Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

BSA 1926 & 1929 Thompson SMGs

May 11, 2016 Ian McCollum 36

In the early days of the Thompson Submachine Gun, the Auto-Ordnance Company was looking for customers globally. General John Thompson had personally run a demonstration of the gun in England in June of 1921, which […]

Disassembly photos: Simson Prototype Blowback 9mm

May 10, 2016 Ian McCollum 12

In the late 1920s, the Simson company built a handful of prototype pistols for consideration by the German military. Noises had been made about replacing the Luger with something more cost effective, and several companies […]

Flamethrower Q&A with Charlie Hobson

May 9, 2016 Ian McCollum 44

http://www.flamethrowerexpert.com Today’s questions by timestamp are: 0:40 – After international conventions banned most flamethrower use, where and when have they still been used and why? 1:15 – What Hollywood examples are particularly realistic and which […]

Final Prices: RIA April 2016

May 8, 2016 Ian McCollum 11

I always get a bunch of questions about what the various guns at auction ended up selling for, so here’s an overview for the curious:

German soldiers experimenting with a grenade catapult

Vintage Saturday: Getting Medieval

May 7, 2016 Ian McCollum 31

Somehow I don’t think the binoculars are particularly necessary…

Introduction to Military Flamethrowers with Charlie Hobson

May 5, 2016 Ian McCollum 40

Flamethrowers are a significant piece of military weapons history which are very widely misunderstood, as flamethrowers have never been the subject of nearly as much collector interest as other types of small arms. The US […]

Book Review: The Armalite AR-10 The World’s Finest Battle Rifle

May 4, 2016 Ian McCollum 39

One of the topics that has been (somewhat oddly) lacking a detailed and well-researched history is the Armalite AR-10. There was a book written by a Major Pikula many years ago, but it is really […]

Disassembly Photos: Bendix-Hyde 2nd Model Carbine

May 3, 2016 Ian McCollum 9

This is a second pattern Bendix-Hyde carbine, made for the M1 Carbine trials. The first Bendix-Hyde had a number of features that Ordnance requested be changed (including a pistol grip), and this was the modified […]

2-Gun Action Challenge Match: US WWI Infantry (M1917 & M1911)

May 2, 2016 Ian McCollum 57

In this month’s 2-Gun match, I am competing as a WWI US infantryman, with an M1917 Eddystone rifle and an M1911 pistol (both are genuine WWI-era originals). I am also using a reproduction US 1917 […]

German troops demonstrating use of a WWI flamethrower

Vintage Saturday: Flammenwerfer

April 30, 2016 Ian McCollum 20

Note how this, like many early flamethrowers, was a two-man affair. One carried the tanks and the other aimed and fired the projector.