Other than the Good Ol' USA

Russia and germany would be my vote for best manufacturing firearms. I would even put them above the US

Russia- Saiga's/AK's/SKS/makarov

Germany- H&K's and Walthers

As far as modern manufacturers, Brazil, Philippines, and Croatia

-1 on Brazil and Philippines

Care to elaborate on why?

Springfield's high quality 1911s and M1As are sourced from Brazil. Armscor produces quite a few nicely made firearms from the Philippines.

HK in Germany, FN in Belgium, and Izhevsk Manufacturing in Russia. Handguns, SMGs, Rifles, Machine Guns, and Grenade Launchers of the highest quality.

You cannot pick a foreign clone/country for a US design.
(i.e. SAA from Italy or 1911 from the Phil. Islands)

Click to expand...

Agreed for that, they didn't design it so they shouldn't really get any credit

German/Swiss - Sig-Sauer P220 Series
German - Sauer SxS Shotgun
British - SxS Shotguns (have an Isaac Hollis)

Surprised the Glock fans haven't come out yet...

These may not be "the best," but I like them:

Russia: AK, PPSH, SKS, Makarov
Austria: GLOCK, Fuchs Fine Guns
Belgian: FAL
Germany: Mauser C96

Chris "the Kayak-Man" Johnson

The Czechs have to be near the top of the list. The Bren (ZB 26) light machine gun. The CZ pistols, particularly the 75. The VZ 58 assault rifle.


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Many Euro nations, Germany, Austria, Switzerland

Czechoslovakia ... CZ and Bruno for most bang for the buck.

My choice:
Taurus (their original designs appeal to me, like the Millenium Pro series)
England (for the Webley)

Wife's Choice:
Italy. Beretta.

Italy:

Beretta 92FS-'nuff said.
&
Galesi CCW or " Safe Queen"- actually a hilarious little jammomatic in any caliber

Germany-Walther-PK,PPK, P38, amongst others

Russia-AK47

Czechoslovakia--CZ75 can't wait to try an SP01

OneTime pegged it. Almost all the top makers are German, Swiss, or Austrian.

Japan - Citori?

Germany- Mauser 98s, in particular the 1909 Argentine and the old "Broomhandle". H&K for the 91 and I've always wanted the ol' H&K staple gun- the VP70z. Luger for the Artillery model P08- the sexiest Luger pistol ever made. Walther for the PK/PPK series pistols and their new little 22s

Belgium- Fabrique Nationale because they made so many fine firearms for John Moses Browning. FN also brought us the Fal- the right arm of the free world and the FN49 that begat it

Austria- Steyr has made some the most beautiful Mannlicher stocked rifles ever. They also make fine precision rifles with accurate cold hammer forged barrels. They also brought us the finest version of the Fal ever made- the STG58

South Africa- They obtained licenses of good weapons to produce some of the best weapons in the world and in the midst of world sanctions and embargoes, had the balls to supply Rhodesia with sanitized version of their R1, their designation for SA produced metric FALs, to fight terrorists.They were also innovative in designing & modifying weapons on their own

Britain- Start with the Lee-Enfield and make your way through such hallowed names as Wesley-Richards, Martini, Holland & Holland and Webly.
Let your thoughts carry you to far off Africa and India and of which Express double rifle to carry on safari, or to the open meadows of English countryside hunting woodcock with a delightful side by side shotgun made by one of the many British gun makers

Finland for Sako and the Valmet, Isreal for the Galil and the Uzi. Finally, Honorable mention to Argentina and Brazil for the well made licensed Fals and 1911s they have produced

Germany: Mauser bolt action and the MP44 which was the first assault rifle

Russia: By far my favorite, and will always be... the AK47

Italy, Germany, Spain, England, Belgium ALL produce better shotguns than anything made here.maybe excepting Galazan's stuff at CSMC.

The Italians, Germans and Austrians also make some fine rifles.

The Japanese do a great job of cloning other designs and making quality products

My favorite handgun, the Glock, is German designed.

As for shotguns, Benelli in Italy makes a fine one.

Rifles? Oh man, you got me there. Apparently nobody else in the world likes to make full-power autoloading rifles with windage and elevation click-adjustable aperture sights and a decent sight radius. I guess the Belgian-designed FN FAL would have to be my next choice if I couldn't have an M-14 or M-1... or possibly a Zionist-designed IMI Galil in 7.62x51.

I could get by on foreign-designed handguns and shotguns, but thank god for American-designed rifles! And if you could pick one type of firearm to be the best at, I'd say rifles is definitely the one.

Switzerland and Germany IMHO know how to make a rifle, with the Fins and Belgians right behind.

I find the pre WW2 rifles to be of exceptional quality with craftsmanship you just don't see these days. My model 1911 Swiss rifle was made in 1915 and even though its 95 years old is still tight, and shoots like the day it was new. You can tell the guys who put it together took a lot of pride in their work.

Once you get up to about oh 1942 the rifles that came from the country's that were fighting are not as good, at that point they were just trying to get as many guns into the field as possible, if it went bang it was shipped off to the front. Also the guys who made them with experience were replaced by people who were hastily trained and worked long shifts, and in some cases like in Germany with slaves. A lot of the rifles made by slaves were purposely sabotaged.

Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Czechoslovakia come to mind.