2025 - Forgotten Weapons

French Trials FN CAL: Adding Rifle Grenade Capability

September 10, 2025 Ian McCollum 10

Check out Headstamp Publishing’s extensive catalog of excellent books! In the 1970s when the French Army was looking for a new rifle 5.56mm, they tested a number of foreign rifles alongside development the FAMAS at […]

Japanese Last-Ditch Pole Spear Bayonet

September 8, 2025 Ian McCollum 41

Japanese bayonets followed the same trend of simplification as Arisaka rifles towards the end of World War Two, culminating in what is today called the “pole bayonet”. Abandoning even the fittings to mount to a […]

Steyr’s New Modular Pistols: AT-C Competition and AT-D Defense

September 6, 2025 Ian McCollum 19

Steyr has just released its first new handgun since the M9. This new design is call the AT (Austria), with a competition model (AT-C) and a service/carry/defense model (AT-D). The gun is a Browning short […]

The Best Operational Briefcase: American 180 & Laser Sight

September 5, 2025 Ian McCollum 45

The “American 180 Security Briefcase” is the best execution of the operational briefcase concept that I have yet seen. The idea is simple; hide a submachine gun inside an ordinary looking briefcase so that it […]

Knife-Gun Monday: Sigaud-Barnerias 5mm Pinfire

September 3, 2025 Ian McCollum 36

Jacques Sigaud-Barnerias ran a business in Theirs, France (in the south, east of Lyon) making a variety of cutlery and associated products. Among his various table knives, pruning knives, corkscrews, and pock knives he also […]

Registered Bolt vs Registered Receiver Uzis

September 1, 2025 Ian McCollum 17

Most of the transferrable Uzis in the US are not factory original guns, but rather semi autos that were converted and registered as machine guns in the US before 1986 (when such activity was legal). […]

M2 Carbine vs MP44 Sturmgewehr (w/ John Keene)

August 30, 2025 Ian McCollum 47

Today we are considering two late World War Two rifles: the American M2 Carbine and the German MP-44 Sturmgewehr. Which would you take into combat? The Sturmgewehr is certainly iconic, with a more powerful cartridge, […]

Webley .22 Target Model Mk IV Revolver

August 29, 2025 Ian McCollum 17

Webley made a variety of .22 rimfire revolvers and revolver conversions for most of its history. Rimfire conversions were used by the military for reduced-cost training, and they were popular on the civilian market for […]

Potato Digger at War: Marlin Model 1917 Machine Gun

August 27, 2025 Ian McCollum 19

John Browning’s first machine gun design was a gas operated system that used a swinging lever instead of a linear piston. He presented the first prototype to Colt in 1890, and it went into production […]

“The World’s Assault Rifles”: Essential for any Firearms Library

August 26, 2025 Ian McCollum 2

Available from Chipotle Publishing: https://chipotlepublishing.com/product/the-worlds-assault-rifles/ I am often asked about what books someone interested in firearms should get. That’s a really hard question to answer because most good books have a pretty narrow focus, but […]