Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

Fritz Mann Model 1921: Chamber-Ring-Delayed Blowback

April 13, 2021 Ian McCollum 50

In 1920, Fritz Mann of Germany patented the idea of cutting a shallow ring in the chamber of a pistol as a delaying mechanism. When fired, a cartridge case would expand into this groove, thus […]

Colt’s Model 1915 Vickers Gun in .30-06

April 12, 2021 Ian McCollum 15

After extended testing in 1913 and 1914, the US formally adopted the Vickers gun as the Model 1915. A contract was placed for licensed production of 125 guns by Colt, who had also taken contracts […]

LAD: The Soviet Pistol-Caliber SAW that Could Have Been

April 11, 2021 Ian McCollum 39

This guest article written by Andrey Ulanov. In 1942, the Red Army was experiencing big problems with machine guns. Before the war, great hopes were pinned on Dyagterev’s brand new DS-39 heavy machine gun. But […]

Savage M1918 Aircraft Lewis at the Range (With Rare Tripod Mount!)

April 10, 2021 Ian McCollum 35

Yesterday we looked at the Savage M1918 aircraft version of the Lewis gun, used by American aviators during World War One. Today, we are taking it out to the range along with a very scarce […]

Savage M1918 Aircraft Lewis Gun

April 9, 2021 Ian McCollum 30

As an open-bolt machine gun, the Lewis was not well suited to synchronization on WW1 aircraft – but it was an ideal gun for flexible mounting. To suit this use, a series of aircraft-specific Lewis variations were […]

Springfield Model 1795 Musket: America’s First Military Production

April 8, 2021 Ian McCollum 10

The first US-production military arm was the “US musket, Charleville pattern” – known today as the Model 1795 Springfield Musket. Copied from the French 1766 model Charleville which made up the bulk of existing US […]

1945: The French Occupy Mauser and Make Lugers

April 7, 2021 Ian McCollum 25

In July 1945, just a few months after the first French troops entered Oberndorf, the Mauser factory began assembling guns under French oversight. In addition to HSc pistols, P38 pistols, K98k rifles, and Model 45 […]

The Lahti L35 in Soviet Testing

April 6, 2021 Ian McCollum 22

This guest article written by Andrey Ulanov. In 1941, at the NIPSVO shooting range, the Soviet military conducted a series of comparative tests of standard foreign and Soviet pistols as well as the Soviet experimental […]

Miniature Guns for the Fascist Youth: Italian Balilla Carbines

April 6, 2021 Ian McCollum 12

As part of his effort to imbue Italy with a fascist culture, Mussolini formed the ONB, or National Balilla Organization as a replacement for all other youth organizations in Italy in 1926. It was intended […]

Daewoo K2: The South Korean AK/AR Hybrid

April 5, 2021 Ian McCollum 30

South Korea experimented with a series of rifle designs in 7.62x51mm in the 1960s and early 1970s, but none of them came close to production. In 1974 a license was acquired from Colt for Daewoo […]