Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

Papasan Chair as Antiaircraft Mount

July 11, 2015 Ian McCollum 18

German MG08 Maxim in antiaircraft mounting, at some point during WWI. Note the spider sights mounted halfway down the jacket, and the belt reel. Those reels allowed the guns to reliably feed at all manner […]

Product Review: CETME-L Flat by Prexis

July 10, 2015 Ian McCollum 67

Disclaimers: Apex Gun Parts is a longtime sponsor of this site. Prexis is not; in fact this was my first (and last) business transaction with Prexis. HMG is not a site sponsor, but has provided […]

Slow Motion: Mauser Schnellfeuer (Video)

July 9, 2015 Ian McCollum 29

Today’s slow motion video is a Mauser Schnellfeuer; the full-auto version of the C96 pistol made in the 1930s. Just over 100,000 of these were made, with the great majority being sold in China. It […]

MAS 62 Testing Results

July 8, 2015 Ian McCollum 28

Thanks to reader Thibaud, we have a translation of some of the testing results from the French military trial of the FN FAL and MAS Model 62. Thanks, Thibaud! The documents tell us that the […]

BSW Prototype Gas-Operated Pistol (Video)

July 6, 2015 Ian McCollum 116

In 1936 or 1937, the BSW company (Berlin-Suhler Waffenwerk) produced a small number of prototype pistols for German Army trials. These trials were eventually won by the Walther P38, and for good reason in this […]

Polish soldier on the line near Gazala, Libya - February 1942

Vintage Saturday: The Mustache is Mightier than the Machine Gun

July 4, 2015 Ian McCollum 39

Polish soldier on the line near Gazala, Libya – February 1942. Armed with a Browning M1919A4 and a Boys AT rifle in the truck as well.

Canada’s WWII Self-Loading Rifle Experiments

July 3, 2015 Ian McCollum 20

(The material for this post came primarily from a post made by Roger V. Lucy at the MilArt blog, which also has information on a couple other WWII Canadian experimental projects) When we see rifles, […]

Slow Motion: Swiss LMG-25

July 2, 2015 Ian McCollum 10

I had a cool Swiss viewer named Bjoern kindly send me this footage of a Swiss LMG25 machine gun firing – thanks, Bjoern! These guns are very rare in the US, and the only one […]

The Lee Enfield Finally Leaves Canadian Ranger Service

July 1, 2015 Ian McCollum 52

As far as I have been able to tell, the Canadian Rangers are the last formal, first-world military organization still using a WWII-era bolt action rifle as a standard-issue weapon (correction – the Danish Slædepatruljen […]

Shooting a .276 Pedersen

June 30, 2015 Ian McCollum 58

Thanks to Alex C. at TheFirearmBlog, I recently had an opportunity to do some shooting with a .276 caliber Vickers-Pedersen model PB rifle. This was one of the very first rifles Vickers built when they […]