2015 - Forgotten Weapons

Warsaw Uprising Bergmann 1910/21

October 14, 2015 Ian McCollum 41

I was sent those photos by reader Marcus K (thanks, Marcus!) showing a pistol in the Polish Home Army Museum in Krakow. The gun is a Bergmann M1910/21 semiauto pistol which has been modified in […]

Salvator-Dormus 1893 Machine Gun

October 13, 2015 Ian McCollum 38

One of the early potential competitors to the Maxim gun was the Austro-Hungarian Salvator-Dormus machine gun. Designed by Austrians Grand Duke Karl Salvator and Colonel von Dormus, is was first patented in 1888, although it […]

The Ubiquitous RPG-7 (Video)

October 12, 2015 Ian McCollum 56

The RPG-7 is pretty far from being a forgotten weapon, but I was not going to pass up an opportunity to take a closer look at a live one. This example is one of the […]

Vintage Saturday: Maxim’s First Maxim

October 10, 2015 Ian McCollum 19

Not actually a photo, but a good likeness of both Maxim and his first working machine gun. That lever on the side is to set the rate of fire, and one of these is still […]

Howard Francis 7.63mm SMLE

October 9, 2015 Ian McCollum 43

The Howard Francis carbine was a design submitted to the British Ordnance Board for consideration in 1943 – one of many weapons proposed to help meet wartime requirements. Specifically, the Howard Francis carbine was a […]

Q&A Video #1: H&K G11, Owen, F1, Worst Gun Ever, and More!

October 8, 2015 Ian McCollum 32

As part of my new fundraising system on Patreon, I am starting a monthly Q&A video series, answering questions from Patreon contributors. The support from you folks is a tremendous help to me in running […]

Belgian 1886 Rifle Trials Report (Translated to English)

October 7, 2015 Ian McCollum 38

Our friend Thibaud has spent some time translating a report from the Belgian 1886 rifle trials into English – thank you, Thibaud! He notes that the text has a lot of specifically Belgian terminology and […]

Book Review: The P08 Luger Pistol by S.I. Publicaties BV

October 6, 2015 Ian McCollum 10

I have seen a lot of folks asking for information on Lugers, so I figured I should recommend a good book or two. There are a lot of books out there on Lugers, cutting across […]

Thompson Riot Ammo at James D Julia

October 4, 2015 Ian McCollum 42

Did you know that the Peters company made ammunition specifically for riot control for the Thompson submachine gun in the 1920s? And it wasn’t rubber bullets, either – it was paper-wrapped snakeshot. The cartridges were […]

Massachusetts Arms Maynard-Primed Belt Revolver at James D Julia

October 3, 2015 Ian McCollum 9

When the Massachusetts Arms Company initially produced the Wesson & Leavitt Dragoon revolver, they quickly incurred the wrath of the colt company. Those initial revolvers violated several Colt patents. The resulting lawsuit forced the end […]