March, 2020 - Forgotten Weapons

Scotch, Crackling Fire, and the Story of the Chassepot

March 19, 2020 Ian McCollum 11

One of the stretch goals in the presale Kickstarter for Chassepot to FAMAS was for me to do some reading from the book, on video. So, I present the story of the Chassepot! Copies of […]

H&K’s Middle Child: The HK33 and HK53 in 5.56mm

March 18, 2020 Ian McCollum 20

Introduced in 1968, the HK33 was Heckler & Koch’s adaptation of their roller-delay operating system to the 5.56mm / .223 Remington cartridge. In addition to the standard full-length rifle (with a 15.35 inch barrel) a […]

How Does It Work: Roller Delayed Blowback

March 17, 2020 Ian McCollum 7

Roller delayed blowback originated in the Mauser company R&D department when engineers were attempting to design a roller-locked version of the G43 rifle. They found that when the bolt bounced in automatic fire, the system […]

French Underfolding Paratrooper Rifle: MAS 36 CR39

March 16, 2020 Ian McCollum 10

The CR39 (“crosse repliable”, or folding stock) is the paratrooper version of the MAS 36. The need for a more compact and transportable pattern was recognized almost as soon as the MAS 36 was finalized, […]

Beat the Quarantine with New Forgotten Weapons Playlists!

March 15, 2020 Ian McCollum 16

Not to make light of a bad situation, but a lot of people are going to have a lot of unexpected free time at home over the coming weeks. Perhaps you want to spend some […]

Zastava M91 at the Range

March 14, 2020 Ian McCollum 25

Today I am out at the range with a new M91 from Zastava USA. This is the civilian version of the Serbian M91 sniper’s rifle, which was developed in the 1990s to replace the M76 […]

Zastava M91: Serbia Modernizes its DMR to 7.62x54R

March 13, 2020 Ian McCollum 39

After World War Two, Yugoslavia was left with a tremendous amount of German war material – enough that it cost to adopt the 8x57mm Mauser cartridge as its standard. The M76 precision rifle was developed […]

Book Review: Chassepot to FAMAS – French Military Rifles 1866-2016

March 12, 2020 Ian McCollum 27

I am very excited to finally be able to formally present to you Chassepot to FAMAS: French Military Rifles 1866-2016! After about 3 years of work, it’s finally here and shipping. My goal with this […]

Canadian Ross MkIII Sniper Rifle with Warney & Swasey Scope

March 11, 2020 Ian McCollum 5

The Canadian infantry that went to Europe in the early years of World Wa rOne were equipped primarily with the Ross MkIII rifle. The Ross would become quite the scandal, and was replaced in service […]

How Does It Work: Roller Locking

March 10, 2020 Ian McCollum 48

Roller locking is a system that is not used in many guns and often confused with roller-delayed blowback – which is understandable, given the similarities between the systems. Roller locking is really a sub-type of […]