2013 - Forgotten Weapons

Russian ShKAS Aerial Gun

January 9, 2013 Ian McCollum 25

The Russian ShKAS (Shpitalny-Komaritsky Aircraft High-Speed Machine Gun) is a machine gun design form the 1930s that doesn’t receive nearly enough attention. It was the result of a need by the Soviet air force for […]

Have You Called Your Legislators? Also, SHOT Show

January 8, 2013 Ian McCollum 7

Yes, I am going to harangue you again about the slate of new gun regulations that have been introduced into the House of Representatives. The gun-grabbers are splitting their wish list into ten different bills, […]

Shooting the Singapore Technologies SAR-21

January 7, 2013 Ian McCollum 23

We lucked into a chance to disassemble and shoot a pretty rare black rifle recently – an SAR-21 bullpup made by Singapore Technologies (and this is why we take a camera everywhere we go). Singapore […]

Vintage Saturday: Wingshooting

January 5, 2013 Ian McCollum 22

The guns are aircraft Degtyarevs (DA-2), and appear to not have the drums mounted when the photo was taken. Note the vane-type front sight, and the distinctive muzzle brakes.

Mondragon Model 1894

January 4, 2013 Ian McCollum 22

The rifle we are looking at is an early Mondragon bolt-action design, model of 1894. Prior to designing his self-loading 1908 rifle (which is notable as the first self-loader adopted by a national military), Manuel […]

Book Review: German Flare Pistols and Signal Ammunition

January 3, 2013 Ian McCollum 1

Our book today is German Flare Pistols and Signal Ammunition, by Dr. Lorenz Scheit (and edited in English by Dr. Geoffrey Sturgess). This is a 700-page, full-color tome covering more flare pistols and ammunition for […]

Paean to the Vickers Gun

January 2, 2013 Ian McCollum 22

I may be a bit biased here by my ownership of one, but I believe that the Vickers gun is one of the best all-around firearms ever made. It was designed during an era of […]

When a Compromise Isn’t a Compromise

January 1, 2013 Ian McCollum 43

We typically try to keep the blog here focused on hardware and not politics, but today we will make another exception (if you’d prefer hardware, you can click over to The Firearms Blog and read […]