January, 2013 - Forgotten Weapons

Book Review: Osprey “Weapon” Series

January 31, 2013 Ian McCollum 8

We have had several people ask us about the small softcover books printed by Osprey about various types of firearms, so today we’re looking at a couple of them. Osprey has a whole series of […]

Mors wz.39 SMG

January 30, 2013 Ian McCollum 20

I’m very happy to present another guest article by Leszek Erenfeicht today, on a very rare and quite unusual Polish submachine gun from the years just prior to WWII. As always, Leszek does a great […]

The Hazards of Internet Research

January 29, 2013 Ian McCollum 13

The internet is an amazing tool – I truly believe the revolution in communications it has ushered in is one of the pivotal paradigm shifts in human history. It has eliminated geographic restrictions on sharing […]

Vickers-Berthier LMG Video

January 28, 2013 Ian McCollum 23

The Vickers-Berthier was a light machine gun that competed with the Bren unsuccessfully for British military use but was adopted by the Indian Army. We had the opportunity to handle a pair of them (an […]

Vintage Saturday: Legislators

January 26, 2013 Ian McCollum 5

Photo from the May 1940 weapons testing at Fort Belvoir. From left to right, Senator Lundeen (MN, Farmer-Labor) with a Johnson rifle, Rep. Snyder (PA, Democrat) with an M1928A1 Thompson, and Senator Thomas (OK, Democrat) […]

Arms of the Venezuelan Coup

January 25, 2013 Ian McCollum 28

Fifty five years ago this week Marcos Pérez Jiménez, dictator of Venezuela, fled from power in the face of a popular uprising and botched military coup. Among other things, Jiménez had used Venzuela’s oil to […]

Book Review: Johnson Rifles and Machine Guns

January 24, 2013 Ian McCollum 7

Most folks are aware of the M1941 Johnson semiauto rifle, which competed valiantly but unsuccessfully withthe M1 Garand for the position of standard US service rifle during WWII. What most people aren’t as familiar with […]

Gatling Gun Feeding Mechanisms

January 23, 2013 Ian McCollum 25

The Gatling Gun is interested for many reasons, and one of them is the variety of feeding mechanisms that were developed and used with it. Most firearms are designed around a single specific feeding mechanism, […]

Ask Dolf: Importers

January 22, 2013 Ian McCollum 13

Dolf Goldsmith has kindly offered to answer questions that pertain to his experience and expertise (primarily Korean War and earlier machine guns), for an occasional column. If you have something you would like to ask […]

Shooting an 1877 Bulldog Gatling

January 21, 2013 Ian McCollum 18

Thanks to a friendly collector, we had the chance to take out one of the new, gorgeous reproduction 1877 Gatling guns being sold by Colt. It’s a near-exact replica, with the added feature of being […]