Reference material on You-tube

I have spent the last 4 days binge watching a single channel I found on Youtube. It is not your normal "guy showing his toes" filming. These folks are doing an excellent job of presentation and their material is top notch.

I am not involved with these guys at all and have no financial interest in the site other than being a patron. I do not give money to anyone on Youtube but I am sending a buck or two to these guys.

They deal with WW1 firearms from all the nations involved, so if you have a rare WW1 firearm or need background and history of the item they are the pace to go. (they will continue to WW2 when they finish WW1)

We are talking detailed history and function of all WW1 U.S. rifles from Krags on up, all German and British rifles and pistols from 1870 up, all those Manlichers, Carcanios, Vertellis and anything else that may be hiding in the closet.

Got a Lewis gun hanging over the fireplace? They will show you how to field strip it and what to expect when you load and fire it.

They are also the place to go to find out how to field strip Grandpas' .32 pistol he brought back from the war, since many of the WW1 pistols and rifles were carried over to WW2.

Their material is detailed to the point of being nerd quality. When a history teacher calls a firearms presentation "nerd quality" you are getting some intensely detailed material!

Not only do they research the firearms they also break them down, animate them, and shoot them on camera.

They also have links to various other presenters and experts world wide and pull information form historians in each of the home countries of the material involved, including some fantastic WW1 photos.

So for all those that can stream these videos and access the site here you go.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClq...iSDOQ/featured

They have some amazing videos. I was pretty impressed when Mae shouldered the trench gun but when she shouldered the wall gun in front of the soldiers that pretty pretty much clenched it for me. That gal is one tough cookie. They have a fortune tied up in firearms. Thanks for the link.

I particularly like this channel, as they show case very odd and unusual weapons and its done so well, that even myself a noob in fire arms can understand
https://www.youtube.com/user/ForgottenWeapons
Highly recommended.

All together they have almost 3 hours of information in the long Lee and Short Lee and it is detailed down to full history from the invention of the system in America (by an immigrant Scott) to disassembly and very good film of the rifle being shot in a systematic fashion.

They do each rifle in the same manner, Mauser coverage is in about 4 sections as models changed, but the Lee has a long history with only minimal change to the basic SMLE after it finalized.

They have more than 70 films, both long and short and they are getting near the end of the WW1 most popular offerings. They have not done the Mosin Nagant yet, nor the U.S. 1911 Colt pistol.

They also have a sister channel called "Anvil" where their gunsmith displays various operations in his shop. He is not concerned over history as much as mechanics. Unless you are researching a specific repair or tooling operation his shows are informative but about as exciting as watching glue dry.

He does show the proper processes for checking out used guns for safety and function. That way when one reads on the internet that they need to take their gun to a gunsmith for a check up, and there is no qualified gunsmith for 200 miles n any direction, the user will have some idea of what to do themselves.

He has a crusty sense of humor and admits that he never tells anyone a gun is completely safe or should be fired. It is up to the owner to make that decision. He still charges them $100/hr shop fee!

I checked out their video "Some Girl Shoots 66 WW1 Firearms". For 2 days I have been trying to find out what kind of cordage was used to sew the buttons on her blouse. It has got to be some kind of top secret Kevlar nanofiber, because that is some stout stuff.

One day that thread is going to turn loose and the kinetic energy release is going to hurt someone real bad!

That's all I am going to say about that.

Check out Rock Island Auction as well, they sport some great looking antique firearms with their history. They've shown everything from the tiny and less-than-useful Kolibri pistol, all the way up to the rare .959 JDJ which is practically a stock mounted cannon firing a necked down 20mm cartridge with a 1000+g round.