September, 2021 - Forgotten Weapons

Stemple/BRP STG-76 “Heavy Submachine Gun” at the Range

September 18, 2021 Ian McCollum 13

Having spent quite a long time yesterday exploring the origins of the Stemple/BRP STG-76, I figured I should take it out to the range. So, let’s see what sort of groups I can make with […]

Engineer’s Delight: Stemple 76/45 Becomes the Stemple Takedown Gun

September 17, 2021 Ian McCollum 41

The saga of how the original Stemple 76/45 became the Stemple Takedown Gun is a fantastic story of engineering design choices. Essentially, John Stemple began by building a rather crude copy of the Swedish K […]

Throwback Thursday: The Nifty Hybrid-Design HAC-7 Battle Rifle

September 16, 2021 Ian McCollum 15

The Halloway Arms Company HAC-7 was a very interesting hybrid design that incorporated elements of the FAL, AR10, and AK designs. It needed a bit more development to really work out the kinks, though, and […]

What Would Ross Do? The .280 Military Match M10 Rifle

September 15, 2021 Ian McCollum 0

There were many different versions of the Ross straight-pull bolt action rifle made and adopted by the Canadian military. However, the version that Sir Charles Ross thought would be best was only ever made as […]

Parker-Hale .303-.22 Conversion Kits for the Enfield, Lewis, and Vickers

September 14, 2021 Ian McCollum 24

In July of 1918, the British military formally adopted a Parker-Hale system of adapting .303-caliber arms to .22 rimfire for short range training. The system involved lining standard barrels with .22 caliber blanks that were […]

Personalized 1911s from the WW1 American Expedition to Siberia

September 13, 2021 Ian McCollum 23

At the end of the Great War, the United States sent several thousand soldiers to eastern Siberia, to protect war supplies from the Red Russian forces and to help rescue the Czechoslovak Legion. Also known […]

Vietnamese MAT-49 in 7.62mm Tokarev at the Range

September 11, 2021 Ian McCollum 30

While I have filmed a MAT-49, I have not had a chance to actually try one out at the range until today. But today I don’t just have a normal example; I have one rebarreled […]

Vickers Mk IV .50 Caliber Water-Cooled Tank Gun

September 10, 2021 Ian McCollum 30

Development of the .50 caliber Vickers guns began during World War One, but stagnated after 1918, and was not really completed until the early 1930s. At that point, Vickers produced a series of the guns […]

Ethiopian Oddities – Single Shot French Mle 1878 Marine

September 9, 2021 Ian McCollum 9

Among all the standard rifles that are coming into the US from Ethiopia through InterOrdnance, there are a handful of really unusual oddballs, and we are going to look at several of them. We have […]

Danish M1941 Suomi SMG

September 8, 2021 Ian McCollum 23

When the Tikkakoski company bought the rights to produce the kp/31 “Suomi” submachine gun in the 1930s, they attempted to make a bunch of export sales, although none were very successful. By the late 30s […]