It’s nothing short of incredible how weapons technology has evolved since the invention of gunpowder.
The first ever firearms were nothing more bamboo shoots filled with gunpowder, loaded with lead projectiles, and attached to the end of spears. These were first utilized in the 900s in China, and were known as ‘fire lances’ or ‘fire dragons.’
Fast forward over a thousand years later, and firearms ranging from small pocket pistols to massive pieces of artillery that can accurately shoot huge projectiles miles away have become ubiquitous around the world.
But along the way, there have been a select number of firearms that managed to completely reinvent firearms technology in ways that no other firearms made before them were able to do.
Here are the eighteen most influential guns ever made. After each of these guns came out, firearms technology would never be the same again:
1 – Hand Cannon
The first portable firearms that resemble anything close to what we have today were handheld cannons that were developed in the Yuan Dynasty during the 1200s. These cannons were usually made out of bronze and were designed to be held by one man and fired by another.
These were mainly weapons of intimidation, as the smoke and fire caused more confusion than the ammunition did damage due to poor accuracy. The technology for these weapons then spread throughout Europe and Asia in the 1300s and 1400s.
2 – Arquebus
The arquebus was the ancestor of the musket. It was rather complicated by comparison, as the user had to set a match in a lock that was then lowered down by a lever (in place of the trigger). Each arquebus was usually braced over a stand or something similar since it was very heavy and difficult to aim.
The main tactic for using the arquebus was to line up multiple men armed with them together to fire volleys into enemy ranks. Beretta, the oldest firearms manufacturer still operating today, actually got their start with manufacturing arquebus barrels in Italy during the 1500s.
3 – Colt Paterson Model 1836
The Colt Paterson Model of 1836 was the world’s first production revolver. The cylinder held five rounds of either .28 or .36 caliber bullets, and was revolutionary in an age where all other handguns were single shot muzzle loaders. The Paterson was issued in limited numbers to the United States Army and the Texas Rangers.
While it never saw widespread use due to its fragility, the Paterson effectively formed the basis for all revolvers that followed, and in a number of years Colt followed it up with more durable revolvers like the Model 1848 Dragoon and the Model 1851 Navy.
4 – Dreyse Needle Gun
The Dreyse Needle Gun was the world’s first breech loading rifle that utilized a bolt action to load a round into the chamber. Invented by German gunsmith Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse, the gun derived its name from the needle-like firing pin that struck through a paper cartridge to hit a percussion cap at the end of the bullet.
The Needle Gun entered general service with the Prussian army in 1841 and remained in that capacity until the early 1870s. It was a truly revolutionary design in an age where the rest of the world was still primarily armed with muzzleloading flintlock muskets.
5 – Lefaucheux M1854
The French-made Lefaucheux M1854 was one of the most innovative revolvers ever made because it was the first revolver to fire metallic cartridges rather than the percussion cap-and-ball revolvers of the era. The Lefaucheux was capable of loading 12mm rounds into the six-round cylinder via a loading gate on the right side of the frame, and the empty shells would then be ejected by a rod underneath the barrel. This basic design would be replicated several years later by the Colt and Remington revolvers of the Old West era. Around 12,000 Lefaucheux revolvers were shipped to America in the 1850s and were used by both sides during the Civil War.
6 – Volcanic Rifle
The Volcanic rifle was the word’s first lever action repeating rifle. The basic design of loading cartridge into a tube underneath the barrel and operating a lever underneath the grip to cycle the cartridge is still in wide use today. The rifle was partially developed by Daniel B. Wesson and Horace Smith, who would later go on to found Smith & Wesson.
Another major investor in the Volcanic was Oliver Winchester, who later took ownership over the company and moved it to New Haven. A gunsmith named Benjamin Tyler Henry was hired to improve upon the Volcanic, and the result was the Henry rifle that was introduced just before the start of the Civil War. The Henry itself later served as the basis for the Winchester lever action rifles that would dominate the Old West era.
7 – Colt Model 1889
The Colt Model 1889 in .38 Long Colt was the world’s first double action revolver with a swing out cylinder. Almost all modern revolvers that have swing out cylinders today owe their heritage to the design of the Model 1889 in some way.
The Model 1889 was adopted by the United States military as its new sidearm to replace the Colt Single Action Army, and was improved a handful of years later in the form of the Model 1892. The only downfall of these revolvers was that the .38 Long Colt round they fired was too underpowered for the military’s needs; this led to a long search for a new .45-caliber service handgun that eventually culminated in the adoption of the Colt M1911.
8 – Gatling Gun
With a rate of fire of over 700 rounds a minute, the Gatling gun was one of the world’s first ever rapid firing gun, although it was not a true machine gun in the modern sense. The original Gatling fired using a rotating six-barrel design that was driven by a crank. Each barrel fired one round as they rotated around, with the ammunition loaded via a magazine that was gravity fed.
The Gatling gun saw very limited use during the American Civil War (primarily during the Siege of Petersburg) and was used extensively during the Anglo-Afghan Wars, Anglo-Zulu War, and the Spanish-American War. The Gatling was eventually phased out in favor of gas operated machine guns.
9 – Spencer Model 1882 Pump Action Shotgun
It’s a common misconception in the gun world that the Winchester Model 1893, designed by John Browning, was the world’s first pump action shotgun. While the 1893 is certainly a fine weapon, the truth is that the Spencer Model 1882 was the world’s first pump action shotgun. This shotgun was designed by Christopher Spencer, who also designed the Spencer repeating rifle that was used by the Union during the Civil War.
The Model 1882 held up to eight rounds of 12 gauge that were loaded into a magazine tube beneath the barrel. All pump action shotguns made since owe their heritage to the Model 1882. But unlike most modern shotguns, the Model 1882 ejected the spent shells out of the top of the receiver rather than to the side.
10 – Maxim Gun
The Maxim was the world’s first true machine gun. Invented by Hiram Maxim in 1884, the Maxim is a recoil-operated gun, which meant that it didn’t need to be cranked liked the Gatling gun to load cartridges from the magazine into the chambers. Being recoil operated means that the Maxim is capable of ejecting spent cartridges and inserting fresh ones with a continuous pull of the trigger.
The Maxim gun ended up becoming one of the longest serving machine guns ever made and served as the groundwork for all other machine guns that came after it. It was in wide use by both the Allied and Central Powers during World War I and has continued to see service all around the world up until the present day. Maxim guns are even being used in limited numbers in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war.
11 – Colt M1911
No semi-automatic pistol has had as much influence on the pistol that came after it as much as the original Colt M1911 designed by John Moses Browning has. The M1911 uses a short recoil operation, meaning that the barrel and bolt recoil together backwards for a short while until they unlock and separate. While the barrel stops at this point, the bolt will keep traveling rearward to compress the recoil spring and permit the extraction and feeding of cartridges.
This design has been used by almost all semi-automatic pistols that chamber 9mm Parabellum or higher ever since. The 1911 was adopted by the U.S. Army in 1911 and by the other branches of the military in 1913. It continues to see limited service to this day and remains widely popular on the civilian market.
12 – M2 Browning Machine Gun
Also known as the ‘Ma Deuce,’ the Browning M2 was designed by John Browning at the request of the U.S. military for a machine gun that would be more powerful than the .30-06 caliber M1917 machine guns they had been using. The belt-fed, air-cooled Browning M2 is capable of rapid firing massive .50 BMG cartridges downrange at nearly a mile away.
The M2 became one of the most widespread machine guns ever produced. It’s equally adept as an anti-personnel, anti-air, and anti-material weapon and is used by militaries all around the world in great numbers to the present day.
13 – Walther PP
The larger brother to the famous PPK, the Walther PP was the world’s first successful double action/single action pistol. It also utilized a safety and decocker lever on the side of the slide, meaning that the gun safely decocks from single action back to double action when this safety is engaged. This same safety/decocker design has been replicated on other successful guns like the Beretta 92 series and the Smith & Wesson 39 and its successors, among others.
The PP also utilizes a blowback action to cycle cartridges, meaning that the recoil spring is wrapped around the barrel and the gas expended from a fired cartridge allows the slide to track back and compress the spring. This design has been replicated in many .32 ACP and .380 ACP pistols made since, including the Makarov, Bersa Thunder, and the SIG Sauer P230, among several others.
14 – Walther P38
Another highly innovative pistol that Walther produced not too long after the PP and PPK was the Walther P38. The P38 used the same double action/single action and safety/decocker lever system as the PP, but used a locked breech design instead in order to handle the pressures of the larger 9mm round. This means that a locking block system holds the slide forward and ‘locked’; when the gun is fired, the locking block stops the slide from traveling forward and this allows the gas created by the fired round to be kept in the barrel and allow the slide to travel rearward instead.
Not only did the P38 prove to be enormously popular (it was the standard issue sidearm of the German military all the way until the mid-2000s), it also inspired several other guns that came after it, including the Beretta 92FS and the Taurus PT92. If you disassemble a P38 and a 92FS side-by-side, for instance, the design similarities will become very clear.
15 – M1 Garand
When the M1 Garand became the standard issue American infantry rifle in 1936, it became clear that the era of bolt action rifles as standard combat weapons was coming to an end. The use of the M1 inspired many other militaries to begin looking into semi-automatic rifle designs of their own; shortly after, the Soviets developed the Tokarev SVT-40 and the Germans made the Gewehr-43, for instance.
Over five and a half million M1 Garand were made in total, and it was famously referred to by General George Patton as the ‘greatest battle implement ever devised.’ This was perhaps not only a reference to the M1 Garand itself, but also a testament to the fact that the era of the infantryman armed with a semi-automatic rifle had officially begun.
16 – STG44
Contrary to what many people think, the AK-47 was not the world’s first assault rifle. That title belongs to the STG 44. Chambered for the 7.92×33 round, the intention behind the STG 44 was to give a soldier a weapon with a greater rate of fire and magazine capacity than a bolt action rifle, and longer range and more stopping power than a submachine gun.
Around half a million STG 44s were issued to German soldiers in World War II, starting around 1943. While they were issued too late and in too small of numbers to have changed the outcome of the war in any way, they had a massive impact on firearms development afterward. The Soviet army captured several STG 44s and studied them closely; this eventually led to the Soviet general and firearms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov designing the AK-47 a couple of years after World War II ended. The era of the assault rifle had officially started.
17 – M16
Easily the most influential assault rifle produced after the STG-44 and the AK-47 was the M16. The M16 (and its shorter variant, the M4) was the U.S. military’s answer for a lighter assault rifle that could be used to replace the larger and heavier M14s that were then in service. The M16 uses a rotating bolt design with a charging handle on the rear of the receiver and a bolt catch on the side of the receiver to chamber a new round when a magazine is inserted.
Tens of millions of M16 rifles and M4 carbines have been made, as well as AR-15s (their semi-automatic counterparts) for the civilian market. Today, a countless number of semi-automatic rifles and assault rifle are descended from the original M16 while making improvements of their own. These include guns like the Heckler & Koch 417 and the SIG Sauer MCX.
18 – Glock 17
Introduced in 1983, the 9mm Glock 17 was the biggest revolution for handguns since the 1911 pistol was introduced. Incredibly reliable and simple to operate, the Glock is a polymer-framed, striker fired pistol without an external manual safety and a switch on the front of the trigger that must be depressed for the weapon to fire. It’s one of the most popular police and military sidearms used around the world today and began the age of the lightweight and polymer pistols.
The basic system of the Glock has been replicated by countless pistol designs since its introduction, including the CZ P10C, Heckler & Koch VP, Smith & Wesson M&P, Springfield XD, Walther PPQ, and the Walther PDP, among numerous others.
