The Smith & Wesson 59/659 series pistols are not among the most common to find outside of the US. They are a reliable and dependable self-loading 9×19mm all-metal pistols which, despite being obscure, are definitely the factors that have led to a Pakistani firearms manufacturing company to make a copy of one variation.
V21: Marwan the Iraqi Gunsmith
In the 21st episode of the Silah Report Podcast, an Iraqi gunsmith talks to us at length about his experiences in aesthetically converting a functional 7.62×39mm RPD Light Machine Gun into what could easily be mistaken for an FN Herstal Minimi, or the US-designated M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, 5.56×45mm light machine gun. He takes us on this journey of tinkering and acquiring spare parts, sometimes even carving items like the buttstock out of wood to make it appear to be a plastic one from afar.
Bren Light Machine Guns In The Pak-Afghan Region
The Bren Light Machine Gun, most notable for its use during World War Two, with British and Commonwealth forces. It is an iconic piece of small arms history, its rugged and reliable design meant that it stayed in use for many years and in various calibres, from the late 1930s well up to the 1990s with the British military. It did see some limited use by other groups and militaries up until the mid-2000’s also. From our field work it now appears that there still a number of British Bren and Czech ZB vz.26-pattern guns in the Darra region.
Rock Island Premier Auction: Golden 7.65mm Tariqs, IMI Uzi ‘Sale Samples’, and More
The catalog of the upcoming Rock Island Premier Gun auction is published and we thoroughly browsed it to find the lots that are related to Silah Report’s research areas, MENA and Central Asia. We found six such lots which we’ll present to you in this article. Our list below goes in no particular order. It includes the lot names, images and the auction house’s description. The lot names are also linked to the corresponding pages in Rock Island Premier Gun Auction catalog.
Icon of a Movement: The Syrian ‘PKM’ Wooden Buttstock
The supply conditions of the ongoing Syrian Civil War set the stage for a necessity of improvisation and invention. Where there is low supply, there is high demand that reflects through inflated market prices for small arms and equipment. This equation lends itself to the iconic PKM-inspired YPG Kalashnikov wooden stock that can be seen in service throughout initially what was the YPG, YPJ, and later morphed into the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The stock itself comes from the Russian 7.62×54mmR general-purpose machine gun.
The Afghan Mujahideen’s ‘Poison-Bullet’ – Then and Now
The 5.45×39mm intermediate round is of course not new, it has been around since the early 70’s when it was developed in Russia for the new AK project, later called the AK-74. This potent round was nicknamed the poison-bullet by Mujahideen in Afghanistan, during the Soviet-Afghan conflict of 1979-1989, due to its tremendous wounding effects on its target. Since then, the round has only gained in popularity within the Pak-Afghan region whilst other areas of the former Soviet-Union have moved away to different cartridges such as the NATO standard 5.56×45mm. The venerable 5.45 round is still in use by a small number of militaries, most notably the Russians.
Ottoman Mauser 1903 Date and Serial Number Markings
Our investigation into the Ottoman Mauser 1903 began sometime after C&Rsenal shared an episode of their widely respected documentary series, which examines the small arms of the First World War, focused on the Ottoman rifle. The video explores the development history of the rifle and how the Ottoman Empire came to adopt it as their standard issue arm. It saw extensive use throughout the Italian-Turkish War (1911-12), the Balkan Wars (1912-13), the First World War (1914-18) and the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1924). In the 1930s many were rechambered to 7.92×57mm.
V20: Post Shot Show 2020 Episode
In this episode, Miles, Matthew Moss (historian, author and Silah Report’s Editor) and Nate (one of our great patrons) discussed a variety of interesting firearms and equipment they noticed in SHOT Show 2020.
Iraq, Idlib, Afrin and Yemen: Late January – Early February Market Highlights
Welcome to another installment of our series examining gun market trends across the MENA region. At the moment we are focusing on Iraq, Idlib and Afrin and Yemen. The time-frame of the data in this article runs from 25th January to 7th February 2020. The prices are average and are rounded up or down (for example 126=150, 124=100). If you missed our first installment you can find it here.
V19: A Volunteer from the West in the YPG Part 1
In this amazing 19th episode of the Silah Report Podcast, we were joined by our guest Rizgar, a European who volunteered with the Kurdish YPG in 2016. He gave us some insight on his journey from being your everyday civilian in Europe to a fighter battling beside the Kurds on the frontlines against ISIS militants. He shares with us some fantastic pictures he took over there and his experience with fellow Kurdish comrades and Western volunteers.