2018 - Forgotten Weapons

Garand Primer-Activated 1924 Trials Rifle

August 13, 2018 Ian McCollum 26

RIA’s catalog page for this rifle The first successful iteration of John Garand’s rifle was developed in 1921 and refined through 1924. A small batch were made for US military testing in 1924, where it […]

Book Review: Cold War Pistols of Czechoslovakia

August 12, 2018 Ian McCollum 17

Recently, we have been looking at a selection of books on Cold War eastern bloc pistols – and James D. Brown’s “Cold War Pistols of Czechoslovakia” is the best of them. While its scope is […]

Holy Mother of Muzzle Flash, the Rico Special

August 11, 2018 Ian McCollum 17

Rico is a gunsmith at SIG Neuhausen who likes to tinker. He put together this SIG 510 (aka Stgw 57), with a modern collapsing stock, quad rail foreend, Aimpoint red dot, heavy barrel, and massive […]

Maltese Flintlocks: Girard Mle 1733 Pistols of the Order of St. John

August 10, 2018 Ian McCollum 19

The Order of St John – the Knights of Malta – began as an order to protect Christian pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem, but transformed into an organization dedicated to corsairing in the Mediterranean […]

Simpson Ltd’s Import/Export Concierge Service

August 9, 2018 Ian McCollum 4

Simpson Ltd has been a friend of Forgotten Weapons for many years now, but I only recently realized how much import/export work they do – including a really neat concierge service that might be interesting […]

Project Ultra: Germany Wants a Stronger Compact Pistol

August 8, 2018 Ian McCollum 15

This pistol is one of just a couple surviving from a development project run by Walther in the mid to late 1930s. The goal was to produce a compact sidearm for pilots and officers using […]

Malta’s Hand-Hewn Bomb Shelter Tunnels

August 7, 2018 Ian McCollum 5

During World War Two, the Grand Harbor in Malta was the most-bombed place in the world, under aerial bombardment for two full years because of its position as a central Mediterranean base for British air […]

Musgrave Ambidex: Straight Pull Rimfire Rifle for Lefties or Righties

August 6, 2018 Ian McCollum 16

The Ambidex was a rifle developed by the Musgrave company in South Africa in the late 1980s. It was a straight-pull bolt action rifle inspired by the Browning T-Bolt, but with the ability to have […]

Book Review: The Suomi M/31 by Michael Heidler

August 5, 2018 Ian McCollum 9

Michael Heidler’s bi-lingual (German and English) book on the Finnish Suomi m/31 submachine gun is a small but dense history of one of the best submachine guns of World War Two. It covers Aimo Lahti’s […]

Star Z-70B: Spain’s Improved SMG

August 4, 2018 Ian McCollum 24

The Star Z-70B was an incremental improvement on the earlier Z-62 and Z-63 submachine guns adopted by the Spanish military and security services. It remains an open bolt, selective fire design, with an underfolding stock. […]