Why? (Patreon)

Another user comment popped up today to remind me that I've probably never made something clear to you patrons: Why we are doing the show the way it is.

In all honesty, I never wanted a show.  I'm camera hesitant (never really shy though) and it's a huge effort that requires repeated deadlines and tons of public exposure.  By participating in my own show I've almost guaranteed I'll never see a deal at a gunshow again. 

What I wanted was a book. 

I have a ton of them and more on the way thanks to you lot.  They come in roughly two categories: extreme detail on a model or subset or general, shallow overview of a wide variety.  Those latter ones often have errors. 

Until the past two years it's felt like, especially in the US, the First World War doesn't get the attention it deserves for being such an incredible influence on the modern state of the planet.  Gun publications are short on WWI pieces, unless of course they are U.S. gear.   While there are blog posts, magazine articles, and whole books devoted to nearly every minor variant of some 3rd tier pistol of WWII, some guns issued in the thousands from WWI are never talked about again. 

I have some great volumes on Central Powers' pistols or U.S. everything... but it seems no one has attempted the whole thing in one.  Rifles, pistols, Machine Guns, and more; both Entente and Central in one place.   That's what I wanted.

But it's daunting.  My current list of firearms totals 155 and will likely grow as I flesh out a few more designs from Portugal.  Given a century for pieces to be lost, trashed, or more often converted to another standard... some of these are incredibly hard to find.

So I needed a vehicle to carry me to the goal.  I needed to be seen so museums would recognize our work and let us in.  I needed a valued project that people would be willing to support regularly so we could raise funds for books and travel.  The market says video is in, video is supported, serial content is the way to go. 

And here we are.  Each episode probably runs deeper than each page of the book would and we might not get EVERYTHING into the video series because of limitations on shooting one-off historical pieces.  But that's OK.  Certain guns like the Belgian 1889, Ottoman 1890, and Serbian 1899 will stack into one episode.  So that ~155 will probably shrink down to about 100 episodes if we get everything we want.

Now don't let this post fool you.  I love the show and feel very responsible for keeping it on track.  I'm not just making do until I can get my book.  Rather, see the root of our desire to share the history and understand why you won't be seeing us delve into "Top 10" lists, clickbait titles, dramatized and flowery declarations of some gun being superior in all ways, etc...  We're here to document each piece as completely as possible and then move to the next.  Arranging them on a virtual shelf so that YOU can compare however you like. 

All right, that's enough heavy-handed preaching for now.  Thanks again gang and we'll be working hard to get those new images out.