China - Forgotten Weapons

Q&A: Chinese Small Arms w/ Jason Clower from Type 56: The Story of China’s Army

July 26, 2025 Ian McCollum 6

My book “Pistols of the Warlords” is available through Headstamp Publishing: https://www.headstamppublishing.com/chinese-pistols Today I am very happy to welcome Jason Clower as our Q&A guest. Jason runs the channel “Type 56: The Story of China’s […]

Type 79 SMG: China’s MP7 At Home

April 25, 2025 Ian McCollum 15

The Type 79 is an overly-complex submachine gun that uses a scaled-down AK operating system chambered for 7.62x25mm Tokarev. In many ways, this is akin to the H&K MP7 – it’s a miniaturized combat rifle. […]

Type 56C: China’s Last Military AK (And It’s Totally Non-Standard)

March 17, 2025 Ian McCollum 14

The Type 56C is the final iteration of Chinese Kalashnikov, originally intended for export but primarily used by Chinese police and special forces. It is a short-barreled carbine with a folding stock, and remarkably few […]

You Can Copy Anything: Chinese Bolt Action M1 Carbine

January 6, 2025 Ian McCollum 20

This is a copy of the M1 Carbine made in China late in the Chinese civil war – likely between 1945 and 1949. While there was an attempt at factory production of a true M1 […]

Type 63: China Makes an AK/SKS Hybrid

August 28, 2024 Ian McCollum 21

Starting in 1960, China ran a program to develop an infantry rifle that would combine the accuracy of the SKS with the firepower of the AK. The result was the Type 63, which used the […]

Chinese Type 50 PPSh: Founding “Gun City” in Manchuria

April 12, 2024 Ian McCollum 1

One of the first new weapons adapted and used by the Chinese Peoples’ Liberation Army after the Communist victory in the Chinese civil war was the Type 50, a copy of the Soviet PPSh-41. The […]

PSA “Spiker”: A Clone of the Chinese Type 56 AK

February 18, 2024 Ian McCollum 4

Palmetto State Armory (PSA) makes a really wide variety of different guns, but one that they came out with a little while back that appealed to me in particular is their “Spiker”. This is a […]

A Professional Warlord Copy of the FN 1900 from the Nanjing Arsenal

October 9, 2023 Ian McCollum 4

Interested in more pistols from the Chinese warlord era? Check out my book “Pistols of the Warlords”, now in stock and shipping at: https://www.headstamppublishing.com/chinese-pistols One of the professional factory-made Chinese warlord-era copies of the FN […]

Chinese Mystery Mauser: Fake FN Model 30

September 8, 2023 Ian McCollum 6

“Arming the Dragon” by Dolf Goldsmith is now available and shipping! One of the most common rifles in Warlord-era China was the Mauser Model 98 short rifle. Various Chinese armies bought large numbers of them […]

“Made for the Republic of China”: Shanghai Arsenal’s FN 1900 Copy

July 31, 2023 Ian McCollum 8

“Pistols of the Warlords” available now from: http://www.headstamppublishing.com/purchase The Shanghai Arsenal was founded in 1865 as a joint venture between British and Chinese customs officers. They bought a defunct American ironworking company and rebuilt it […]