December, 2018 - Forgotten Weapons

M1916 Fedorov: Russia’s First Assault Rifle?

December 21, 2018 Ian McCollum 77

I have been trying to get my hands on Fedorov M1916 rifle for a while, and I finally had the opportunity at the NFC, part of the British Royal Armouries. The Fedorov was designed in […]

Q&A 24: Pistols, Puppies, and Procurement

December 20, 2018 Ian McCollum 32

0:00:37 – The Stoner 63 and value of modular platforms 0:03:37 – Forgotten Weapons on Instagram 0:05:13 – Was the Lebel adopted too hastily? 0:08:42 – Do I read comments on YouTube? 0:11:20 – Branching […]

Winchester 1964 SPIW: Flechettes and a Blow-Forward Grenade Launcher

December 19, 2018 Ian McCollum 76

Today we are looking at the Winchester company’s entry into the 1964 SPIW (Special Purpose Infantry Weapon) trials. The SPIW program was an attempt to increase small arms lethality by increasing hit probability with ideas […]

Ammunition Evaluation: Ethiopian .30-06

December 18, 2018 Ian McCollum 14

Century International Arms has imported a quantity of Ethiopian ammunition, and asked me to do a video on it. So, I have a three-part evaluation here: appearance and packaging, live fire testing (including velocity and […]

Confiscated Homemade Poachers’ Guns from Zimbabwe

December 17, 2018 Ian McCollum 36

I had a chance to visit Hire Arms in Johannesburg – a movie arms supply company. Among many other things in their collection, they had an assortment of extremely crude handmade firearms confiscated from poachers […]

Book Review – Smith & Wesson Model 76 SMG by Frank Iannamico

December 16, 2018 Ian McCollum 16

Available from Amazon or direct from the publisher. Frank Iannamico’s new book on the Smith & Wesson Model 76 submachine gun is in fact a book about much more than just the Model 76. It begins […]

Shooting the Full Auto XM-8 Carbine

December 15, 2018 Ian McCollum 53

Thanks to H&K and to Trijicon for range access, we are out today shooting an original and authentic XM-8 carbine! The XM-8 family are relatively bulky guns; moreso than one would expect from seeing photos […]

Almost Adopted: The H&K XM8 Family

December 14, 2018 Ian McCollum 46

Today we are in H&K’s Grey Room in Virginia, taking a look at the XM-8 program. The rifle evolved form the kinetic energy carbine portion of the doomed XM29/OICW program, and eventually became the G36 […]

DeserTech 7.62mm MDR Teardown

December 13, 2018 Ian McCollum 33

The DeserTech MDR (“Micro Dynamic Rifle”) has been in the works for several years now, after being initially announced at SHOT Show in 2014, if I recall correctly. While it was probably prematurely unveiled, the […]

XM29 OICW Mockup

December 12, 2018 Ian McCollum 39

The OICW – Objective Individual Combat Weapon – was part of a program in the 1980s and 1990s to replace the whole lineup of uS small arms with a consolidated group of new high-tech ones. […]