Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

AR-16: Armalite’s Lost Battle Rifle

December 22, 2025 Ian McCollum 25

The AR-16 was developed in the late 1950s as a less manufacturing intensive option to the AR-10. It began with the AR-12, which was a prototype intended to use a stamped receiver with the Stoner […]

Tanki Maraka: the US Radar Base 50 Miles from Venezuela

December 21, 2025 Ian McCollum 7

Just as today, the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao had oil refining infrastructure back in World Wa rTwo. After some German naval action in the Caribbean early in the war, the Dutch […]

Between SMG and PDW: Sweden’s CBJ-MS

December 20, 2025 Ian McCollum 10

The CBJ-MS is a submachine gun designed by Swedish arms developed Carl Bertil Johansson, perhaps better known for his remarkable armor-piercing 6.5x25mm CBJ cartridge. He developed the gun at about the same time as the […]

Japanese National Police Revolvers: S&W 37-2 and 360J

December 19, 2025 Ian McCollum 13

Before World War Two, the national police in Japan were used substantially as an enforcement agency for political reasons. After the war this changed, and the police were re-formed with a vision of them being […]

M1E5 Experimental Paratrooper Garand

December 17, 2025 Ian McCollum 53

In January 1944 men of the 93rd Infantry Division field-modified an M1 to give it a shorter (18″) barrel, and the rifle was sent back to the US and tested by the Infantry Board. The […]

Knight’s Armament Silent Revolving Rifle

December 15, 2025 Ian McCollum 45

In the early 1990s, Knight’s Armament was approached by an unnamed agency looking for a very specialized weapon. It needed to be a repeating firearm that left no brass behind while being effectively silent and […]

PSS: Russia’s Silent Captive-Piston Handgun

December 13, 2025 Ian McCollum 25

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 […]

The Extremely Rare Folding Stock Beretta 38/43

December 12, 2025 Ian McCollum 2

The Beretta Model 38 SMG was a very successful design, and a folding-stocked version of it was a natural development. Beretta first made a prototype of such a thing in 1941, but it never went […]

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 […]