This Week in Firearms History:

August 6: in 1890, Auburn Prison, NY, the first man executed by electric chair; in 1945 Hiroshima Japan is laid to waste by the atomic bomb.

August 7: In 1782 General George Washington creates the Purple Heart medal; in 1943 JFK and the remaining crew of PT-109 are rescued; in 1957 3:10 to Yuma opens in theaters.

August 8: in 1854 S&W issued patent for a metallic cartridge; in 1918 WWI, the Hundred Days Offensive begins.

August 9: In 1831 gun designer James Paris Lee is born; in 1945 Nagasaki is laid to waste by a second atomic bomb, that same day the Soviet Union declares war on Japan.

August 10: In 1776 news of the US Declaration of Independence reaches London; in 1821 Missouri is admitted to the union as the 24th state; in 1977 the Son of Sam is arrested in NY.

August 11: in 1919 the Weimar Republic takes control of Germany; in 1934 the 1st Federal prisoner arrive at Alcatraz; in 1972 the last US combat troops leave Vietnam.

August 12: In 1658 the 1st US police force formed in New Amsterdam (NYC); in 1861 Eliphalet Remington dies; in 1898 peace treaty ending Spanish-American War is signed; in 1988 Young Guns is released in theaters.

Gun of the Week: CZ 75 Pistol

You can sometimes tell a lot about a gun just by its name, in the case of the CZ 75 you can figure out the year it was introduced and the country in which it was designed and built.

The initials stand for Ceska Zbrojavka, the manufacturer, although by coincidence CZ is often used as initials for the Czech Republic.

Introduced in 1975 in Czechoslovakia the CZ 75 was derived from the Browning Hi-Power pistol (designed in 1935). During the 1970s Czechoslovakia was under communist rule, part of the Soviet Union.

Ironically the gun was actually designed for export to the west, but after the "Velvet Revolution" in 1989 the newly formed Czech Republic adopted the pistol for both military and police use.

The pistol was originally only chambered in 9mm Luger and 9 x 21mm, using a 16 round magazine.

The finish was originally blued, stainless steel and other coatings are now available as are other calibers, like the .40 S&W pictured above.

Cartridge of the Week: 30-40 Krag

The 30-40 Krag was a short lived, bottle neck rifle cartridge that was adopted by the U.S. Army in 1892, replacing the 45-70 Government.

The rimmed cartridge was patterned after the .303 British for use in the Krag-Jorgensen Rifle adopted the same year. Although the cartridge uses the black powder naming convention, it was indeed a smokeless powder cartridge from day one.

Also known as the .30 US or the .30 Army, it was the cartridge that bridged the gap from the straight walled, black powder 45-70 to the modern tapered, smokeless powder rifle cartridges.

Having only served a short 11 years, it was replaced in 1903 by the rimless .30-03 Springfield, which was replaced three years later by the improved .30-06 Springfield.

Gun Quote of the Week:

Bubba Gun of the Week:

This cut down Mosin Nagant was submitted for the 2021 Golden Poop Awards in Gunsmithing by D'Isiah T. Billings-Clyde. When asked about cutting down a perfectly good surplus rifle, he replied, "it didn't matter to him, as it wasn't his rifle to begin with". Words of a true Golden Poop champion.