Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

Mauser C77 Single-Shot Pistol (Video)

November 19, 2016 Ian McCollum 63

The Mauser brothers’ first attempt at a commercial or military handgun was this, the C77 (Construktion 1877) model of single shot pistol. Why a single-shot sidearm in 1877, well into the age of centerfire military […]

French C6 Long-Recoil Prototype Semiauto Rifle (Video)

November 18, 2016 Ian McCollum 21

France began working on developing military self-loading rifles virtually as soon as the 1886 Lebel was adopted, and they would pursue a pretty elaborate series of trials right up to World War I. One series […]

Colt Sidehammer “Root” Dragoon Prototype (Video)

November 17, 2016 Ian McCollum 22

During the development of the 1860 Army revolver, Colt did consider mechanical options other than simply scaling up the 1851 Navy pattern. One of these, as evidenced by this Colt prototype, was an enlarged version […]

Nock 6-Barrel Flintlock (Video)

November 16, 2016 Ian McCollum 11

Henry Nock was a highly respected and very talented British gunsmith, who manufactured a wide variety of arms including military muskets for the British Army. He is probably best known on the internet for his […]

Japanese Grandpa Nambu with Stock (Video)

November 15, 2016 Ian McCollum 4

The 1902 “Grandpa” Nambu is one of the first wave of successful military automatic pistols, developed by Kijiro Nambu and his team over the course of 5 years, from 1897 to 1902. It was the […]

Frommer Prototype Semiauto Rifle (Video)

November 14, 2016 Ian McCollum 37

Rudolf Frommer was a self-taught engineer and firearms designer who worked his way up through the FEG concern in Budapest to eventually hold the position of CEO. During this time he developed a series of […]

Bergmann Simplex Pocket Pistols (Video)

November 13, 2016 Ian McCollum 22

The Bergmann 1896 Number 2 pistol was a relatively successful compact pocket gun for its day, but quickly became obsolete as semiautomatic handguns developed and improved. Bergman and his chief engineer Schmeisser spent the late […]

Turner Semiauto SMLE Conversion (Video)

November 12, 2016 Ian McCollum 33

Russell Turner was a Pennsylvania gunsmith and inventor who developed this semiautomatic conversion of an SMLE bolt action rifle circa 1940. It was intended for trial and potential sale to the Canadian military, as it […]

Beautiful Breechloading Wheellock (Video)

November 11, 2016 Ian McCollum 75

Most people think that breechloading arms began with the development of paper or brass cartridges, but this is not strictly true. While not common before that period, there were gunsmiths here and there experimenting with […]

Chinese C96 “Wauser” Broomhandle

November 10, 2016 Ian McCollum 12

The C96 Mauser was a very popular handgun in China in the 1920s and 30s, which naturally led to a substantial number of domestically-produced copies of it. These ran the full range of quality, from […]