July, 2017 - Forgotten Weapons

The Berthier After World War One

July 31, 2017 Ian McCollum 36

In the aftermath of World War One, France would face the need to replace virtually all of its small arms, because nearly everything it had been using was either a wartime stopgap (like the Ruby, […]

Book Review: Vickers Guide AR15 Volume 2

July 30, 2017 Ian McCollum 2

Larry Vickers and James Rupley have followed their first volume of AR-15s with a second one – as we should have expected when the first one was title “Volume I”. Where the first volume covered […]

W+F Bern P47 Experimental Gas-Delay Pistol

July 29, 2017 Ian McCollum 26

The Swiss were the first country to adopt a self-loading service pistol; the Luger in 1900. They would keep those in service clear through World War 2, at which point they began seriously looking for […]

Italy’s Worst Machine Gun: The Breda Modello 30

July 28, 2017 Ian McCollum 112

The Breda Model 30 was the standard Italian light machine gun of World War II, and is a serious contender for “worst machine gun ever”. Yes, given the choice we would prefer to have a […]

Q&A #12: Small Arms in Modern Conflict Zones, with Nic Jenzen-Jones of ARES

July 27, 2017 Ian McCollum 37

This month’s Q&A features a special guest, Nic Jenzen-Jones from Armament Research Services (ARES). We have a bunch of very interesting questions for him on modern conflict zones and insurgent groups: 1:15 – Russian cartridge […]

The Berthier Gets an Upgrade: The Model 1916

July 26, 2017 Ian McCollum 24

The “Modifié 1916” update to the Berthier system of rifles and carbines marked a major improvement in the guns combat effectiveness – really the first substantial overhaul to the design since it was developed in […]

Finland Shooting Montage: Maxims and Mosins and Suomis, Oh My!

July 25, 2017 Ian McCollum 15

A montage of a bunch of shooting from my trip to Finland in June 2017! Including: m/31 Suomi KP-44 KvKK-62 LS-26 DP-28 (Emma) M91/24, M27, and M28/30 Mosins M32/33 Maxim Rk-95 Sako TRG in 7.62mm […]

Model 1907/15 Berthier: The WW1 Standard Infantry Rifle

July 24, 2017 Ian McCollum 28

When World War One broke out in 1914, France mobilized millions of men into military service – and it became abundantly clear that a lot of new rifles would need to be manufactured. The 1886 […]

Literature Review: English-Language Books on French Firearms

July 23, 2017 Ian McCollum 24

Since we are in the middle of a series on French rifles, I figured it would be an appropriate time to take a look at what printed reference books are out there in English on […]

W+F Bern P43: A Swiss Take on the Browning High Power

July 22, 2017 Ian McCollum 41

In 1940, Switzerland began a series of trials to replace their Luger service pistols with something equally high quality, but more economical. They had squeezed as much simplification out of the Luger as they could […]