Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

RIA: An Overview of the Pinfire Revolver System

February 22, 2016 Ian McCollum 21

The pinfire system was an early cartridge type which saw widespread use in Europe, but was not widely adopted in the United States. First invented by a French designer named Pauly, it was made commercially […]

RIA: Colt Shotguns of the Old West (1878 & 1883)

February 21, 2016 Ian McCollum 21

When someone says “Old West Colt”, the first thought is usually not double barreled shotguns. However, Colt made two quite high-end side-by-side shotguns during this period, and they played a role in the remarkable Colt/Winchester […]

RIA: Warwinck Copy of the Savage Automatic Pistol

February 20, 2016 Ian McCollum 22

The Eibar region of Spain is known as the center of a lot of pistol production from WWI through the Spanish Civil War, typically pistols called Ruby clones. Well, the various small gunmakers there were […]

RIA: Danish 1889 Krag-Jorgensen Rifle

February 19, 2016 Ian McCollum 14

The Danes were the first military to adopt the Krag-Jorgensen rifle, with this infantry variant in 1889. It is chambered for the Danish 8x58R cartridge, which was also used in Remington Rolling Block rifles (although […]

RIA: Whitney-Scharf Lever-Action Rifle

February 18, 2016 Ian McCollum 10

The Whitney-Scharf was the final rifle manufactured by the Whitney company before it was bought out and closed down by Winchester in 1888. Only about 2,000 of these rifles were made before that time.

RIA: Whitney-Kennedy Lever Action Rifles

February 17, 2016 Ian McCollum 29

Eli Whitney Jr., son of the inventor of the famous “cotton gin”, ran the Whitneyville Armory for many years, producing a wide variety of firearms until nearly the end of the 1800s. Among other gun […]

RIA: G33/40 Gebirgstruppen Carbine

February 16, 2016 Ian McCollum 25

The G33/40 carbine was made by the excellent Czech factory at Brno under German occupation (between 1940 and 1942). It was essentially a copy of the Czech vz.33 carbine, and was specifically issued to the […]

Spoils of War: A 1907 St Etienne Full of Bullet Holes

February 15, 2016 Ian McCollum 19

The 1907 St Etienne heavy machine gun is a really neat gun mechanically, but I can’t shot you that today because this one is jammed together from the 7 bullet impacts that rendered it unusable […]

RIA: Simple Key Pistol

February 14, 2016 Ian McCollum 45

We humans have built pretty much everything into weapons over time, and here’s an example of that. There are a variety of types of key pistols in existence, varying from the elaborate and complex to […]

RIA: Colt Richards Conversion 1860 Army

February 13, 2016 Ian McCollum 7

Colt, like all the other manufacturers in the US, was prevented from making cartridge revolvers by the Rollin white patent, which finally expired in 1869. This left them limited to their percussion revolvers, the 1849, […]