2016 - Forgotten Weapons

German soldiers with captured American arms

Vintage Saturday: More Spoils

December 10, 2016 Ian McCollum 62

German soldiers with captured American small arms, circa 1944. The other guy’s stuff is always better than yours, right? Well, I would rather have an M1 than a K98k, but the Thompsons? No thanks. Interesting […]

Lewis Gas Operated Pistol (Video)

December 9, 2016 Ian McCollum 26

Isaac Newton Lewis is best known as the designer of the Lewis light machine gun, of course – but that was not his only work in the firearms field. In 1919, he patented a semiauto […]

Q&A #8: Triple Locks, New gun development, and the .50 Cal Lewis

December 8, 2016 Ian McCollum 37

Thanks to all my great Patreon supporters who make this possible! We have a great selection of questions once again. Want to ask one yourself? Sign up over at Patreon! The tools I mention in […]

Nomar M1911 Magazine-Stock (Video)

December 7, 2016 Ian McCollum 23

In 1936, Lewis Nolan Nomar patented this device, which is basically a large 40-round magazine for the 1911 pistol. He envisioned a military use for the device in trench raiding, giving men a compact weapon […]

Uruguay’s Forgotten Mauser: the Dovitiis

December 6, 2016 Ian McCollum 11

Uruguay’s Model 1871/94 Mauser conversions – known usually as either Daudetau or Dovitiis Mausers – are a really interesting story of arms history. It begins with Antonio Dovitiis, and Italian tailor and merchant of military […]

What Was the First Automatic Pistol? (Video)

December 5, 2016 Ian McCollum 30

What was the first true semiautomatic pistol? Let’s take a look… Before there were self-loading pistols, there were manually operated repeating pistols with magazines – like the 1850s Volcanics. A surprising number of this type […]

Winchester’s Liberator Shotguns (Video)

December 3, 2016 Ian McCollum 48

In the early 1960s, an influential but little-known (today) firearms designer by the name of Robert Hillberg came up with an idea for a cheap-but-effective armament for the masses. With encouragement from DARPA, the Winchester […]

Roth-Theodorovic Pistol w/ Tambour Safety (Video)

December 1, 2016 Ian McCollum 23

Georg Roth’s company in Austria presided over a wonderful variety of interesting handgun development, and this is one example of that lineage. Roth’s licensed or purchased the patent for this pistol from its inventor, Wasa […]

Colt Paterson No.1 Carbine (Video)

November 30, 2016 Ian McCollum 13

Sam Colt’s very first work was done in Baltimore, but this ended fairly quickly, and it was with his subsequent move to Paterson New Jersey that the first true production Colt firearms were made. Colt […]

Type 99 Arisaka Sniper Rifles (Video)

November 29, 2016 Ian McCollum 10

4x Nagoya: https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/69/1441 2.5x Kokura: https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/69/1446 The Japanese Army made significant use of snipers (or in today’s terminology, designated marksmen) as part of its infantry combined arms doctrine, and produced about 22,000 Type 97 sniper […]