Magazine Cover of the Day: Gun World, September 1974: Featuring the Morgan Submachine Gun

                         Gun World, September 1974: Featuring the Morgan Submachine Gun

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While not published in the 1980's, This issue of Gun World from September of 1974 features the very unusual Morgan Arms 9mm Auto dubbed the "Super Gun". The issue features an interview Jack Lewis conducted with James Morgan about his 9mm Submachine Gun that he hoped to market to the US Military and Police Departments. The article discusses the use of the strange red Rocket Propelled Grenade called the TAR (Tactical Assault Rocket) designed for the SMG. Jack Lewis provided mixed reviews on the gun. Lewis likened it to a Buck Rogers style weapon that the US military was not inclined to consider. It also featured an usual stock design that was called a "Recoil Free" stock, which honestly looks as if it was simply turned upside down from it's original configuration. Lewis did like the lack of recoil in the test gun though.

It appears their is a close design relationship to the Wilkinson Terry Carbine and Linda Pistols offered by Wilkinson Arms from 1970 until the late 1990's. However, it unclear on how the companies are related. I'll be looking into this in future posts about the Wilkinson Arms firearms company.

Advertisment of the Day: 1983 Magnum Research Galil Sales Advertisment

                                 Magnum Research Galil Sales Advertisment, Circa 1983

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This ad was taken from the Premier Issue of Combat Arms in 1983.  Magnum Research of Minneapolis was the first importer of the Galil 331, 332, and 372. It was imported at a time that AK style rifles were still few and far between and were offered in calibers common to US shooters. Some of Magnum Research's early Galil imports were said to have full auto selector support and a riveted ejector that were not found on later models imported to the US. These still remain some of the crown jewels of the imported arms of the 80's.

Magazine Cover of the Day: Firepower Magazine September 1984

                                                     Firepower Magazine September 1984

The September 1984 edition of Firepower is when the magazine truely hit it's stride in becoming an important resource for Class II manufacturers and Class III enthusiasts. The gun featured a detailed article on Gary Hill's construction of the Minuteman Submachine Gun. The Minuteman was based on blue prints that had been circulating around Paladin Press type publications on zip guns and other improvised firearms. The article features a full set of blue prints for the manufacture of the gun. It also details popular full auto conversions for the semi-auto Uzi, including the details of the "Kicker" and "Two-Step" Selectors.

Magazine Cover of the Day

                                                        Eagle Magazine, April 1981

Eagle Magazine was a magazine that attempted to capitalize on the audience of Soldier of Fortune in the early to mid-1980's. It had several issues covering firearms reviews and current military operations of the early 80's. This cover I've always found interesting as it captures the essence of  cold war fears with the banner of "Getting Ready For When The Nukes Fall."

Advertisment of the Day: The LARC BB Submachine Gun

         

                                The LARC BB Submachine Gun Advertisements Circa 1984  

Now I don't thing there was an adolescent during the late 1970's and 1980's who didn't dream of having a full auto BB gun. The LARC 19 series of guns were freon powered BB machinegun created by Eugene Russett Cliford of Corral Gables Florida in 1978.  The guns were powered by freon canisters that recharged air conditioner units for cars. They achieved a reputation for a short service life as most of the parts were plastic. The smaller version called the M19-AMP was indroduced in the early 1980's. The cyclic rate was well over 1000 rounds per minute.

                                                               

Video of the Day: The Weaver Arms PKS-9 Ultralite Submachine Gun

                                       The Weaver Arms PKS-9 Ultralite Submachine Gun

This advertisment for the PKS-9 Ultralite Submachine Gun made by Weaver Arms was taken from Lenny Magill's  video Rock and Roll #1.  Weaver Arms was known for it's Nighthawk carbine and the company made the video to advertise it's plans for a lightweight SMG. Little is known about the actual production of the PKS-9 and it may have been a casualty of the May 1986 Domestic MG Ban and never really put into production. If any info is known, please feel free to comment below.

Magazine Cover of the Day: Gun World Magazine July 1984

                                                   Gun World Magazine, July 1984

The July 1984 edition of Gun World featured an interesting concept which is essentially an AR-15/M16 Upper in 9mm and .45 ACP.  At first glance it looks like an AR, M-11, and Sten got together and had a strange child.  The Automatic Rifle Conversion or A.R.C was the created byBob Pierce of A.I.I Inc from Prescott Valley, Arizona. The autor of the article Reloader of the Lost A.R.C, Dean Grennell, reported the upper came with a standard 8" barrel and the company had plans for a 16" Carbine version as well. Whole weapons were for sale as well. The 9mm version was fed from Sten Magazines. The company planned to offer two versions of the upper in .45 that either fed from a Thompson Magazine or a propriatary magazine. MSRP was $330 for the upper, $478 for complete guns. They claimed to work well in registered MGs or semi-auto lowers.  The uppers or complete firearms never really appeared to come to furition in the commerical market place.

Advertisment of the Day: SWD Threaded Barrels and "Quiet Throwaway" Suppressors

                   SWD "Quiet Throwaway" Suppressors and Threaded Barrels Ad, Circa 1984

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An SWD ad from Firepower Magazine in July of 1984, advertizing the "Quiet Throwaway" suppressor with "Space Age Plastics" as part of their construction. While the construction of most Cobray products are woefully outdated now, their advertisments never go out of style.

Magazine Cover of the Day: Firepower July 1984

                                                        Firepower Magazine,  July 1984

This is the second issue of Firepower: The Magazine of Exotic Weaponry. It has a great interview with Bob Holloway, the founder of Holloway Arms and inventor of the HAC-7.  The HAC-7 was billed as the American made FAL of it's day and continues to enjoy cult status to this day. This issue also takes a look at simple conversion methods for a number of Title One guns of the day.  Great coverage of the SWD "Pop Bottle" Suppressor Adapter.

Advertisement of the Day: MK Arms Promotional Ad

                                                  MK Arms Promotional Ad

This was the second version of MK Arms' advertisement of the MK 760 Line of firearms during the mid 1980's. The ad was a flyer that showcases the semi-auto pistol, carbine, and it's full auto cousin. Mike Ruplinger was the owner of MKA during the early and mid-1980's and the company was orignially started to provide spare parts to the US Navy to service their remaining inventory of S&W 76's used by the Navy Seals. Ruplinger later went on to produce his own SMG in the days before May of 1986. Reportedly, the first run of semi-automatic versions of the MK-760 were considered Class 3 weapons as they were open bolt. MKA designed a closed bolt version to comply with NFA regulations. I've been fortunate enough to own a carbine for about 20 years and despite it's heavy trigger pull, is a very fun gun to shoot.

Video of the Day: HK Firepower USA

                                        HK Firepower USA: 1980's VHS Promo Video

This promotional video from Heckler and Koch was filmed during the early 1980's to showcase their "sporting" firearms available to civilian shooters in the US. It showcases the HK 91, 94, and the VP7. The quality of the video is from a VHS source and truely captures the zeitgeist of the 1980's firearms culture well!

Magazine Cover of the Day: Special Weapons Magazine 1981

                                                    Special Weapons Magazine circa 1981

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Published by Harris Publications in 1981, Special Weapons was edited by Chuck Taylor and had a host of contributing authors. The cover is photo is credited to Soldier of Fortune Magazine and showcases two Sidewinder SMGs in action. The magazine was a fairly comprehensive source of information for the time as it pre-dated many magazines like it in the coming years of the early and mid 1980's.

Advertisment of the Day: The American 180 Laser Loc System

                       The American 180 Laser Lok Sight Advertisement circa 1974

While a bit earlier than the 1980's, this American 180 Advertisment was published in Gun World in February of 1974. The gun was featured in that issue and interviews the owner of American International Corp, Charles Goff Jr.  about the development of the American 180 and the Laser Lok Sight.

Magazine Cover of the Day

                                                   Guns & Action, June 1985

      Guns & Action appears to be an attempt by Soldier of Fortune magazine to reach a wider audience of firearms owners in June of 1985. It asks the compelling question: Cannibalism: What's In It For You on page 8. This is the only copy I have seen of this magazine and I believe SOF had much better success with a magazine dedicated to firearms in their Fighting Firearms series from the 1990's.

Advertisement of the Day

     Paragon Sales and Services Inc XM-10 Advertisment circa 1982

  Before Armalite started production of the AR-10 series of semi-auto rifles for civilian purchase, there was the XM-10.  Paragon Sales and Services Inc was a popular dealer of military style weapons from the 1980's all the way until the early 2000's. I bought of a great deal of ammo from them and loved their ads in Shotgun News for most of the 90's.  Close to 200 Portuguese parts sets were assembled on Telko Inc.'s  machined-aluminum semiauto receivers and sold as the XM-10. The price tag back then was $1200. These rifles had a cult following for some time and were the holly grail for some collectors.

Magazine Cover of the Day: Exotic Weapons 1985

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Exotic Weapons magazine was published in the Summer of 1985 as a replacement to the magazine called Assault Weapons. It was published by a company called RPM Sales Corp. All I can say is this is one of the wackiest of the magazines in my collection. Comments about the politics of the time are hillarious and over the top. They showcase a few pre-86 dealer samples like the Czech 383 SMG and Spanish Star SMG.