Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

T20 Family: Springfield Makes the Garand a Grenade Launching Sniper Machine Gun

November 17, 2025 Ian McCollum 29

Late in 1944 the Ordnance Committee recommended adoption of a magazine-fed, select-fire version of the M1 Garand as a new standard US infantry rifle. Both Springfield and Remington developed rifles to meet the requirement, with […]

m/27PH aka m/37: Finland’s First Standard Sniper Rifle (and it’s really bad)

November 14, 2025 Ian McCollum 4

Join the Forged in Snow launch here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/forged-in-snow?ref=55a9yv The m27PH, aka the m/37, was the first standardized Finnish sniper rifle. It was developed as part of the plan to make a whole family of m/27 […]

Rideout Arsenal Dragon: A New Low-Bore-Axis Lever-Delayed Pistol

November 12, 2025 Ian McCollum 35

Wauser t-shirt available from Varusteleka: https://varusteleka.com/en/products/forgotten-weapons-wauser-cotton-t-shirt The Rideout Arsenal Dragon is a very interesting new pistol from an independent entrepreneurial designer, Travis Rideout. It is a lever-delayed action with a very low bore axis and […]

Adventures in Surplus! Finnish M28 “Ski Trooper”

November 10, 2025 Ian McCollum 14

Get your exclusive preorder copy of Forged in Snow today! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/forged-in-snow?ref=3xnziv Today we are going to take a look at just how much historical be read from the features and markings of an individual rifle. […]

Drum-Fed LMG for Chinese Warlords: the Finnish LS-26/31

November 8, 2025 Ian McCollum 29

Join the Forged in Snow launch here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/forged-in-snow?ref=2sw39d After the Finnish Defense Forces adopted the LS26 light machine gun, Aimo Lahti and the Tikkakoski factory continued to work on further developing it. They designed a […]

MY NEW BOOK! Forged in Snow: Finnish Small Arms 1917-2025

November 6, 2025 Ian McCollum 4

Join the book launch on Kickstarter now! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/forged-in-snow?ref=f1ouec Forged in Snow: Finnish Small Arms 1917 – 2025 is a reference guide to military firearms manufactured and modified in Finland. Intended for collectors and historians alike, […]

AK50: How Hard Could it Be? Brandon Herrera’s 10-Year Project

November 5, 2025 Ian McCollum 48

Scaling the AK up to .50 BMG…how hard could it be? Today we find out, with a detailed looks at all threee iterations of Brandon Herrera’s AK-50 project.

Apache Arms Carbine: A Saga of Compliance and Crappy Manufacture

November 3, 2025 Ian McCollum 20

The Apache Arms carbine was a Thompson SMG lookalike that was made in small numbers in the late 1960s. It was the successor to the Spitfire carbine made by the same people, after the Spitfire […]

Licensed Troubleshoot: Guns of James Bond UPDATE!

November 2, 2025 Ian McCollum 0

Licensed Troubleshooter is still available for preorder: https://www.headstamppublishing.com/licensed-troubleshooter At long last we have proof of life for Licensed Troubleshooter: the Guns of James Bond by Caleb Daniels! This book hit several production delays, but is […]

The Original AR-15: Serial Number 6 in Original Configuration

November 1, 2025 Ian McCollum 16

The very first AR15 rifles submitted to US government trials were extremely light rights, with an assortment of interesting features that did not last long. They had top-mounted charging handles, one-piece hand guards, very thin […]