2026 - Forgotten Weapons

Vaporware or Successful Release: SHOT Show 2025 Retrospective

January 25, 2026 Ian McCollum 17

Today we take a look back at last year’s SHOT Show. Of all the products I did videos on, which ones successfully came to market and which dissolved into vaporware? Hop’s HTX-1 Video: https://youtu.be/snpg6Vz5DOY AKB-23 […]

Stamm-Saurer Model 1916 Short-Recoil Light Machine Gun

January 23, 2026 Ian McCollum 15

Hans Stamm developed a series of firearms in Switzerland in the early 1900s, and today we are looking at a Model 1916 light machine gun. This was developed while Stamm was working for the Saurer […]

Mauser M80SA: Actually a High Power and Actually Hungarian

January 21, 2026 Ian McCollum 29

Our book on Hungarian AKs, “Rifles on the Danube”, is available here: https://www.headstamppublishing.com/danube-book In the 1980s, the Mauser company was completely adrift, without any real plans or goals or good leadership. They had been trying […]

Finnish Civil Guard m/33 Sniper (Built on the m/28-30 Mosin)

January 19, 2026 Ian McCollum 4

The first Finnish Civil guard sniper rifle was the m/28, but its development was paused when the m/28-30 improved rifle was developed. Once that rifle wa sin production, they set about making a scoped version. The […]

The First Red Dot Sights: Aimpoint Electronic, MkIII, and Aimpoint 1000

January 17, 2026 Ian McCollum 6

Today we are looking at the first commercial red dot optic, and its successors. In 1975, Aimpoint released the Aimpoint Electronic, a collimating optic using an LED as a light source. It was intended for […]

How Red Dot Sights Work (What is a Collimator?)

January 16, 2026 Ian McCollum 18

A whole lot of people have used red dot sights, but how many actually understand how they work? Let’s see if we can fix that today…

Yugoslav M92: The Serbian 7.62x39mm Pseudo-Krink

January 14, 2026 Ian McCollum 15

The Yugoslav M92 rifle is most often compared to the Soviet AKS-74U “Krinkov” – it is a compact, folding-stock version of Zastava’s M70 AK, just as the 74U was the compact version of the AK-74 […]

Rare & Unique Sightings From 100 French FR-F2 Sniper Rifles

January 12, 2026 Ian McCollum 5

Today I had a chance to dig through no less than one hundred FR-F2 snipers brought in by Navy Arms. I found a number of interesting and unusual things in the process, including a number […]

Israeli Mauser K98k Sniper Rifles: Wild Heerbrug & Nimrod

January 9, 2026 Ian McCollum 5

The first Israeli military sniper rifles were German K98k snipers obtained by the nascent Israeli armed forces in the late 1940s. These were used in Israel’s independence war, and served well. When the IDF decided […]

Buying W.W. Greener: Tales from the Golden Age of Surplus

January 7, 2026 Ian McCollum 5

I am joined today by Val Forgett III of Navy Arms for the first in a series of videos telling some of his stories form growing up in the golden age of surplus, with a […]