Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

Valmet M62/S: The AK in Finland

November 7, 2017 Ian McCollum 25

After the Winter War and Continuation War, Finland settled a peace treaty with the Soviet Union, and started looking to modernize its infantry rifles – something semiautomatic was needed to replace the Mosin Nagants it […]

America’s WW1 Trench Rifle: The Cameron-Yaggi 1903

November 6, 2017 Ian McCollum 11

Virtually all nations in World War One had a periscope trench rifle of some sort, and the United States was no exception – although it was not formally adopted. The Cameron-Yaggi conversion was developed by […]

Shooting the Czech vz61 Skorpion: Machine Pistol or PDW?

November 5, 2017 Ian McCollum 33

In the US, the commonly accessible version of the vz.61 Skorpion is the stock-less semiauto pistol – and in that configuration the gun is really nothing like the intentions of its designers. The Skorpion was […]

Czech vz61 Skorpion: History and Mechanics

November 4, 2017 Ian McCollum 53

The Czech vz.61 Skorpion is a rather unusual sort of firearm; a machine pistol designed from scratch instead of being converted from an existing handgun design, and chambered for the seemingly out of place .32ACP […]

Shooting the .950 JDJ: The Largest Sporting Rifle Made

November 3, 2017 Ian McCollum 45

Made by SSK Industries on a McMillan action, the .950 JDJ is the largest sporting rifle made. The cartridge began as a 20mm Vulcan round, cut down to 70mm case length and necked up to […]

Correction: Whitworth Accuracy and Figure of Merit vs MOA

November 2, 2017 Ian McCollum 23

In my recent video on the Whitworth rifle, I made a rather embarrassing mistake, interpreting “figure of merit” accuracy measurements as complete group sizes. This was incorrect, and caused me to seriously overestimate the accuracy […]

Q&A #14: Recoil, Nerf, and Forced Air Cooling

November 1, 2017 Ian McCollum 50

Today’s question topics: 0:00:58 – Factors affecting recoil in machine guns 0:04:57 – Revisiting/remaking old videos 0:05:58 – Is the MP5 still relevant? 0:06:47 – Am I excited to film different guns? 0:08:12 – Vintage […]

Four Annoying Gun Myths, with Bloke on the Range

October 31, 2017 Ian McCollum 41

I had a chance to meet up with Bloke on the Range in Switzerland, and we decided to spend some time discussing a few of the myths that have managed to get themselves solidly affixed […]

The Butterfield Army Revolver and its Automatic Priming

October 30, 2017 Ian McCollum 17

Patented in 1855 by James Butterfield, this revolver is a 5-shot, .41 caliber percussion revolver with a brass frame and 7.5 inch barrel. Aside from its somewhat unorthodox grip configuration, what makes it interesting and […]

The MG-15: A Flexible Aircraft Machine Gun Pushed into Infantry Service

October 29, 2017 Ian McCollum 29

The MG-15 was the first standard flexible-mounted aircraft machine gun adopted by the Luftwaffe in the 1930s. Both it and the MG-17 are evolved form a Rheinmetall/Solothurn design which would also become the Austrian and […]