2015 - Forgotten Weapons

Japanese Type 18 Murata at RIA

June 14, 2015 Ian McCollum 19

The Murata was Japan’s first domestic manufactured military rifle. In its first iteration, it was an 11mm, single shot, black powder weapon and was adopted in 1880 (the Type 13). Before long, some problems in […]

Slocum Rimfire Revolver at RIA

June 13, 2015 Ian McCollum 36

The Slocum revolver, designed by Frank Slocum and manufactured by the Brooklyn Arms Company, was one of the more successful workarounds for Rollin White’s patent on the bored-through cylinder. The most significant advantage of Slocum’s […]

Hungarian WWII Rifles at RIA (35M, 43M, G98/40)

June 12, 2015 Ian McCollum 37

After the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Hungarian army was armed primarily with Steyr M95 straight-pull rifles and carbines, chambered in the 8x56mm rimmed cartridge. In 1935 they adopted a new Mannlicher turnbolt rifle, […]

Model 1883 Reichsrevolvers at RIA

June 11, 2015 Ian McCollum 19

It did not take long for some of the handling problems of the model 1879 Reichsrevolver to become apparent, and the result was a redesign to the model of 1883. These new guns retained the […]

Model 1879 Reichsrevolver at RIA

June 10, 2015 Ian McCollum 23

We are used to German small arms being highly efficient and modern for their times, but the Reichsrevolver is an exception to that trend. The first centerfire adopted by the newly formed German empire, the […]

Standard Arms Model M at RIA

June 9, 2015 Ian McCollum 11

At the turn of the 20th Century, prior to World War I, there were actually three semiauto sporting rifles on the market in the US. The two commonly known ones are the Winchester Model 5/7/10 […]

Spanish Anarchist Pistols: the RE and Ascaso at RIA

June 8, 2015 Ian McCollum 48

When the Spanish Civil War erupted, the Nationalist/Fascist forces quickly captured all the major arms production factories in the country. This left the Republican forces dependent on arms importation and the creation of new factories. […]

4-Shot Bär Pistol at RIA

June 7, 2015 Ian McCollum 4

The Bär pistol was designed as a compact gentleman’s defensive arm with a number of interesting features. These include twin barrels and a “cylinder” or chamber block, which held 4 cartridges in a single column, […]

WWI German Trench Armor at RIA

June 6, 2015 Ian McCollum 18

During WWI, the German army issued about a half million sets of trench armor, often called grabenpanzer or sappenpanzer. Despite common belief, this armor was not intended for trench raiding – in fact, German orders […]

M1 Enforcer Carbine Pistols at RIA

June 5, 2015 Ian McCollum 41

There are rarely any truly original ideas in the gun world, and today’s “pistol” ARs and AKs are not among them. Back in the 60s and 70s, companies were marketing the “Enforcer” M1, a pistol […]