November, 2025 - Forgotten Weapons

Semiauto SAR-80 “Sterling Assault Rifle” at the Range

November 29, 2025 Ian McCollum 24

The SAR-80 was a design by Frank Waters at Sterling in the UK, but was not actually put into production by Sterling. Instead, it was licensed to Chartered Industries of Singapore in 1977, who eventually […]

Pretty Cool Finnish Gun Posters: Suomi, AK, & Mosin

November 28, 2025 Ian McCollum 2

We made some pretty awesome posters of the best Finnish small arms to go along with Forged in Snow – Suomi SMGs, Finnish military AKs, and Finnish Mosins. Check them out at the Forged in […]

Origins of the Legendary CZ-75: Short Rail and Pre-B Models

November 28, 2025 Ian McCollum 4

Find something cool for Black Friday at Headstamp Publishing! https://www.headstamppublishing.com The CZ-75 began development in the late 1960s as a commercial project. It was not intended for Czechoslovak military use, but instead for export sales […]

Preproduction wz89 Onyx: the Polish Krinkov

November 26, 2025 Ian McCollum 8

After developing the 5.45mm Tantal rifle (adopted in 1988), the Radom factory moved on to designing a compact “SMG” version. This would be designated the wz.89 “Onyx”, but never made it into mass production thanks […]

TKIV-85: Finland’s Ultimate Mosin Nagant Sniper Rifle

November 24, 2025 Ian McCollum 6

Join the Kickstarter for “Forged in Snow: Finnish Small Arms 1917-2025” here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/forged-in-snow?ref=desl1o Finland’s final iteration of Mosin Nagant sniper was adopted in the 1980s to replace a mix-and-match assortment of m/39-43, m/27-66, and m/28-76 […]

Q&A November 2025: The 6.8×51 is Still a Bad Idea

November 22, 2025 Ian McCollum 80

Use code “FORGOTTENRYE10” for 10% off Kyrö Distillery spirits at their web store: https://kyrodistillery.com/ 00:00:20 – Aimpoint offering multi-reticle options? 00:01:55 – Blood lead levels from shooting 00:05:59 – Combining scuba with history and guns […]

Pienoiskivääri m/91 Finnish .22 Mosin Trainer

November 21, 2025 Ian McCollum 1

This and all the other Finnish Mosins are detailed in my new book “Forged in Snow”: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/forged-in-snow?ref=b8ft1r In the 1920s the Finnish Defense Forces wanted a reduced-power training rifle to allow low-cost marksmanship practice and […]

Aly & Kaufman AKB-23: Better Than the SA80 / L85

November 19, 2025 Ian McCollum 47

Penguin Brutality t-shirt available from Varusteleka: https://varusteleka.com/en/products/forgotten-weapons-penguin-brutality-t-shirt The Aly & Kaufman AKB-23 is a set of parts that allows one to use a Brownells BRN-180 upper to create an SA80 / L85 lookalike. It’s a […]

T20 Family: Springfield Makes the Garand a Grenade Launching Sniper Machine Gun

November 17, 2025 Ian McCollum 29

Late in 1944 the Ordnance Committee recommended adoption of a magazine-fed, select-fire version of the M1 Garand as a new standard US infantry rifle. Both Springfield and Remington developed rifles to meet the requirement, with […]

m/27PH aka m/37: Finland’s First Standard Sniper Rifle (and it’s really bad)

November 14, 2025 Ian McCollum 4

Join the Forged in Snow launch here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/forged-in-snow?ref=55a9yv The m27PH, aka the m/37, was the first standardized Finnish sniper rifle. It was developed as part of the plan to make a whole family of m/27 […]