Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

PSS: Russia’s Silent Captive-Piston Handgun

December 13, 2025 Ian McCollum 2

The PSS is a semiautomatic pistol using captive piston ammunition to achieve a comparable level of sound suppression to a .22 pistol with a good normal suppressor. It was developed to replace a couple multi-barrel […]

Small Arms of the Cold War: NATO Battle Rifles – Book Now Shipping!

December 11, 2025 Ian McCollum 1

Available and shipping now from: https://www.headstamppublishing.com/cold-war-battle Sorry to our European folks, but the copies allocated to the European shipping center have already sold out, so we can only fulfill orders from the US. The Battle […]

T31: Garand’s Bizarre Bullpup

December 10, 2025 Ian McCollum 17

The T31 was John Garand’s last project during his employment at Springfield Armory. It was proposed in 1948 as a bullpup configuration rifle to minimize muzzle blast and flash. It was a select-fire rifle with […]

Steyr M1912/16 Automatic “Repetierpistole”

December 8, 2025 Ian McCollum 6

In the latter half of World War One the Austro-Hungarian military experimented with a number of select-fire pistol type weapons. One of these was the Steyr Repetierpistole M1912/16, an automatic adaptation of the regular M1912 […]

Why the M7 and 6.8x51mm are Bad Ideas: Welcome to my TED Talk

December 6, 2025 Ian McCollum 62

NATO Cold War Battle Rifles and much more: https://www.headstamppublishing.com Cappy Army video on the SIG M7A1: CBJ Armor Piecing ammunition: The plan to replace the 5.56mm M4 Carbine with the 6.8mm M7 as the US […]

“Forged in Snow” Launch Ends Tonight: Livestream Announcement!

December 5, 2025 Ian McCollum 1

You still have a few hours to get in on the discount and the Kickstarter Exclusive “frozen” cover: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/forged-in-snow?ref=4esibx

Walther’s Forgotten SMG: The MPK (and MPL)

December 3, 2025 Ian McCollum 29

https://youtu.be/3qElfsloKH8 Walther began developing a modern stamped sheet metal SMG in the late 1950s, and it entered production in 1963. It was an open-bolt, simple blowback gun available in a short (MPK; 6.75” barrel) and […]

The First M60 Prototype: FG42 + MG42 = T44

December 1, 2025 Ian McCollum 56

The FG-42 caught the attention of a lot of countries at the end of World War Two. The British and Swiss both used it as the starting point for some developments. The US went one […]

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 […]