--- title: The Most Popular Guns of All Time description: "Clever sorts estimate that there are currently over a billion firearms in circulation worldwide, and with that figure equating out to around one gun for every eight people alive today, it's safe to say that that's quite a lot. But which ones make up that billion? The answer to that question is exactly what we are going to be taking a look at.\n\n## The AK Family\n\nThe AK Family, or the Avtomat Kalashnikova Family to use the full name, are often said to be *the* most produced firearm in all of human history; no ifs, and no buts. But before we get into the numbers, we should clarify what we mean when we say \"The AK Family,\" as this is not usually how you hear it discussed. Instead, what you usually hear is simply \"the AK,\" or \"the AK-47.\"\n\nThe issue with that, if you want to be pedantic, which we absolutely do today, is when you say \"the AK,\" are you referring to an AK-101, a modernized variant chambered for 5.56×45mm NATO, or are you referring to an AK-74, a Soviet-era model chambered for the 5.45×39mm cartridge? Both are AKs, thanks to them being derivatives of the same platform, and thus having shared design elements like the long-stroke gas piston system, but which is *the* AK to which is being referred?\n\nAn understandable assumption may be that the term refers to the progenitor AK from which all others are derived, and that would be the AK-47 itself, chambered in 7.62×39mm, and adopted by the Soviet Union all the way back in 1949.\n\nA problem with that assumption, however, is that the actual AK-47, despite its ubiquitousness in the popular zeitgeist, wasn't actually produced in that great a number at all. Take the Type 1 AK-47 alone, the initial variant which came with a stamped receiver intended to expedite production; it only had 80,000 manufactured during its 1949–1951 production run. And that's before you even get to the later Type 2 and Type 3 variants, which were introduced in 1951 and 1955, and came with a milled receiver featuring a distinctive socketed \"boot\" connecting the buttstock to the receiver, and a lightened milled receiver with a simplified stock attachment method as their defining features respectively — neither of them were exactly produced in the tens of millions either.\n\nWhile yes, we are being pedantic in sticking with the term \"the AK Family,\" there is method to our madness — as we want to be accurate. That explanation also nicely segues us to the key reason that the AK Family is considered to be the most produced firearm in human history: there is an insane amount of different variations that have been manufactured globally, be they copies, such as the Egyptian Maadi; localized variants that took a preexisting AK rifle and tinkered with it a bit, such as the Yugoslavian Zastava M70, which added a thicker receiver, a reinforced dust cover latch, and a dedicated folding grenade sight bracket, all to allow it to better fire rifle grenades; or whole new concepts which took the base AK design and went off in a wild new direction, such as the Valmet Family from Finland, or the Galil Family from Israel.\n\nAs for the main matter at hand, how many have been produced in total, that's hard to say, largely due to the enormous variety out there, many of which were produced in nations that aren't exactly forthcoming with their production figures, making it incredibly difficult to tot them up. For example, do you think North Korea has ever been totally transparent about how many of their Type 58 AK-47 clones they've made, or that Iran has genuinely revealed how many KL-7.62s — its copy of the Chinese Type 56, which itself is a copy of the Type 3 original AK-47 — they've made? Exactly, they haven't.\n\nThen there's the matter of craft and civilian production, of which the \"Kyber Pass AKs,\" made in the titular region of Pakistan, are a great example. With production there being done on a small scale by independent local gunsmiths — they aren't exactly taking time out of their busy days to report their production figures to some kind of data aggregator.\n\nTherefore, we just do not know exactly how many AK Family firearms have been made, and we never will.\n\nFortunately, however, plenty of wrinkle-brained types have had a bloody good go at giving us a rough figure nonetheless, with one notable chap being arms analyst Nic Jensen-Jones, who, in his professional capacity, serves as both Director of Armament Research Services, and the Editor of *Armax: The Journal of Contemporary Arms*.\n\nIn his paper *Global Development and Production of Self-loading Service Rifles 1896 to the Present*, he outlines the matter by saying the following:\n\n> \"At least 76 million AK-type rifles, including variants, copies, and derivatives, have been produced to date, according to research conducted by Armament Research Services for the Small Arms Survey. This estimate, which is likely conservative, largely agrees with several other sources, including Walter (… estimate of 70 million), Kalashnikov and Joly (… 60–80 million), Rottman (… 75 million), and primary Russian Federation small arms manufacturer Kalashnikov Concern's own estimate of 'more than 70 million Kalashnikovs'.\"\n\nThere is an issue, however. We trust Mr. Jensen-Jones beyond doubt, make no mistake, because we can vouch from personal experience that he really knows his stuff, but he published that paper back in 2017… and there's been a lot of factories that have been very busy churning out ever more AKs since then.\n\nSo, what's *the* figure, then?\n\nWell, you do find \"100 million\" being thrown around a lot, but not only is this figure, at least that we could find, always given without citation, it is also a figure that has been circulating since at least 2002 — 15 years before the paper we just quoted was published — so yeah, we're taking that figure with a pinch of salt.\n\nWe also couldn't find a single scholarly source that gave a more up-to-date figure… so that's great!\n\nHowever, because we don't want to leave you without any contemporary figure to work with, even if just a provisional one, let's turn back to our evidencing paper again, because it just so happens to say this:\n\n> \"There is agreement among Russian sources that global AK-type rifle production is relatively stable at around 1 million per year. According to Kalashnikov producer IZHMASH, the Russian Federation accounts for only 10–12% of the 1 million AK type rifles produced each year, with the rest being unlicensed copies.\"\n\nRolling forward with that figure then, and accepting the fact that it's probably about as good as we're going to get, let's bring this chapter to a close by saying probably around 85ish million AK Family firearms have been produced in total.\n\nAnd that brings us to a very interesting conclusion to this chapter indeed, because you know at the beginning of the chapter, when we said that the AK Family is usually stated to be the most produced firearm in history? Well, it might not be…\n\n## The M98\n\nIt's a bold claim indeed, we know, and it's also one that brings your writer today no joy, as bold claims tend to make him a bit bum-squeaky and scared to open the comments section, but the claims in his sources are what they are, and so we are forced to say that *this* might actually be the most produced firearm in history.\n\nOnce again, the name of this one is a bit of a nightmare. Some refer to it as the *Gewehr* 98 — literally \"Rifle of (18)98,\" or G98 for short — and its many, many derived firearms that make up the bulk of its production as variants thereof, and others refer to the whole family tree that spawned from it as some variation of \"The Mauser Action of 1898,\" or M98 for short.\n\nFor our purposes today, we shall stick to M98, because what we are actually referring to today, at least as we see it, is not variants of the G98 specifically, although there is a lot of crossover there, but firearms that use the same bolt design and get pushed into the same type of receiver as was first introduced with the G98… we did promise you pedantry!\n\nAnd for those of you wondering what the M98 action actually is, it features a cock-on-opening mechanism, meaning the bolt cocks the firing pin as it is lifted, requiring more effort to open but reducing resistance when closing the bolt.\n\nIt also utilizes a controlled-feed mechanism, known as the \"Mauser feed,\" where the cartridge is captured by a large non-rotating claw extractor as it is stripped from the magazine. This ensures the cartridge remains under control throughout the entire feeding cycle, preventing double feeds or misfeeds, and allowing reliable operation even in harsh conditions.\n\nThe bolt locks via dual front locking lugs positioned near the chamber for strength, with an additional rear safety lug as a backup in case of failure. The bolt's three-position safety is located on the rear of the bolt shroud, allowing the shooter to select between \"fire,\" in the 9 o'clock position, \"safe with bolt operation,\" in the 12 o'clock position, and \"safe with bolt locked\" in the 3 o'clock position.\n\nSo, now that we know what it is we are actually talking about, how many of those venerable old things have been produced?\n\nWell, put it this way, the historian Robert Ball, in his 2011 edition of his book *Mauser Military Rifles of the World*, says the following:\n\n> \"German historical figures on bolt action rifle production were destroyed or lost, however one German estimate puts the figure at approximately 102 million rifles produced!\"\n\nAnnoyingly, however, he didn't cite this quote, and with Mr. Ball tragically no longer being with us, we also have no way at all of finding out what information he had access to when making this claim — and neither can we find the claim repeated anywhere else that doesn't cite back to this book.\n\nNormally, this would lead to us dismissing the claim, but with the book being a very well regarded one which has gone down as one of the authoritative tomes on the matter, and otherwise containing a more than agreeable standard of research, we are inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt — albeit with the big asterisk that the figure ultimately remains unsubstantiated.\n\nFurther still, however, if we just have a look for the production figures for G98 variants that we do have solid numbers for, we can quickly see that, actually, yeah — the German estimate Mr. Ball was referencing is certainly within the realm of possibility.\n\nTake the G98 itself, within which is also included the K98a, K98b, and Kar98az shortened carbine variants. According to Dieter Storz, in his 2006 book *Gewehr & Karabiner 98: The Firearms of the German Imperial Army from 1898 to 1918*, the Imperial German Army had 2,273,080 of them in stock at the outbreak of WWI, and would go on to make at least another seven million by the time the war had ended in 1918.\n\nThen there's the G98's WWII period descendant, the K98k. Although exact production figures aren't known, 14,600,000 is commonly cited as a figure just for Nazi German production.\n\nEven the US contributed a few million to the tally with the M1903 Springfield. It looks rather different, we know, and it does have a few mechanical differences, such as the use of a two-piece firing pin compared to the single piece on a \"true\" M98, but firearms historians today typically lump it in as an M98 variant owing to its fundamental mechanical similarities, as did, incidentally, the US Patent Office back in 1904, when they ordered Springfield Armory to pay $250,000 in royalties to Mauser Werke for copyright infringement; so yeah, we're counting it in our tally, and 3,004,079 of them were produced.\n\nIn fact, to be able to convey to you just how many of these were produced in a way that won't totally eat up the rest of this article's runtime, here's a few bullet points:\n\n- The Czechoslovak VZ.24: at least 1.6 million made both before and during the Nazi Occupation.\n- The Chinese Type 24 \"Chiang Kai Shek\": around 600,000 made.\n- The Argentine Mauser Model 1909: roughly 285,000 produced.\n- The Yugoslav M48: 238,000ish manufactured.\n\nThere really are too many of these smaller produced M98 variants for us to be able to list them all today, but as you can see just from that sliver of a list, they really start to add up; a few hundred thousand here, a few hundred thousand there, a cheeky odd million plus produced one sporadically chucked in — it's big numbers!\n\nAnd that's just the military rifles; start looking at the sporting rifles that use the M98 action, and the number only gets bigger still. The Winchester Model 70 alone, having been in production for nearly 90 years admittedly, has had over two million units produced.\n\nSo, yeah, while we ultimately cannot verify Mr. Ball's claim, at least with currently available sources — we certainly are going to be more hesitant over declaring the AK Family the most produced firearm of all time from here on in.\n\n## The Winchester Model 1894\n\nAnd because your writer's brain is on the verge of melting after dealing with the previous two chapters, both of which turned out to be way more complicated and nuanced than he first imagined when beginning his research, let's have a nice and straightforward one now, specifically the Winchester Model 1894 — the most produced lever action rifle ever.\n\nThe Winchester Model 1894 was designed by the legendary John Moses Browning, a name that may just sound familiar because it's also attached to the Browning Hi-Power pistol, the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle, and the M2 Browning \".50 Cal.\" When all was said and done, and Browning was put into his box in 1926, an incredible 80 different unique gun designs had been created by his hand.\n\nAs for its design, mostly it was your standard late 19th century lever action design; tubular magazine fed through the receiver, etc., etc., just with a few *jeujey* bits thrown on by Browning to set it apart from the competition, with the *jeujeyist* bit of all being the fact that it was the first commercial American repeating rifle to utilize smokeless powders.\n\nUnlike old school black powder, smokeless powder burns cleaner and produces significantly less smoke, which prevents the shooter's vision from being obscured after firing. Thanks to burning more consistently, it also generates more consistent pressure in the barrel, leading to more dependable ballistic performance, as well as less fouling of the barrel, since there's less unburnt powder gunk to jam it up.\n\nThe fact that the Model 1894 was the first to use it then was a real USP — and to Winchester went the spoils, with it soon becoming a favorite among farmers, ranchers, and hunters alike.\n\nIt proved so popular in fact, that Winchester kept it in production for a very, very long time; 112 years to be precise — with 1894s rolling off their production line uninterrupted from 1894 to 2006. Its end, naturally, was met with grief from shooters America over, many of whom were still rather fond of the thing, and so, sniffing an opportunity, the Japanese firearms manufacturer Miroku started a production line of their own, importing them into America, ironically, through Browning, the very company the 1894's designer had set up to directly sell his own designs back in 1878.\n\nThat then brings us to the matter at hand: production numbers — which, for the 1894, would be give or take 7.5 million. And, thanks to the minimal number of companies involved, we don't need several hundred words of qualifier to explain that fact, what a treat!\n\n7.5 million, despite being quite a bit less than the other firearms we have looked at so far, is also a truly vast number for a lever action rifle, largely because they never really caught on with militaries, and so never got a huge boost in production thanks to a big war or two.\n\nTo see what we mean about lever actions never truly taking off with militaries, consider the Martini–Henry, the single shot lever action rifle that briefly was the British Empire's service weapon from 1871 to 1888, when it began being replaced by the Lee-Metford bolt action rifle — a million of them were made, max. Then there's the Winchester Model 1895, which saw some reasonable use by the Russians to supplement the bolt action Mosin-Nagant — it is believed that 425,000 of them were made in total, with only 294,000 of them being for the Russian contract.\n\nAs for civilian production, despite their being much more popular in that space, it is rare when a lever action firearm pushes up into a seven-figure production volume, with the Marlin Model 336 being the only other one that springs to mind, with roughly four million rolling off the production line since it was first fired up in 1948.\n\nOtherwise, you're typically down into the hundreds of thousands even for the \"famous\" lever actions. Take the 1894's elder sibling, the Winchester Model 1873, as an example: despite being popular and effective enough to become known as the \"Gun that Won the West,\" it has had around 720,000 units made, and it's remained in production, with the odd break here and there admittedly, to this very day.\n\n## The Model 1777\n\nFor our final chapter, we are going to mix things up a bit by having a look at the most produced musket in history, which would be the Model 1777.\n\nIt served as the French service weapon for 63 years between 1777, obviously, and 1840. That may sound like a long time, but for a musket, it really isn't; don't forget that technology moved rather more slowly back then, and so firearm designs tended to hang around for longer.\n\nTake the British Brown Bess, as an example, with it remaining in service between 1722 and 1867, admittedly with it only remaining *the* British weapon until the 1830s or so; they managed to squeeze 145 years out of the thing — over which time around four million were made.\n\nBut that is exactly what makes the 1777 so fascinating, because that comparatively short production run means they were really pumping them out of the arsenals; with seven million believed to have been made.\n\nOr rather, that's what we *would* be saying, if that seven million figure was in any way verifiable; yep, strap yourselves in folks — it's another complicated one.\n\nHaving seen that figure everywhere during our preliminary research, we, like the fools we are, assumed that this would be a nice easy chapter; chase that figure down to some kind of ideally scholarly, or at least trustworthy, source — then, happy days, we'd be laughing.\n\nBut no, that is not what happened. We searched through every e-book repository we could think of, nothing; we tried Google Scholar to bring up pertinent papers, nothing; we tried searching JSTOR for the same thing, nothing. We even tried Amazon e-books, just in case there was an enthusiast-written book out there that might have some nuggets of wisdom we could mine; and yet — nothing, not a single bloody morsel.\n\nSo, therefore, we're left to speculate, and here's what we came up with:\n\nThe seven million figure does at least make sense as an \"in the realms of possibility\" estimate if we consider the geopolitical situation of France at the time. Following the introduction of the Model 1777, France was embroiled in a series of massive conflicts, including the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars. These conflicts necessitated the rapid production of muskets to equip the vast armies raised during this period. The scale of Napoleonic campaigns alone — often exceeding half a million men in the field at one time — would have driven a need for unprecedented numbers of firearms. Additionally, muskets were not only supplied to French troops but also exported or provided to allied forces, such as those of the American colonies during their revolution.\n\nAnother factor to consider is the organization of French arms production. France's state-controlled manufactories, such as those in Charleville, Saint-Étienne, and Maubeuge, were capable of significant output. These manufactories, combined with private contractors, could well be able to sustain high levels of musket production throughout the Model 1777's service life.\n\nBut equally, there is also reason to speculate that the seven million figure might be exaggerated. For example, the logistical and industrial capacity of 18th and early 19th century France, while impressive for its time, still faced limits, thanks to it only being the proto-industrial revolution in those days, at best. Production methods were not mechanized how they would be decades later, and skilled labor was required at every stage. So, could seven million muskets have realistically been produced during this period, even accounting for 63 years of service? Maybe not.\n\nAdditionally, attrition might play a role. Muskets were subject to wear, damage, and loss, especially during large-scale wars, so it is therefore plausible that a significant portion of the 7 million figure includes replacements for muskets that were no longer serviceable, or ones that were repaired and went \"back through the arsenal,\" as it were. This would inflate the total number without necessarily reflecting the quantity of muskets in active use, or that were produced, at any given time.\n\nAnd don't worry, we hear what you are saying: \"So why did you even write this chapter if we just don't have a clue where that figure comes from?\"\n\nThe answer to that, folks, is simple: because the figure is still up there on Wikipedia, and a million articles across the internet — and we think there's value in you knowing to just maybe take it with a pinch of salt.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- The AK Family is often considered the most produced firearm, with around 85 million units made.\n- The M98 action rifles, including the G98 and K98k, may have surpassed AK production with estimates up to 102 million.\n- The Winchester Model 1894 is the most produced lever-action rifle, with approximately 7.5 million units manufactured.\n- The Model 1777 musket, used by France, is believed to have had around seven million produced, though this figure is unverified.\n- Production figures for many firearms are uncertain due to lack of transparency and varied manufacturing methods.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### What is the most produced firearm in human history?\n\nThe AK Family, or the Avtomat Kalashnikova Family, is often said to be the most produced firearm in human history. However, the M98 family might actually hold this title.\n\n### How many AK Family firearms have been produced?\n\nIt is estimated that around 85 million AK Family firearms have been produced in total.\n\n### What is the M98 action?\n\nThe M98 action features a cock-on-opening mechanism, a controlled-feed mechanism known as the 'Mauser feed,' and a bolt that locks via dual front locking lugs with an additional rear safety lug.\n\n### How many M98 firearms have been produced?\n\nOne estimate puts the figure at approximately 102 million rifles produced, but this figure is unsubstantiated.\n\n### What is the Winchester Model 1894?\n\nThe Winchester Model 1894 is the most produced lever action rifle ever, designed by John Moses Browning. It was the first commercial American repeating rifle to utilise smokeless powders.\n\n### How many Winchester Model 1894 rifles have been produced?\n\nApproximately 7.5 million Winchester Model 1894 rifles have been produced.\n\n### What is the Model 1777?\n\nThe Model 1777 is the most produced musket in history, serving as the French service weapon for 63 years between 1777 and 1840.\n\n### How many Model 1777 muskets have been produced?\n\nIt is believed that seven million Model 1777 muskets were made, but this figure is not verifiable.\n\n### What makes the AK Family the most produced firearm?\n\nThe AK Family includes an insane amount of different variations that have been manufactured globally, including copies, localized variants, and new concepts based on the original design.\n\n### What is the significance of the Winchester Model 1894?\n\nThe Winchester Model 1894 was significant because it was the first commercial American repeating rifle to utilize smokeless powders, which burn cleaner and produce less smoke, leading to more dependable ballistic performance.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [Original Side Projects video: The Most Popular Guns of All Time](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkFdXLs2mKw)\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://sideprojects.pub/article/most-popular-guns-of-all-time.md canonical: https://sideprojects.pub/article/most-popular-guns-of-all-time datePublished: 2026-06-25 dateModified: 2026-06-25 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://sideprojects.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: Side Projects image: "https://media.sideprojects.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,height=900,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/tkFdXLs2mKw/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: 7c5cca54652b6714e56685f0e0707a131348b204d64203b540865190671c3f20 tokens: 6070 summaryUrl: https://sideprojects.pub/article/most-popular-guns-of-all-time.md.summary.md --- Clever sorts estimate that there are currently over a billion firearms in circulation worldwide, and with that figure equating out to around one gun for every eight people alive today, it's safe to say that that's quite a lot. But which ones make up that billion? The answer to that question is exactly what we are going to be taking a look at. ## The AK Family The AK Family, or the Avtomat Kalashnikova Family to use the full name, are often said to be *the* most produced firearm in all of human history; no ifs, and no buts. But before we get into the numbers, we should clarify what we mean when we say "The AK Family," as this is not usually how you hear it discussed. Instead, what you usually hear is simply "the AK," or "the AK-47." The issue with that, if you want to be pedantic, which we absolutely do today, is when you say "the AK," are you referring to an AK-101, a modernized variant chambered for 5.56×45mm NATO, or are you referring to an AK-74, a Soviet-era model chambered for the 5.45×39mm cartridge? Both are AKs, thanks to them being derivatives of the same platform, and thus having shared design elements like the long-stroke gas piston system, but which is *the* AK to which is being referred? An understandable assumption may be that the term refers to the progenitor AK from which all others are derived, and that would be the AK-47 itself, chambered in 7.62×39mm, and adopted by the Soviet Union all the way back in 1949. A problem with that assumption, however, is that the actual AK-47, despite its ubiquitousness in the popular zeitgeist, wasn't actually produced in that great a number at all. Take the Type 1 AK-47 alone, the initial variant which came with a stamped receiver intended to expedite production; it only had 80,000 manufactured during its 1949–1951 production run. And that's before you even get to the later Type 2 and Type 3 variants, which were introduced in 1951 and 1955, and came with a milled receiver featuring a distinctive socketed "boot" connecting the buttstock to the receiver, and a lightened milled receiver with a simplified stock attachment method as their defining features respectively — neither of them were exactly produced in the tens of millions either. While yes, we are being pedantic in sticking with the term "the AK Family," there is method to our madness — as we want to be accurate. That explanation also nicely segues us to the key reason that the AK Family is considered to be the most produced firearm in human history: there is an insane amount of different variations that have been manufactured globally, be they copies, such as the Egyptian Maadi; localized variants that took a preexisting AK rifle and tinkered with it a bit, such as the Yugoslavian Zastava M70, which added a thicker receiver, a reinforced dust cover latch, and a dedicated folding grenade sight bracket, all to allow it to better fire rifle grenades; or whole new concepts which took the base AK design and went off in a wild new direction, such as the Valmet Family from Finland, or the Galil Family from Israel. As for the main matter at hand, how many have been produced in total, that's hard to say, largely due to the enormous variety out there, many of which were produced in nations that aren't exactly forthcoming with their production figures, making it incredibly difficult to tot them up. For example, do you think North Korea has ever been totally transparent about how many of their Type 58 AK-47 clones they've made, or that Iran has genuinely revealed how many KL-7.62s — its copy of the Chinese Type 56, which itself is a copy of the Type 3 original AK-47 — they've made? Exactly, they haven't. Then there's the matter of craft and civilian production, of which the "Kyber Pass AKs," made in the titular region of Pakistan, are a great example. With production there being done on a small scale by independent local gunsmiths — they aren't exactly taking time out of their busy days to report their production figures to some kind of data aggregator. Therefore, we just do not know exactly how many AK Family firearms have been made, and we never will. Fortunately, however, plenty of wrinkle-brained types have had a bloody good go at giving us a rough figure nonetheless, with one notable chap being arms analyst Nic Jensen-Jones, who, in his professional capacity, serves as both Director of Armament Research Services, and the Editor of *Armax: The Journal of Contemporary Arms*. In his paper *Global Development and Production of Self-loading Service Rifles 1896 to the Present*, he outlines the matter by saying the following: > "At least 76 million AK-type rifles, including variants, copies, and derivatives, have been produced to date, according to research conducted by Armament Research Services for the Small Arms Survey. This estimate, which is likely conservative, largely agrees with several other sources, including Walter (… estimate of 70 million), Kalashnikov and Joly (… 60–80 million), Rottman (… 75 million), and primary Russian Federation small arms manufacturer Kalashnikov Concern's own estimate of 'more than 70 million Kalashnikovs'." There is an issue, however. We trust Mr. Jensen-Jones beyond doubt, make no mistake, because we can vouch from personal experience that he really knows his stuff, but he published that paper back in 2017… and there's been a lot of factories that have been very busy churning out ever more AKs since then. So, what's *the* figure, then? Well, you do find "100 million" being thrown around a lot, but not only is this figure, at least that we could find, always given without citation, it is also a figure that has been circulating since at least 2002 — 15 years before the paper we just quoted was published — so yeah, we're taking that figure with a pinch of salt. We also couldn't find a single scholarly source that gave a more up-to-date figure… so that's great! However, because we don't want to leave you without any contemporary figure to work with, even if just a provisional one, let's turn back to our evidencing paper again, because it just so happens to say this: > "There is agreement among Russian sources that global AK-type rifle production is relatively stable at around 1 million per year. According to Kalashnikov producer IZHMASH, the Russian Federation accounts for only 10–12% of the 1 million AK type rifles produced each year, with the rest being unlicensed copies." Rolling forward with that figure then, and accepting the fact that it's probably about as good as we're going to get, let's bring this chapter to a close by saying probably around 85ish million AK Family firearms have been produced in total. And that brings us to a very interesting conclusion to this chapter indeed, because you know at the beginning of the chapter, when we said that the AK Family is usually stated to be the most produced firearm in history? Well, it might not be… ## The M98 It's a bold claim indeed, we know, and it's also one that brings your writer today no joy, as bold claims tend to make him a bit bum-squeaky and scared to open the comments section, but the claims in his sources are what they are, and so we are forced to say that *this* might actually be the most produced firearm in history. Once again, the name of this one is a bit of a nightmare. Some refer to it as the *Gewehr* 98 — literally "Rifle of (18)98," or G98 for short — and its many, many derived firearms that make up the bulk of its production as variants thereof, and others refer to the whole family tree that spawned from it as some variation of "The Mauser Action of 1898," or M98 for short. For our purposes today, we shall stick to M98, because what we are actually referring to today, at least as we see it, is not variants of the G98 specifically, although there is a lot of crossover there, but firearms that use the same bolt design and get pushed into the same type of receiver as was first introduced with the G98… we did promise you pedantry! And for those of you wondering what the M98 action actually is, it features a cock-on-opening mechanism, meaning the bolt cocks the firing pin as it is lifted, requiring more effort to open but reducing resistance when closing the bolt. It also utilizes a controlled-feed mechanism, known as the "Mauser feed," where the cartridge is captured by a large non-rotating claw extractor as it is stripped from the magazine. This ensures the cartridge remains under control throughout the entire feeding cycle, preventing double feeds or misfeeds, and allowing reliable operation even in harsh conditions. The bolt locks via dual front locking lugs positioned near the chamber for strength, with an additional rear safety lug as a backup in case of failure. The bolt's three-position safety is located on the rear of the bolt shroud, allowing the shooter to select between "fire," in the 9 o'clock position, "safe with bolt operation," in the 12 o'clock position, and "safe with bolt locked" in the 3 o'clock position. So, now that we know what it is we are actually talking about, how many of those venerable old things have been produced? Well, put it this way, the historian Robert Ball, in his 2011 edition of his book *Mauser Military Rifles of the World*, says the following: > "German historical figures on bolt action rifle production were destroyed or lost, however one German estimate puts the figure at approximately 102 million rifles produced!" Annoyingly, however, he didn't cite this quote, and with Mr. Ball tragically no longer being with us, we also have no way at all of finding out what information he had access to when making this claim — and neither can we find the claim repeated anywhere else that doesn't cite back to this book. Normally, this would lead to us dismissing the claim, but with the book being a very well regarded one which has gone down as one of the authoritative tomes on the matter, and otherwise containing a more than agreeable standard of research, we are inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt — albeit with the big asterisk that the figure ultimately remains unsubstantiated. Further still, however, if we just have a look for the production figures for G98 variants that we do have solid numbers for, we can quickly see that, actually, yeah — the German estimate Mr. Ball was referencing is certainly within the realm of possibility. Take the G98 itself, within which is also included the K98a, K98b, and Kar98az shortened carbine variants. According to Dieter Storz, in his 2006 book *Gewehr & Karabiner 98: The Firearms of the German Imperial Army from 1898 to 1918*, the Imperial German Army had 2,273,080 of them in stock at the outbreak of WWI, and would go on to make at least another seven million by the time the war had ended in 1918. Then there's the G98's WWII period descendant, the K98k. Although exact production figures aren't known, 14,600,000 is commonly cited as a figure just for Nazi German production. Even the US contributed a few million to the tally with the M1903 Springfield. It looks rather different, we know, and it does have a few mechanical differences, such as the use of a two-piece firing pin compared to the single piece on a "true" M98, but firearms historians today typically lump it in as an M98 variant owing to its fundamental mechanical similarities, as did, incidentally, the US Patent Office back in 1904, when they ordered Springfield Armory to pay $250,000 in royalties to Mauser Werke for copyright infringement; so yeah, we're counting it in our tally, and 3,004,079 of them were produced. In fact, to be able to convey to you just how many of these were produced in a way that won't totally eat up the rest of this article's runtime, here's a few bullet points: - The Czechoslovak VZ.24: at least 1.6 million made both before and during the Nazi Occupation. - The Chinese Type 24 "Chiang Kai Shek": around 600,000 made. - The Argentine Mauser Model 1909: roughly 285,000 produced. - The Yugoslav M48: 238,000ish manufactured. There really are too many of these smaller produced M98 variants for us to be able to list them all today, but as you can see just from that sliver of a list, they really start to add up; a few hundred thousand here, a few hundred thousand there, a cheeky odd million plus produced one sporadically chucked in — it's big numbers! And that's just the military rifles; start looking at the sporting rifles that use the M98 action, and the number only gets bigger still. The Winchester Model 70 alone, having been in production for nearly 90 years admittedly, has had over two million units produced. So, yeah, while we ultimately cannot verify Mr. Ball's claim, at least with currently available sources — we certainly are going to be more hesitant over declaring the AK Family the most produced firearm of all time from here on in. ## The Winchester Model 1894 And because your writer's brain is on the verge of melting after dealing with the previous two chapters, both of which turned out to be way more complicated and nuanced than he first imagined when beginning his research, let's have a nice and straightforward one now, specifically the Winchester Model 1894 — the most produced lever action rifle ever. The Winchester Model 1894 was designed by the legendary John Moses Browning, a name that may just sound familiar because it's also attached to the Browning Hi-Power pistol, the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle, and the M2 Browning ".50 Cal." When all was said and done, and Browning was put into his box in 1926, an incredible 80 different unique gun designs had been created by his hand. As for its design, mostly it was your standard late 19th century lever action design; tubular magazine fed through the receiver, etc., etc., just with a few *jeujey* bits thrown on by Browning to set it apart from the competition, with the *jeujeyist* bit of all being the fact that it was the first commercial American repeating rifle to utilize smokeless powders. Unlike old school black powder, smokeless powder burns cleaner and produces significantly less smoke, which prevents the shooter's vision from being obscured after firing. Thanks to burning more consistently, it also generates more consistent pressure in the barrel, leading to more dependable ballistic performance, as well as less fouling of the barrel, since there's less unburnt powder gunk to jam it up. The fact that the Model 1894 was the first to use it then was a real USP — and to Winchester went the spoils, with it soon becoming a favorite among farmers, ranchers, and hunters alike. It proved so popular in fact, that Winchester kept it in production for a very, very long time; 112 years to be precise — with 1894s rolling off their production line uninterrupted from 1894 to 2006. Its end, naturally, was met with grief from shooters America over, many of whom were still rather fond of the thing, and so, sniffing an opportunity, the Japanese firearms manufacturer Miroku started a production line of their own, importing them into America, ironically, through Browning, the very company the 1894's designer had set up to directly sell his own designs back in 1878. That then brings us to the matter at hand: production numbers — which, for the 1894, would be give or take 7.5 million. And, thanks to the minimal number of companies involved, we don't need several hundred words of qualifier to explain that fact, what a treat! 7.5 million, despite being quite a bit less than the other firearms we have looked at so far, is also a truly vast number for a lever action rifle, largely because they never really caught on with militaries, and so never got a huge boost in production thanks to a big war or two. To see what we mean about lever actions never truly taking off with militaries, consider the Martini–Henry, the single shot lever action rifle that briefly was the British Empire's service weapon from 1871 to 1888, when it began being replaced by the Lee-Metford bolt action rifle — a million of them were made, max. Then there's the Winchester Model 1895, which saw some reasonable use by the Russians to supplement the bolt action Mosin-Nagant — it is believed that 425,000 of them were made in total, with only 294,000 of them being for the Russian contract. As for civilian production, despite their being much more popular in that space, it is rare when a lever action firearm pushes up into a seven-figure production volume, with the Marlin Model 336 being the only other one that springs to mind, with roughly four million rolling off the production line since it was first fired up in 1948. Otherwise, you're typically down into the hundreds of thousands even for the "famous" lever actions. Take the 1894's elder sibling, the Winchester Model 1873, as an example: despite being popular and effective enough to become known as the "Gun that Won the West," it has had around 720,000 units made, and it's remained in production, with the odd break here and there admittedly, to this very day. ## The Model 1777 For our final chapter, we are going to mix things up a bit by having a look at the most produced musket in history, which would be the Model 1777. It served as the French service weapon for 63 years between 1777, obviously, and 1840. That may sound like a long time, but for a musket, it really isn't; don't forget that technology moved rather more slowly back then, and so firearm designs tended to hang around for longer. Take the British Brown Bess, as an example, with it remaining in service between 1722 and 1867, admittedly with it only remaining *the* British weapon until the 1830s or so; they managed to squeeze 145 years out of the thing — over which time around four million were made. But that is exactly what makes the 1777 so fascinating, because that comparatively short production run means they were really pumping them out of the arsenals; with seven million believed to have been made. Or rather, that's what we *would* be saying, if that seven million figure was in any way verifiable; yep, strap yourselves in folks — it's another complicated one. Having seen that figure everywhere during our preliminary research, we, like the fools we are, assumed that this would be a nice easy chapter; chase that figure down to some kind of ideally scholarly, or at least trustworthy, source — then, happy days, we'd be laughing. But no, that is not what happened. We searched through every e-book repository we could think of, nothing; we tried Google Scholar to bring up pertinent papers, nothing; we tried searching JSTOR for the same thing, nothing. We even tried Amazon e-books, just in case there was an enthusiast-written book out there that might have some nuggets of wisdom we could mine; and yet — nothing, not a single bloody morsel. So, therefore, we're left to speculate, and here's what we came up with: The seven million figure does at least make sense as an "in the realms of possibility" estimate if we consider the geopolitical situation of France at the time. Following the introduction of the Model 1777, France was embroiled in a series of massive conflicts, including the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars. These conflicts necessitated the rapid production of muskets to equip the vast armies raised during this period. The scale of Napoleonic campaigns alone — often exceeding half a million men in the field at one time — would have driven a need for unprecedented numbers of firearms. Additionally, muskets were not only supplied to French troops but also exported or provided to allied forces, such as those of the American colonies during their revolution. Another factor to consider is the organization of French arms production. France's state-controlled manufactories, such as those in Charleville, Saint-Étienne, and Maubeuge, were capable of significant output. These manufactories, combined with private contractors, could well be able to sustain high levels of musket production throughout the Model 1777's service life. But equally, there is also reason to speculate that the seven million figure might be exaggerated. For example, the logistical and industrial capacity of 18th and early 19th century France, while impressive for its time, still faced limits, thanks to it only being the proto-industrial revolution in those days, at best. Production methods were not mechanized how they would be decades later, and skilled labor was required at every stage. So, could seven million muskets have realistically been produced during this period, even accounting for 63 years of service? Maybe not. Additionally, attrition might play a role. Muskets were subject to wear, damage, and loss, especially during large-scale wars, so it is therefore plausible that a significant portion of the 7 million figure includes replacements for muskets that were no longer serviceable, or ones that were repaired and went "back through the arsenal," as it were. This would inflate the total number without necessarily reflecting the quantity of muskets in active use, or that were produced, at any given time. And don't worry, we hear what you are saying: "So why did you even write this chapter if we just don't have a clue where that figure comes from?" The answer to that, folks, is simple: because the figure is still up there on Wikipedia, and a million articles across the internet — and we think there's value in you knowing to just maybe take it with a pinch of salt. ## Key Takeaways - The AK Family is often considered the most produced firearm, with around 85 million units made. - The M98 action rifles, including the G98 and K98k, may have surpassed AK production with estimates up to 102 million. - The Winchester Model 1894 is the most produced lever-action rifle, with approximately 7.5 million units manufactured. - The Model 1777 musket, used by France, is believed to have had around seven million produced, though this figure is unverified. - Production figures for many firearms are uncertain due to lack of transparency and varied manufacturing methods. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is the most produced firearm in human history? The AK Family, or the Avtomat Kalashnikova Family, is often said to be the most produced firearm in human history. However, the M98 family might actually hold this title. ### How many AK Family firearms have been produced? It is estimated that around 85 million AK Family firearms have been produced in total. ### What is the M98 action? The M98 action features a cock-on-opening mechanism, a controlled-feed mechanism known as the 'Mauser feed,' and a bolt that locks via dual front locking lugs with an additional rear safety lug. ### How many M98 firearms have been produced? One estimate puts the figure at approximately 102 million rifles produced, but this figure is unsubstantiated. ### What is the Winchester Model 1894? The Winchester Model 1894 is the most produced lever action rifle ever, designed by John Moses Browning. It was the first commercial American repeating rifle to utilise smokeless powders. ### How many Winchester Model 1894 rifles have been produced? Approximately 7.5 million Winchester Model 1894 rifles have been produced. ### What is the Model 1777? The Model 1777 is the most produced musket in history, serving as the French service weapon for 63 years between 1777 and 1840. ### How many Model 1777 muskets have been produced? It is believed that seven million Model 1777 muskets were made, but this figure is not verifiable. ### What makes the AK Family the most produced firearm? The AK Family includes an insane amount of different variations that have been manufactured globally, including copies, localized variants, and new concepts based on the original design. ### What is the significance of the Winchester Model 1894? The Winchester Model 1894 was significant because it was the first commercial American repeating rifle to utilize smokeless powders, which burn cleaner and produce less smoke, leading to more dependable ballistic performance. ## Sources - [Original Side Projects video: The Most Popular Guns of All Time](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkFdXLs2mKw) ## Related Coverage