October, 2013 - Forgotten Weapons

Vintage Saturday: Premature Anti-Fascists

October 19, 2013 Ian McCollum 26

Canadian volunteers of the Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion in the Spanish Civil War, armed with with grenades and Mauser Schnellfeuer machine pistols or (more likely) Spanish-made copies thereof.

Small Arms Influence on Warfare

October 18, 2013 Ian McCollum 108

I’m giving a lecture on the history of firearms technology for a class at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in a couple weeks, and the course instructor asked me to include some discussion of how […]

Book Review: Iver Johnson Arms & Cycle Works Firearms 1871-1993

October 17, 2013 Ian McCollum 18

The Iver Johnson company doesn’t get much respect or recognition these days, but they made a staggering number of generally very good, inexpensive handguns for many decades. The “cheap” image of the brand has largely […]

Borchardt C93 Manual

October 16, 2013 Ian McCollum 12

The C93 Borchardt was the first truly commercially successful self-loading pistol, and it was the basis for the P08 Luger which would become one of the most iconic pistols in history. I had the opportunity […]

To Restore or not to Restore?

October 15, 2013 Ian McCollum 33

If you’ve been watching the blog for a while, you may recall that I have a relic-grade VG1-5 rifle – I found it at a gun show in Belgium and brought it back home in […]

Gewehr 43 (Video)

October 14, 2013 Ian McCollum 55

German ordnance began looking for a military selfloading rifle to augment the K98k as early as the 1930s, although the pressures of war initially made that development a second priority. By 1941, though, two competing […]

Vintage Saturday: Double the Fun

October 12, 2013 Ian McCollum 45

I would probably be willing to compromise with one bazooka and a heavier winter coat. Updated to include the back of the Jeep too (thanks, Ray):

Biography: Arthur W. Savage

October 11, 2013 Ian McCollum 28

The Savage Arms Company is known today for its bolt-action rifles (which offer a particularly good value for the money; I am very fond of my own Model 10), but the company got its start […]

Journal Review: AFTE Quarterly

October 10, 2013 Ian McCollum 11

Today’s review is a bit different than normal, as I’m not looking at a book but rather a quarterly trade association journal. The association is AFTE, the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners – […]

Czech vz.61 Photos and Catalog

October 9, 2013 Ian McCollum 25

Thanks to reader Denny, we have some more information on the Czech vz.61 “Skorpion” PDW, including pages from a CZ catalog advertising three different versions of the gun for sale. These three variants are: vz.61 […]