}} Anti-tank rifles]] haven't been used more often as sniper weapons, presuming that they'd have greater range and hitting power, Ian explains that these weapons aren't just upscaled versions of sniper rifles but follow a very different design philosophy. They were mass-produced with the intention of equipping a lot of soldiers with a weapon which could hit a tank-sized target at not-particularly-long ranges, and be powerful enough to at least damage or disable some component. Therefore they were generally issued with iron sights instead of scopes, and in most cases the manufacturing tolerances for both guns and ammunition were too loose to ensure high precision. They're very heavy, there's a lot of recoil, and regular sniper rifles are already long-ranged and lethal enough against personnel. Anything bigger would be mere overkill.

** The [=HK51=] automatic rifle. While a desire to have full-power battle rifle with the size of an SMG is understandable, the weapon is extremely uncomfortable to shoot, even in an open space. Indoors, concussion from the muzzle blast will be even worse because of all the still-burning gunpowder being released as muzzle flash from a barrel cut down to less than half the original length.
** The AK-107, utilizing the "balanced recoil" principle. While the system does decrease the amount of recoil felt by the shooter, it is also very complex to manufacture and maintain. In comparison, a Muzzle brake is cheaper, simpler, and better at reducing recoil.
** Drum magazines, to the point Ian eventually made a dedicated video to discuss them. On one hand, they provide a huge number of shots before needing to reload. On the other hand, they are just terribly complex and expensive to make. Drum magazines have a disproportionately heavy mass for their capacity and oftentimes lack interchangeability with box magazines if both sets were made for the same weapon, which tends to further increase feeding problems on the drums - and the drum mags ''themselves'' often aren't interchangeable, either.

* GunsDoNotWorkThatWay: [[https://youtu.be/E6LrYNZOBHk This video]] seeks to dispel several gun myths that even Wiki/ThisVeryWiki propagates.

** AK-107, utilizing "balanced recoil" principle. While system does decrease felt recoil, it also very complex to manufacture and maintain. Muzzle brake, by contrast, is cheaper, simpler and better at reducing recoil.
** Inverted by the Arc Flash Labs GR-1, which is Impractical But Awesome: it has terrible range, accuracy, rate of fire and ergonomics, but Ian doesn't care, because ''it's a Gauss Rifle''.

** Drum magazines, to the point Ian eventually made a dedicated video to discuss them. While cool on paper, they are just terribly complex and expensive to make. Drum magazines have a disproportionately heavy mass for their capacity and oftentimes lack interchangeability with box magazines if both sets were made for the same weapon, which tends to further increase feeding problems on the drums - and the drum mags ''themselves'' often aren't interchangeable, either.

* NiceHat: Ian will sometimes wear a nation-and-period-appropriate hat when reviewing a gun. For Christmas 2019, he released [[https://youtu.be/pvi1u1U_h1g a 20-minute video]] about his hat collection.

** A mechanical engineer by training, Ian also works as a consultant for Armaments Research Services. He has also written reference books on French small arms and Chinese hand-crafted pistols - all while being a well-known fan of both French rifles and Chinese "mystery pistols" for their unique, mechanical features.

** A mechanical engineer by training, Ian also works as a consultant for Armaments Research Services. He has also written reference books on French small arms and Chinese hand-crafted pistols - all while being well-known fan of both French rifles and Chinese "mystery pistols" for their unique, mechanical features.

** A mechanical engineer by training, Ian also works as a consultant for Armaments Research Services and has written a reference book on French small arms.

* SkewedPriorities: In discussing the EtronX and other electronically-fired weapons, Ian notes that survivalist types would inevitably bring up that an EMP would disable such things compared to purely mechanical firearms. Ian counters that A) why would someone be using such an expensive EtronX as their only survival weapon, B) the EtronX was hardened against normal field abuse, and C) an EMP means nuclear war, and at that point you have more important things to worry about.

* ExactWords: Patents work this way, and Ian explains how many early firearms designs have had to find new ways to do the same thing. The most famous case is Rollin White, who patented fully bored-through cylinders to fit cartridges in revolvers (read: the same way every revolver does it now), gave Smith & Wesson exclusive rights to use it, and aggressively fought to protect his patent even in the middle of the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar. Dozens of unique designs were created to try and get cartridge revolvers on the market without running afoul of his patent until 1869, when UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant used his authority to forcibly deny the extension on the grounds that he was making life unreasonably difficult for the military.[[note]]Rollin White's case is also cited as an example of a patent that wasn't actually valid nonetheless being enforced; French gunmaker Eugene Lefaucheux had ''already invented'' a revolver with a bored-through cylinder to fire metallic cartridges and started selling it before Rollin White even applied for his patent. Moreover, White's patent wasn't even for a revolver firing metallic cartridges, it was for conversion of a single-shot pistol to fire paper cartridges. Thanks to lobbying (and possibly outright bribes) by Smith & Wesson, the White patent was being applied far more broadly than the invention it actually covered. It's no wonder that President Grant blocked it from being extended.[[/note]]

** When trying to zero sights on a Finnish M39 Mosin rifle and match the best ammunition for it for an incoming competition, Ian procured different type of both light and hunting ammo. Including a box of a 204 grain hunting rounds with "Hunting Rifle Ammunition" written on it instead of a brand.

** [=InRange=] has [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj9u4Ts2NpEv4Fnwx2_ig4wVqiONfH1me a series]] wherein they test how well various weapons handle being dunked in a concoction of thick, soupy mud, several weapons of which showed surprising results. The most common factor in how well a gun handles the test is in how many exposed holes there are in the receiver to let mud into the internal working parts - for instance, despite its infamy for being immune to harsh conditions, the AK jammed up because those large holes and loose tolerances, while phenomenal for letting the gun continue functioning with grease and gunpowder residue by just pushing it out of the way, also allow mud to get in and completely block the moving parts, while the AR-15 handled the mud much better due to its completely closed system, complete with vent holes in the side of the bolt carrier which actually force mud off of it with every shot. Operating principle, specifically how violently it cycles, also plays a big role: short-stroke gas pistons like on the FAL and AUG, once mud got in through the large ejection port and the sand cuts in the former's bolt carrier, were completely incapable of overcoming the mud contamination, both guns jamming after a very small handful shots before they failed (the FAL refusing to go into battery with a magazine inserted, the AUG failing to eject, and both ended up ''completely'' locking up), while infamously-violent roller-delayed blowbacks, at worst, were able to keep going (the G3, though needing to be manually cycled by mortaring it against the ground, still consistently went into battery and fired, and even went back to working properly once the mud dried) and at best were all but immune to the mud (the CETME Model L ran flawlessly when just having mud dumped on it, and even pouring mud directly into the path of the charging handle and then manually cycling it only caused a failure to go into battery on one attempt before the next fixed it). The same applies to pistols, though not universally - the sealed toggle-lock of the Luger passed because its system requires high-pressure ammo to function, while the also-sealed, striker-fired Glock refused to go into battery after one shot, less than the hammer-fired 1911 (which jammed after three shots on the first mag, then got through the second only needing to manually recock the hammer for two of them) but still more than the also-hammer-fired FK BRNO (which failed to even fire once). And similar to the rifles, a Hi-Point pistol, which uses a rather violent straight-blowback action (which has the added bonus of not actually having a locking surface to get gunked up) was able to return to full operational condition with only some water to rinse off the mud.

** [=InRange=] has [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj9u4Ts2NpEv4Fnwx2_ig4wVqiONfH1me a series]] wherein they test how well various weapons handle being dunked in a concoction of thick, soupy mud, several weapons of which showed surprising results. The most common factor in how well a gun handles the test is in how many exposed holes there are in the receiver to let mud into the internal working parts - for instance, despite its infamy for being immune to harsh conditions, the AK jammed up because those large holes and loose tolerances, while phenomenal for letting the gun continue functioning with grease and gunpowder residue by just pushing it out of the way, also allow mud to get in and completely block the moving parts, while the AR-15 handled the mud much better due to its completely closed system, complete with vent holes in the side of the bolt carrier which actually force mud off of it with every shot. Operating principle, specifically how violently it cycles, also plays a big role: short-stroke gas pistons like on the FAL and AUG, once mud got in through the large ejection port and the sand cuts in the former's bolt carrier, were completely incapable of overcoming the mud contamination, both guns jamming after a very small handful shots before they failed (the FAL refusing to go into battery with a magazine inserted, the AUG failing to eject, and both ended up ''completely'' locking up), while infamously-violent roller-delayed blowbacks, at worst, were able to keep going (the G3, though needing to be manually cycled by mortaring it against the ground, still consistently went into battery and fired, and even went back to working properly once the mud dried) and at best were all but immune to the mud (the CETME Model L ran flawlessly when just having mud dumped on it, and even pouring mud directly into the path of the charging handle and then manually cycling it only caused a failure to go into battery on one attempt before the next fixed it). The same applies to pistols, though not universally - the sealed toggle-lock of the Luger passed because its system requires high-pressure ammo to function, while the also-sealed, striker-fired Glock refused to go into battery after one shot, less than the hammer-fired 1911 (which jammed after three shots on the first mag, then got through the second only needing to manually recock the hammer for two of them) but still more than the also-hammer-fired FK BRNO (which failed to even fire once).

** [=InRange=] has [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj9u4Ts2NpEv4Fnwx2_ig4wVqiONfH1me a series]] wherein they test how well various weapons handle being dunked in a concoction of thick, soupy mud, several weapons of which showed surprising results. The most common factor in how well a gun handles the test is in how many exposed holes there are in the receiver to let mud into the internal working parts - for instance, despite its infamy for being immune to harsh conditions, the AK jammed up because those large holes and loose tolerances, while phenomenal for letting the gun continue functioning with grease and gunpowder residue by just pushing it out of the way, also allow mud to get in and completely block the moving parts, while the AR-15 handled the mud much better due to its completely closed system, complete with vent holes in the side of the bolt carrier which actually force mud off of it with every shot. Operating principle also plays a role: the FAL's short-stroke gas piston, once mud got in through the large ejection port and the bolt's sand cuts, was completely incapable of overcoming the mud contamination, the gun jamming after two shots before refusing to go into battery with a magazine inserted and ''completely'' locking up after the mud dried; meanwhile the G3 consistently went into battery and fired, though needed to be manually cycled by mortaring it against the ground, and even went back to working properly (minus the ability to actually remove the magazine, at least) once the mud was given time to dry, thanks to its infamously-violent roller-delayed blowback operation, in particular the heavy recoil spring required by such a system that ensured it would go into battery properly. The same applies to pistols, with more sealed systems like the Luger's toggle-lock action handling mud better than ones with exposed hammers like the 1911.

** On the other hand, after getting experience with full-auto .308 rifles, Ian figured that the M14 should be much easier to fire than common belief says. Turned out that rifle vibrates and kicks around so violently, thanks mostly to its semi-pistol grip stock placing its bore axis well above the contact point with your shoulder, that common belief is right in this case.
** Ian points out that, due to its standard muzzle brake, the actual recoil impulse of the Soviet AVS-36 rifle is not that hard. Still, the vibrations from firing in full-auto make the rifle uncontrollable.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad:

* LawOfInverseRecoil: If Ian get a chance to use full-auto firearm, he would probably discuss, how controllable it is.

* WhoWearsShortShorts: In [[https://youtu.be/lk3MUG0y-5Q this video]], Ian takes part in a shooting competition using a copy of a South African rifle, and wearing South African style short shorts. Half of the comments seem to be about the shorts.

** The infamously unreliable plastic-bodied Zip-22 pistol surprisingly managed to get through a magazine with only one malfunction... and then not only jammed several other times, but eventually jammed so badly that Ian had to ''completely disassemble'' it. Even he has no idea how it happened, and immediately after praising it for surprisingly-reliable performance the video cut to text saying that when he came back the next day to get slow-motion footage, he never got the gun to fire more than ''one'' round without jamming. Ian considers it the worst gun ever made, and it's hard to disagree. Particularly since the ZIP-22 [[CreatorKiller drove the U.S. Fire Arms Manufacturing Company out of business]], a company that was previously famous for high-quality replicates of the Single Action Army and other 19th century Colt firearms.

** Ian's long-running quest to find 7.65 French Long for his ''extremely'' rare [=MAS-38=] submachinegun has been referenced several times by other Youtubers, notably when Nicholas Moran (aka [=TheChieftain=]) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0JsiMA3Oss interviewed him]].

** The Phillips & Rodgers M47 Medusa is a revolver that can chamber basically any cartridge with an overall length no longer than a .357 Magnum, and a bullet diameter of .357 or less. A revolver doesn't have the headspace requirements of a semiautomatic handgun, so the challenge is just getting the cartridges to sit properly in the cylinder for firing and extraction. The extractor mechanism has long, flexible fingers that snap into the extractor grooves on rimless cartridges, and that can be depressed down and away from the cases of rimmed cartridges. The idea--supposedly--is that in case of a nuclear apocalypse scenario you can keep your gun fed even if all you have is a "hobo sack" of random scavenged ammo. It's an innovative and well-manufactured gun, and the accuracy with different types of ammo isn't that bad, but the problem is that the concept just isn't very realistic and there wasn't enough of a market for it. Even though it can shoot cartridges with a bullet diameter smaller than the bore, you'd have to be pretty desperate to use them since the bullet won't engage the rifling. You can use 9x19mm, .380 ACP, .38 Special, .38 S&W, and .357 Magnum for best results, but the gun isn't cheap, and the only people likely to buy it are CrazyPrepared apocalypse planners who almost certainly have at least one firearm (if not several) in each of those calibers already. For them it'd make more sense to prepare for doomsday by just hoarding ammunition made specifically for whatever guns they have, rather than blowing money on a universal ammo gun that they will probably never need. The Medusa had that "money-where-your-mouth-is" problem of people thinking it sounded cool but not being ready to open their wallets, and the company only sold something like 500 of them before going out of business.

* KillItWithFire: It's Forgotten ''Weapons'' not Forgotten ''Guns''. This means that flamethrowers are par for the course, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMDJ-I1-o6E much to Ian's delight]].

** He found [=PPSh=]-41 submachinegun to be comfortable in full-auto, due to its hefty weight and high rate of fire. Thanks to former, it can adsorb much of the recoil, thanks to latter, recoil impulse feels like one constant push, which is easy to mitigate.
** The Ultimax light machine gun, which employ a "constant recoil" principle (bolt stops without actually impacting the receiver), turned out to be very easy to fire accurately in full-auto, despite its light weight.
** On the other hand, after getting experience with full-auto .308 rifles, Ian determined that the M14 should be much easier to fire than common belief says. Turned out that rifle vibrates and kicks around so violently, thanks mostly to its semi-pistol grip stock placing its bore axis well above the contact point with your shoulder, that common belief is right in this case.
** Ian points out that, due to its standard muzzle brake, the actual recoil impulse of the Soviet AVS-36 rifle is not that hard. Still, the vibrations from firing in full-auto still makes the rifle uncontrollable.

** Behold: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nQzFGe1yMk the worst AK]] Ian has ever seen. An AKS-74U Krinkov that appears to have been cobbled together from a parts kit and various bits handmade by someone with a Dremel and no clue what they were doing. The gas block assembly flying downrange the first time someone tried firing it is merely the ''start'' of the gun's problems - in fact, Ian is probably extremely lucky that that's ''all'' that fell off. It is such a terrible example of gunsmithing that Ian sounds legitimately ''angry'' that someone would do this to a perfectly good gun design. This weapon was later brought to the attention of AK specialist Brandon Herrera on Youtube, whose operator eventually got around to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t9VbPwN-IM restoring the weapon into serviceable order]].

** Ian attempts to run a Backup Gun Match with a Taurus Curve, a subcompact .380 pistol with a contoured frame that's supposed to reduce printing when concealed carrying. The Curve sets the tone by failing to fire on the very first shot, regularly has to smacked on the back of its slide to be forced into battery, and malfunctions regularly throughout the match, often failing to fire an entire half of a magazine. Additionally, the integrated laser is virtually invisible in daylight and not actually zeroed to its point of aim and the backup sight (a white cross on the back of the slide) is difficult to use. It's so bad that on the last round, Ian just throws away the gun because he doesn't think he can get 8 successful shots, much less hits out of 12 shots. After Ian throws the gun away, he says "Yeet me" to request to borrow a friend's Hi-Point C-9 Yeet Cannon G1, which runs flawlessly despite Hi-Point's own poor reputation and posts his only positive score of the match with it.

** The Calico M100 submachinegun has a reputation for being unreliable due to magazine feeding issues. The magazine itself is a helical magazine, and with something as complex as a tube with cogs, springs, and whatnot feeding rounds in a manner fast enough for submachinegun use, you might think the same way. But he's already [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqhLfEmNuEA dumped]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pu1M6ZffiM four]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72yM_wrcb1k full]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB-53jXwz6Y magazines]] (of 100 rounds each) worth with a failure rate of practically 0%, granted in semi-auto but still fairly fast. He attributes magazine feeding problems to people not winding up the spring in the magazine either properly or at all.
*** Unfortunately after this, the gun started to have issues, though possibly with the firing pin rather than the magazine.

* RunAndGun: The Two-Gun Action Challenge that Ian began to attend in the later seasons of the show is a RealLife example of this. The competition format combines physical feats with precision shooting to simulate how weapons perform in a combative environment. These videos later formed the core of Ian's {{Spinoff}} series [=InRange=].
* SarcasmMode: Ian's take on Bren Ten, "the most tactical pistol of all time". He's barely holding himself from bursting into laughter about how ridiculous the whole "tactical" aspect of the gun is, along with the kind of people who could ever appreciate those features.

** Often averted with Spanish copies of various other nations' pistols (see AKA47 above), which tend to range in quality from "decent" to "better than the original". An example Ian showcased of the latter was the Beistigui Hermanos [=MM31=], a machine pistol based on the C96 Broom Handle Mauser for export to China, which looks just like a Mauser but is internally significantly improved. Despite their gun actually being better than Mauser's famous Schnellfeuer, Beistigui Hermanos often used logos designed to look like a Mauser logo (especially to Chinese buyers who usually couldn't read the Latin alphabet) because that logo was so famous in China.
** The [[https://youtu.be/li9WbNKCwZM Rogak P18]] was a counterfeit production pistol of the Steyr GB line of pistols (though its unclear if Rogak actually obtained the licensing rights in America or outright stole blueprints from Steyr). Meant as a cheaper alternative to the GB, the pistols were subtly but [[DeadpanSnarker very much criticized]] by gun magazines at the time. As Ian demonstrates in the disassembly, it's because [[EpicFail the P18 was horrifically and amateurishly welded and machined]].
* SniperRifle: Modifying a standard service weapon for sniping is never as straightforward as one might think. Also, Ian goes to great lengths to distinguish true "Sniper" rifles from the tactically more common "designated marksman rifles" (such as the Dragunov[[note]]While designated a "sniper" weapon by the USSR, Red Army doctrine at the time considered "snipers" to be what the West would call designated marksmen: a man with a rifle more accurate than the standard infantry rifle, serving within an infantry squad for mid to long range supporting fire.[[/note]]), or less precise "anti-materiel rifles" (such as the Barret M82 in .50 BMG).

* {{Steampunk}}: Ian references the genre by name while touring the steam/ hydraulically articulated Armstrong 100 ton cannon. He then remarks that, to the people of the time, the idea of moving a giant cannon only with levers would have been sci-fi.
* SwissArmyGun: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLDw6i1D52U Galil]], which sports a built in bottle opener in its fore-stock.
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1TwTXkBnUY Parisian Needlefire Knife-Pistol Combination]] is a single shot miniaturized version of the Chassepot[[note]] Pronounced ''shas-poh''[[/note]] that features both a knife and corkscrew.
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf6XALbTnik AustenMk I SMG]] contained a screwdriver built into it's folding stock.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5NK0M6HE3Y Crossfire MkI combination weapon]] is both a 5.56 rifle and 12 gauge shotgun with the two barrels sharing a single pump action mechanism. Turned out to be very awkward to use and unreliable, not to mention high MSRP.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyrE3FSU01w This odd double barreled pistol knife]] is perhaps the only knife-gun that Ian actually likes, since, apart from some safety issues, its actually a practical take on the concept. Someone pointed out to Ian that it could be a Norwegian postal worker's sidearm[[note]] yes, Norwegian postal workers used to be armed, apparently they were common targets for bandits and related ne'er-do-wells, as a result, the government started issuing them with weapons and armed escorts, [[GrimUpNorth because Norway was that hardcore back in the day.]][[/note]]. One commenter on [=YouTube=] pointed out that it could be used as a letter opener.

** Remember the [[AwesomeMcCoolName Street Sweeper]] shotgun that the Federal Government put on its naughty list for being marketed to urban youth in the [[TemptingFate middle of a murder epidemic]]? Cobray [[ReTool retooled]] the design slightly into a ''[[LoopholeAbuse pistol]]'' chambered for [[{{BFG}} .45/70 Government]] and renamed it the [[IronicName "Ladies Home Companion"]].

** In a comedy sketch, Ian tries to perform a drive-by with an Armitage International Skorpion on [[ActingForTwo himself as]] a [[GangBangers gangbanger]], who ends up just throwing his Jennings 9 pistol after he is unable to get it to function.

** The [=HK51=] automatic rifle. While a desire to have full-power battle rifle with the size of an SMG is understandable, the weapon is extremely uncomfortable to shoot, even in an open space. Indoors, concussion from the muzzle blast will be even worse because of all the still-burning gunpowder being released as muzzle flash from a barrel cut down to less than half the length .

** The Puckle Gun, a manually-operated 1.25-inch flintlock revolver cannon from 1718. It was one of the earliest "machine guns" in the sense of a large weapon that could fire multiple rounds before reloading, but it took about 6 or 7 seconds to rotate to a new chamber (fast, but only about twice as fast as a musketeer) and was quite expensive. They received no serious attention from the military for their expense and the poor reliability of the flintlock mechanism; there may have been no more than 2 produced.

** Nock's Volley Gun, invented by Englishman James Wilson in 1789, was a flintlock musket with seven barrels that all fired at once when the trigger was pulled. It had one flint to ignite the powder in the first barrel, and there was a means for the fire in that barrel to ignite the others. It was deemed impractical for infantry use because it was heavy and took a long time to reload, but the Royal Navy thought that men firing these guns from a perch on the mast might be really effective at sweeping the enemy ship's deck, and after getting two prototypes from gunsmith Henry Nock in 1790, they ordered 500 and then another 100. The problem was that they had dangerous recoil, and often some of the barrels would fail to fire. If that happened there was no way to tell which of the barrels had fired and which hadn't, so there were a lot of bulged and burst barrels from double-loading. It seems these guns weren't used very much, and in 1805 the Navy retired them from service.

** In the [=InRange=] TV episode "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC4Gqvd7T1s Bolt guns are Obsolete]]", Ian and Karl talk about how being amazingly good at using a bolt action rifle isn't a useful combat skill in a modern warfare situation against semi-automatics. Some gun enthusiasts seem to think that the disadvantage of bolt action against semi in combat is overblown, and that if a rifleman were trained to use his bolt action to its full potential he could be the equal in combat of any person with a semi-auto. In support of this, such people talk about the feats UsefulNotes/SimoHayha performed with his Mosin-Nagant, or how a British sergeant instructor supposedly set a record in the Mad Minute by scoring 39 hits on a 36-inch target at 300 yards using the Lee-Enfield service rifle. While that kind of performance with a bolt gun is undeniably awesome and impressive, Ian and Karl's point is that hardly anyone is actually going to put in the work or possess the talent to get that good with one, and that the bolt-action service rifles of the World Wars have inherent disadvantages compared to semi-autos in real combat that one cannot simply train out of. These old bolt guns that people own today are far from being great sniper rifles as some would like to believe: the sights suck, surplus ammo is low quality, and they were made back when the required performance for an infantry rifle was about 4 MOA[[labelnote:Explanation]] MOA (Minutes Of Angle) is firearms terminology for 1/60th of a degree; when something is accurate to within 4 MOA, it means the bullet will travel in 1/15th a degree in any direction relative to where you're pointing, which comes out to within four inches of the target point. [[https://venatoresoutfitters.com/minute-of-angle-for-dummies/ A better explanation from Venatores Outfitters]] [[/labelnote]], or maybe as good as 2 for a sniper's rifle; a far cry from today when any worse than ''1'' MOA is considered crap. So you're probably going to miss your first shot, and then no matter how fast you are at operating the bolt, by the time you get to the end of your magazine your semi-auto armed opponent is either going to have already killed you with his superior rate of fire, or he'll have long since taken cover. In which case, every subsequent time that he pops up is going to be so brief that you'll never be able to get off more than one shot before he's disappeared again, whereas a semi-auto would be able to squeeze off several rounds in that brief window of opportunity for a better chance of hitting.

** Ultimax light machine gun, which employ a "constant recoil" principle (bolt stops without actually impacting the receiver) turned out to be very easy to fire accurately in full-auto, despite light weight.
** On the other hand, after getting experience with full-auto .308 rifles, Ian determined that M14 should be much easier to fire than common belief says. Turned out that rifle vibrates and kicks around so violently, that common belief is right in this case.
** Ian points out, that due to standard muzzle brake, actual recoil impulse of Soviet AVS-36 rifle is not that hard. Still, vibrations from firing in full-auto makes the rifle uncontrollable.

** The Trejo pistols were made by a small family company in Puebla, Mexico, from the late 1940s until the early 1970s. At that time, fully automatic centerfire arms were banned, but for some reason there was no rule against full-auto rimfire arms, so they manufactured a portion of their .22 caliber model 1 and 2 pistols in a select fire so they could be used as machine pistols. Given that the model 1 had an 8-round magazine and the model 2 had an 11-round magazine, this wasn't very practical, but in Ian's view these pistols are great purely for the "giggle factor."
** In 1994, the ATF classified the "Street Sweeper" shotgun as a destructive device, a category encompassing firearms with a bore of more than half an inch that are determined to have no sporting purpose. Cobray {{retool}}ed the design slightly into a ''[[LoopholeAbuse pistol]]'' chambered for [[{{BFG}} .45/70 Government]] and renamed it the [[IronicName "Ladies Home Companion"]].

* MoreDakka: See The American 180 .22LR Submachine Gun under DeathOfAThousandCuts.

* NeverLiveItDown:[[invoked]] Discussed during the Enfield [=L85A1=] video. Ian talks about the numerous problems the L85 had when it first came out and how much work went into having to fix each problem. He says that no matter how good the rifle actually is nowadays, it will forever be known as a horrible weapon. He also talks about how the M-16's reputation still suffers decades later from its disastrous start, and it had far fewer problems to fix.

--> '''Ian:''' What can possibly go wrong firing a rifle grenade on an indoor range? … *nothing happens* … Other than having the safety on.

** Case in point: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9bULArrKs4&t=102s&ab_channel=ForgottenWeapons his video on the USFA Zip 22]]. The gun was the brain(dead)child of the company's owner, and Ian straight up says that it's quite possibly the worst gun ever made and that the owner's expectations for how popular it was gonna be were, quote, "completely divorced from reality." [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3fd4goVs-4 The following video]] showing Ian firing it at the range shows [[NotHyperbole that, if anything, he was UNDERSTATING how bad it is]], and even the text description of the video underneath the title is snarky about it.
---> '''Video description:''' "Today, may the good lord help me, I am taking the Zip 22 out to the range for some shooting."

** The infamously unreliable plastic-bodied ZIP-22 pistol surprisingly managed to get through a magazine with no malfunctions....and then not only jammed several other times, but eventually jammed so badly that Ian had to ''completely disassemble'' it. It began working again after being put back together, and even he has no idea what happened. Ian considers it the worst gun ever made, and it's hard to disagree. Particularly since the ZIP-22 [[CreatorKiller drove the U.S. Fire Arms Manufacturing Company out of business]], a company that was previously famous for high-quality replicates of the Single Action Army and other 19th century Colt firearms.

--> '''Karl:''' Don't worry, there's no one behind the camera.
--> '''Ian:''' That we care about.

** In the [=InRange=] TV episode "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC4Gqvd7T1s Bolt guns are Obsolete]]", Ian and Karl talk about how being amazingly good at using a bolt action rifle isn't a useful combat skill in a modern warfare situation against semi-automatics. Some gun enthusiasts seem to think that the disadvantage of bolt action against semi in combat is overblown, and that if a rifleman were trained to use his bolt action to its full potential he could be the equal in combat of any person with a semi-auto. In support of this, such people talk about the feats UsefulNotes/SimoHayha performed with his Mosin-Nagant, or how a British sergeant instructor supposedly set a record in the Mad Minute by scoring 39 hits on a 36-inch target at 300 yards using the Lee-Enfield service rifle. While that kind of performance with a bolt gun is undeniably awesome and impressive, Ian and Karl's point is that hardly anyone is actually going to put in the work or possess the talent to get that good with one, and that the bolt-action service rifles of the World Wars have inherent disadvantages compared to semi-autos in real combat that one cannot simply train out of. These old bolt guns that people own today are far from being great sniper rifles as some would like to believe: the sights suck, surplus ammo is low quality, and they were made back when the required performance for an infantry rifle was about 4 MOA[[labelnote:Explanation]] MOA (Minutes Of Angle) is firearms terminology for 1/60th of a degree, when something is accurate to within 4 MOA, it means the bullet will travel in 1/15th a degree in any direction relative to where you're pointing. [[https://venatoresoutfitters.com/minute-of-angle-for-dummies/ A better explanation from Venatores Outfitters]] [[/labelnote]], or maybe as good as 2 for a sniper's rifle; a far cry from today when any worse than 1 MOA is considered crap. So you're probably going to miss your first shot, and then no matter how fast you are at operating the bolt, by the time you get to the end of your magazine your semi-auto armed opponent is either going to have already killed you with his superior rate of fire, or he'll have long since taken cover. In which case, every subsequent time that he pops up is going to be so brief that you'll never be able to get off more than one shot before he's disappeared again, whereas a semi-auto would be able to squeeze off several rounds in that brief window of opportunity for a better chance of hitting.

** The [=HK51=] automatic rifle. While a desire to have full-power battle rifle with the size of an SMG is understandable, the weapon is extremely uncomfortable to shoot, even in an open space. Indoors, concussion from the muzzle blast will be even worse.

* BlingBlingBang: The Episode about damascening--decorating metal objects by fusing gold leaf and fine gold wire into the metal surface--looks at several guns that frankly make a gold plated Desert Eagle look mundane.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beOgmCxeh7A This custom made german wheel-lock musket from 1625]] that happens to be a [[SchizoTech breechloader]] certainly qualifies as both a beautifully crafted artistic object and an ahead-of-its-time firearm.

** A year or so later, Ian and WebVideo/CandRsenal collaborated on the series "[[https://youtu.be/TVgkwQTo2n4 Project Lightning]]," a detailed comparison of light machine guns from the Great War.

** Older videos had a fancy title sequence, which has been dropped in favor of a simple title card with a black background.

** The video "Slow Motion Malfunctions of Exotic Firearms" is... guess what? with Ian providing commentary over the footage on the malfunctions in question.