Collection: World War I & II Replica Firearms

Between 1914 and 1945 the infantry weapon went from a bolt-action rifle a Victorian soldier would have recognised to the first true assault rifle. Almost everything that happened in small-arms design in the twentieth century happened inside those thirty-one years.

This collection covers the weapons that did it - British, American, German, Soviet - as non-firing display replicas. Correct weight, correct proportions, working actions on many of them, and close enough at arm's length to be used for re-enactment, theatre, film and museum display as well as for a wall.

Everything here is held in our own warehouse in Bacup, Lancashire. Nothing is drop-shipped, so when we tell you what a piece weighs and how the action feels, it is because we have picked it up.

Also worth a look: the full replica guns range · the Call of Duty guns · cosplay-safe foam for events where metal is not permitted

British service weapons

The British soldier of both wars carried the Lee-Enfield, and it was the fastest bolt-action rifle of either. A ten-round magazine against the German Kar98k's five, and a bolt designed to be worked without shifting the firing grip - which is how pre-war regulars managed fifteen aimed rounds a minute, and why German troops in 1914 kept reporting machine guns that were not there.

Alongside it: the Sten, four million of them, built from stamped steel for about the price of a pair of boots and air-dropped across occupied Europe. The Browning Hi-Power, thirteen rounds when everyone else managed seven, and in British service from 1935 all the way to 2013. And the Webley Mk IV revolver, which has had a long second career on screen with Indiana Jones, Peaky Blinders and Torchwood.

American service weapons

The M1 Garand was the first semi-automatic rifle issued to an entire army, and it is the reason American infantry could put eight rounds downrange while everyone else was working a bolt. Patton called it the greatest battle implement ever devised.

The M1 Carbine was the lighter answer for drivers, radio operators and paratroopers, and became the most-produced American small arm of the war. The Thompson arrived with its reputation already made in 1920s Chicago and turned out to be superb, heavy and far too expensive - which is why the stamped-steel M3 "Grease Gun" replaced it at a third of the price. And the M1911A1, John Browning's .45, in frontline US service for seventy-four years.

German service weapons

The StG 44 is the most consequential weapon in this collection. Built around an intermediate cartridge - enough range for real fighting, little enough recoil to fire automatically from the shoulder - it was the first true assault rifle, and every one built since works from its template. It arrived far too late to change the war and changed everything after it.

The MP40 is the one everybody recognises, and almost universally miscalls a "Schmeisser" - Hugo Schmeisser had nothing to do with it. The Luger P08 is the most beautiful pistol of the period and was already being replaced when the war started; it survived because it was the single most sought-after Allied souvenir of the entire conflict. The Mauser C96 is really a Victorian pistol that wandered into both wars and is now better known as Han Solo's blaster. And the MG34 invented the general-purpose machine gun, the concept every army still equips itself with.

Soviet service weapons

The PPSh-41 is the Sten's philosophical twin - stamped steel, roughly six million built, a 71-round drum and a rate of fire around 900 a minute. The Red Army did something nobody else did and issued submachine guns to entire companies, on the reasoning that at Stalingrad ranges volume beat accuracy. German troops used captured examples in preference to their own.

What "replica" means here

These are display pieces. They do not fire, they cannot be converted to fire, and they are made to be looked at, handled and mounted.

Within that, quality varies by piece and we would rather tell you than not. Some have fully working actions - bolts that cycle, magazines that release, hammers that fall. Some are one-piece display castings. The weight is generally close to correct, which is the thing photographs cannot convey and the thing most people are surprised by when the box arrives.

If you need something for a convention, a stage production or anywhere metal is not permitted, our cosplay guns cover similar designs in event-safe foam.

Buying replica firearms in the UK

You need to be 18 or over. The UK regulates realistic imitation firearms, and certain purchases are tied to defined purposes - re-enactment, theatrical and film production, museum display, airsoft skirmishing. We will raise this with you at the point of sale, and any seller who does not is one to be careful of.

New customers complete age verification once, before the first order is dispatched. It takes a couple of minutes and then it never comes up again.

Want the history first? Our guide to the iconic guns of WWII covers fifteen of these weapons in depth - what each one did, what it started, and which of the famous stories about them are not true.