Less famous historical firearms from WWII-Present?

That was only the beginning.

In the early 1930s, the Mexican government decided it could make a profit trying to market the weapon on the international stage.
At the time the Mondragón was still quite advanced, with its only true rival being the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR).
It was sold to many Mexican allies, including Chile, Brazil, Peru and the Republic of China.
The Weimar Republic and later Nazi Germany purchased rights to license manufacture the weapon, along with Austria and Japan. (Japan however, manufactured less than 5,000.)
In the Philippines, a few rifles were used by guerrillas in World War II.

A number of examples rifles also made their way into the Lithuanian Army by World War II.
Several copies, called Mandragon by the Lithuanian military, can be found in 1936 and 1939 armament lists.


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Panzerbüchse 39

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I wouldn't call the Radom "less well known" as there were hundreds of thousands made and they were widely used by the German military and security forces. Likewise the G.43, which was widely issued; the G.41 (M) and G.41 (W) would probably fit the less well known category.

The FP-45 (it was called a "flare pistol" as a cover name), or "Liberator", was an idea that went nowhere, as only a very few were ever even sent to a combat area and even fewer (probably none) were ever used on an enemy. It was a great idea in fiction, though, and while "well known" in one sense, was unknown at the time, so it would qualify.

The Gyrojet and Dardick are odd, but don't fit the OP's category of military hardware.

Jim
 
My vote goes to the FP-45 Liberator Pistol. Honestly, I don't think many people knew about them before American Rifleman and Hickok45 brought them to everyone's attention.
 
the liberators were literally a one shot use type of gun, they were designed to kill a soldier so you can take his weapon.
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Not that I've done exhaustive research, mind you, but I've never read an account of this actually happening. Heck, I've never read an account of one of these things being used - they don't exactly inspire confidence.
 
The Gyrojet and Dardick are odd, but don't fit the OP's category of military hardware.
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The Gyrojet was tested by the Army and actually saw service in Vietnam. The Dardick was, admittedly, never intended for and never used by the military; however, the Army is actively testing "tround" technology and it's quite possible we'll see this technology used some day in an automatic weapon.
 
The SKS fits your criteria, except that it is not particularly rare. Used in Korea, RVN, & a few smaller conflicts.
 
The SKS fits your criteria, except that it is not particularly rare. Used in Korea, RVN, & a few smaller conflicts.
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Honestly, the SKS may be a perfect choice for this thread. I mean, we as gun owners/enthusiasts are generally familiar with the SKS, but it's nowhere near as "iconic" as AK variants and the AR-15(M4/M16).

As far as practicality... I mean even today, an SKS is a very capable firearm all around. Maybe not so much for combat, given much larger magazines, even at the time they were manufactured, but firing a good round, being accurate enough for combat, or hunting, they are still great.

Although looking back, even when they were adopted by Russia very late in WWII, it was already outdated... Strange, that they'd even consider the thing, but as an alternative to the Mosin-Nagant, PPSh-41 and all the other less known weapons, I'm sure it had it's place. Somewhere.

The only thing I never got about SKS's was like "Does it want to be a Designated Marksman Rifle? Or does it want to be a Battle Rifle? Or maybe something like the role the M1 Carbine had?" I just don't know. :confused:
 
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