Season 3

His friends called him Uzi, but Major Uziel Gal never wanted that name attached to the firearm he designed. The Israelis simply ignored his request and the Uzi submachine gun, one of the most iconic firearm in history came into being. Hosted by Joe Mantegna.

In America, some times bigger really is better. At least it seems that way when dealing with handguns. And they don’t come any bigger than the Ruger Redhawk and its Super Redhawk brother, both that have come to define the phrase “big bore”. Hosted by Joe Mantegna. See below for more information and reference links to this episode.

A Winchester 1873 rifle was ubiquitous during America’s westward expansion. Whether in the hands of Buffalo Bill Cody,The Texas Rangers or Billy the Kid, it left an indelible mark on the Western Frontier.

The Vickers machine gun was based on the successful Maxim gun of the late 19th century. After purchasing the Maxim company in 1896, Vickers took the design of the Maxim gun and improved it. It changed the world, some times in terrifying and horrific ways.

Perhaps not surprisingly, few firearms have been designed by murderers serving prison sentences. Of those few, fewer still are adopted by the U.S. Military as a major war fighting tool. David M. Williams, a convicted murderer and former moonshiner redesigned a prototype from Winchester which became the M1 Carbine.

The year was 1825 and the man who made his name with fine dueling pistols and superb sporting rifles, was getting ready to see his name become a household word. Philadelphia gun maker Henry Deringer looked at the huge flintlock pistol of the day and had an idea of a different sort of gun – small, lightweight and concealable. He called his new gun The Derringer Pistol.

Some times the ugly duckling wins. Who would have thought that the homely Mosin-Nagant bolt action rifle would rise from its imperial roots in Russia and to become one of the successful firearms in history. It also captured the hearts of American gun buyers used to the best in everything. Indeed, the Mosin-Nagant story is unique.

Americans who faced its fury in WWII, called it the Schmeisser, nicknamed after a man who had nothing to do with its design. But the machines pistol designated MP38 and MP40, perfectly matched Germany’s philosophy of all out-war. They soon proved themselves on battlefields across Europe, a terrifying weapon in the hands of an apparently unstoppable military machine.

The shotgun may be man’s oldest firearm, but that doesn’t make it any less lethal for modern military applications. In fact, today’s battlefields has spawned a state of the art fighting shotgun from one of the industry’s most revered names….. Benelli and the M4. Hosted by Joe Mantegna.

We think of pocket pistols as a modern invention and part of our expanded concealed carry rights. But maybe the finest pocket pistol ever made dates all the way back to 1903. Not surprisingly, John Browning’s fingerprints are all over it.

Few handguns have ever achieved the status of the SIG Sauer 226 family. The SIGs are the issue pistols for the FBI, Navy SEALS, the British SAS, the Secret Service and literally hundreds of special forces and police teams around the world. It is as accurate as many targets pistols and as reliable as…. well…. a SIG.

The AR-15 has been one of the most successful military and now civilian rifle in the history. The hottest AR trends today is moving towards bigger calibers with 30 caliber variants. You might say that the AR platform has gone full circle. It all started with the 7.62 mm AR-10.

In this episode, we look at some of the highlights from the third season of Gun Stories. Hosted by actor and gun enthusiast Joe Mantegna, Gun Stories takes viewers through a firearm’s history, from the heart of the design through its use on the range.