Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

Nordic Cooperation: The Swedish M96 in Finnish Service

February 16, 2022 Ian McCollum 19

One of the significant foreign rifles in Finnish service during the Winter War and Continuation War was the Swedish M96 Mauser. These rifles began arriving in Finland even before Finland’s independence, and in 1919 the […]

Supporter Exclusive Book (and Movie) Review – Anthropoid

February 15, 2022 Ian McCollum 24

The story of the Czechoslovak resistance to German annexation and occupation during World War Two is a pretty bleak one – the Gestapo did a very effective job of rooting out almost the entire organization. […]

Bren 2: CZ Refines Every Aspect of the 805

February 14, 2022 Ian McCollum 18

Launched in 2016, the Bren 2 was a significant upgrade program over the original Bren 805 rifle. In addition to being offered in both 5.56mm and 7.62x39mm with user-changeable barrels, the Bren 2 was […]

I Tried to Use the GR-1 Anvil at the BUG Match…

February 12, 2022 Ian McCollum 29

So, I took the GR-1 to this month’s Backup Gun Match…but all did not go as I’d hoped. We blew a fuse in the gun (it is still an alpha prototype, remember), and were not […]

ArcFlash Labs’ GR-1 Anvil Portable Gauss Rifle

February 11, 2022 Ian McCollum 36

https://arcflashlabs.com/_accelerators/fully-assembled-guns/# The GR-1 “Anvil” is a portable, shoulder-fired gauss rifle made by Arcflash Labs. Yeah, it’s pretty awesome to be living in the future where we actually have real gauss rifles, isn’t it? First, some […]

The Reality of Gauss Rifles and Coil Guns w/ David Wirth of Arcflash Labs

February 9, 2022 Ian McCollum 34

David Wirth is one of the founders of Arcflash Labs, a small company developing “ultra-high energy pulsed power supplies”, which have applications in a variety of fields – but today we are talking about electromagnetic […]

Bren 805: A Rifle for the Post-Communist Czech Army

February 7, 2022 Ian McCollum 35

With the Velvet Revolution and the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia, a new Czech Republic immediately looked to NATO membership. This would require rearming the Czech Army with a rifle in 5.56mm NATO. After some […]

Alien vs Spinner: Round 2 (Now With Less Fail!)

February 5, 2022 Ian McCollum 11

Time for another practice session on the spinner…I am improving! This time, I stopped trying to make double taps, and focused instead on getting a single properly timed hit at each presentation. Hitting twice is […]

Le Redoutable: A Double-Barrel 20-Shot Revolver

February 3, 2022 Ian McCollum 40

“Manufrance” was the common abbreviated name for Manufacture d’Armes et Cycles de Saint Etienne, a massive mail-order catalog company in France for many decades. Like Sears Roebuck in the United States, one could get pretty […]

Amsterdam Police Carbine: 8mm Mauser for the Carbine/SMG Squad

February 2, 2022 Ian McCollum 27

In the wake of World War Two, much of Europe was awash in small arms – but there were still organizations looking to purchase new arms rather than use the available surplus. The Gemeentepolitie Amsterdam […]