April, 2021 - Forgotten Weapons

Savage M1918 Aircraft Lewis Gun

April 9, 2021 Ian McCollum 30

As an open-bolt machine gun, the Lewis was not well suited to synchronization on WW1 aircraft – but it was an ideal gun for flexible mounting. To suit this use, a series of aircraft-specific Lewis variations were […]

Springfield Model 1795 Musket: America’s First Military Production

April 8, 2021 Ian McCollum 10

The first US-production military arm was the “US musket, Charleville pattern” – known today as the Model 1795 Springfield Musket. Copied from the French 1766 model Charleville which made up the bulk of existing US […]

1945: The French Occupy Mauser and Make Lugers

April 7, 2021 Ian McCollum 25

In July 1945, just a few months after the first French troops entered Oberndorf, the Mauser factory began assembling guns under French oversight. In addition to HSc pistols, P38 pistols, K98k rifles, and Model 45 […]

The Lahti L35 in Soviet Testing

April 6, 2021 Ian McCollum 22

This guest article written by Andrey Ulanov. In 1941, at the NIPSVO shooting range, the Soviet military conducted a series of comparative tests of standard foreign and Soviet pistols as well as the Soviet experimental […]

Miniature Guns for the Fascist Youth: Italian Balilla Carbines

April 6, 2021 Ian McCollum 12

As part of his effort to imbue Italy with a fascist culture, Mussolini formed the ONB, or National Balilla Organization as a replacement for all other youth organizations in Italy in 1926. It was intended […]

Daewoo K2: The South Korean AK/AR Hybrid

April 5, 2021 Ian McCollum 30

South Korea experimented with a series of rifle designs in 7.62x51mm in the 1960s and early 1970s, but none of them came close to production. In 1974 a license was acquired from Colt for Daewoo […]

Sterling SMG at the Range

April 3, 2021 Ian McCollum 33

The L2A3 Sterling submachine gun was a staple of British and small arms after World War Two, until the L85 rifle was adopted. Designed by George Patchett during the war and produced by Sterling, it […]

Gordon Ingram’s Westarm .308 Battle Rifle

April 2, 2021 Ian McCollum 37

In the late 1970s and early 80s, Gordon Ingram came close to producing a military rifle in one of the most convoluted international arrangements I’ve yet heard of. Prototypes were made in Italy using British […]

The Luger in Finland

April 1, 2021 Ian McCollum 12

After the failure of the domestic production Ahlberg pistols and some disappointment with the performance of surplus French Ruby pistols, the Finnish military turned to DWM in Germany for a main service pistol in 1922. […]