Bolt Action Rifles
Articles by Ian McCollum
Commentary
Travel Plans & Patreon
When I set up my Patreon funding page a while back, I needed to define a couple specific goals – you know, what do I plan to do with this money anyway? Well, what I […]
Semiauto pistol
RIA: Praga 1921 One-Handed Pocket Pistol
This cute little pocket pistol was an early project of Vaclav Holek, who would become much better known for his work with the ZB-26 light machine gun and ZH-29 rifle. It is a very small […]
Semiauto pistol
RIA: Beretta 1915 – the First of the Beretta Pistols
The Italian military went into WWI having already adopted a semiautomatic sidearm – the Model 1910 Glisenti (and its somewhat simplified Brixia cousin). However, the 1910 Glisenti was a very complex design, and much too […]
Bolt Action Rifles
RIA – Swiss Model 1893: A Mannlicher Cavalry Carbine
The Swiss were the first country to adopt a bolt action repeating rifle with their Vetterli, and followed this by changing to a straight-pull design in the 1880s. The straight-pull Schmidt-Rubin system was quite good, […]
Revolver
RIA: A Pair of Arresting Montenegrin Gasser Revolvers
This is quite the eye-catching pair of revolvers… The Model 1870 Gasser was a behemoth of a pistol designed by Leopold Gasser for the Austro-Hungarian cavalry – it was built around the 11x36mm cartridge used […]
Bolt Action Rifles
RIA: Winchester Thumb Trigger Rifle
The Winchester Thumb Trigger rifle was a very inexpensive boy’s rifle developed from the Model 1902. It is a single-shot .22 rimfire bolt action system, on which the trigger was replaced by a thumb-activated sear […]
Percussion
RIA: Savage Navy Revolver: Almost Double Action!
The .36 caliber Savage Navy is one of the many revolvers that saw purchase and martial use during the US Civil War – and in this case, martial use on both sides. About 13,000 Savages […]
Gunsmithing
RIA: Cripple Stock Shotgun
Okay, so the name may not be considered very PC today – you could also call this a cross-dominant stock. The concept was to allow a shooter to mount the gun in one shoulder but […]
Semiauto pistol
RIA: Ortgies Pistols
The Ortgies is a pistol whose interested aspects are often overlooked on the assumption that it is just another identical .32 ACP blowback pistol. Well, it is that – but it is also more. Mechanically, […]