The Soviet PSS Pistol and the Rise of Captive-Piston Ammunition Guns

The captive-piston (integrally silenced) ammunition concept is often assumed to be a Soviet invention; in fact, it dates back to 1902 in the United States (US Patent No. 692,819). Fast-forward to the Cold War, when the KGB carried out extensive clandestine espionage and counter-espionage worldwid...

By Lynndon Schooler

Army Testing Shorter, Lighter XM8 Carbine (Revised)

The XM8 ships with a 25-round magazine. Twenty-round mags from the M7 remain compatible. That directly addresses one of the louder complaints in Army Capt. Braden Trent's May 2025 assessment of the M7, which called the 20-round capacity a liability. As TFB covered when the Army type-classifi...

By Josh C

First Look: Echelon COA Pistols

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the new developments in self-defense technology these days. Options that represent cutting-edge features one day quickly become “standard equipment” the next. Take handgun-mounted optics. Not that long ago, having a red dot atop your pistol put you in som...

By Jeremy Tremp

Best M193 Ammo

Discover the best M193 ammo for your AR-15 in 2025. We compare top brands including Federal XM193, PMC X-TAC, Hornady Frontier, Winchester, and Magtech for range, stockpiling, and home defense use.

Arado Ar 234 Blitz: Germany’s Jet-Powered Bomber

Despite around-the-clock bombing by British and American heavy bombers, the Germans during World War II produced an ever-increasing volume of advanced military materiel right up until the end of the war. Even though they had terribly limited resources and were being squeezed on all sides, they st...

By Will Dabbs, MD

Review: CORD Pandora PB-3 Red Dot

In today’s review, Joe Kurtenbach evaluates the CORD Pandora PB-3 red dot sight. Suitable for performance pistols like the Springfield Armory Echelon, the PB-3 is a rugged sight with an IPx8 rating. The sight was loaned to the author for this review. We all know the saying, “if you want somet...

By Joe Kurtenbach

Fudd Friday: Make Combination Guns Great Again!

Of all the news that came out of SHOT Show this year, I was very stoked to see that European American Armory  is bringing back affordable combination guns. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll see a renaissance in this underappreciated corner of Fudd world.

By Zac K

The Soviet AO-29 Lightweight GPMG

In the early 1960s, the Soviet military found itself at a crossroads. The recently adopted Kalashnikov PK general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) has solved many problems by easing logistics and supporting a single machine gun type. Still, its adoption also revealed new tactical expectations: a single...

By Lynndon Schooler
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