Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

The Most Elegant Pistol Ever

December 10, 2013 Ian McCollum 60

Most of the time, guns intended to be fancy and particularly fancy leave me rather cold. I can recognize the mind-blowing skill that goes into really high-end hand engraving, but engraved guns just aren’t really […]

Johnson M1941 Video

December 9, 2013 Ian McCollum 28

Melvin Johnson was a gun designer who felt that the M1 Garand rifle had several significant flaws – so he developed his own semiauto .30-06 rifle to supplement the M1. His thought was that if […]

Vintage Saturday: Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance

December 7, 2013 Ian McCollum 28

Cuban exiles training in Florida for the Bay of Pigs invasion, with scoped M1941 Johnson rifles. (coming Monday, a video on the Johnson…)

Calendar Status

December 6, 2013 Ian McCollum 3

Unfortunately, I had a bit of a delay with the folks printing the 2014 calendars – but they are done now. I finished packing and addressing them all this evening, and they will ship out […]

Guest Post: Shooting the 6.5mm Dutch

December 6, 2013 Ian McCollum 19

I am headed up to Phoenix for the annual SAR West gun show this weekend, where I expect to have a lot of fun, meet a bunch of you guys, and come home with substantially […]

Book Review: Winston Churchill’s Toyshop

December 5, 2013 Ian McCollum 9

In July of 1939 Stuart Macrae was the editor of Armchair Science magazine, and he was approached by a Major Millis Jefferis from the British War Office looking for some information on magnets. The subsequent […]

.577 caliber Tranter Revolver

December 4, 2013 Ian McCollum 42

William Tranter was a British gunmaker of some repute, although generally not remembered today. He was apprenticed to a gunsmith in 1830, at the age of 14, and by 1839 had left and opened his […]

“I Found This Old Maxim Silencer…”

December 3, 2013 Ian McCollum 39

Since I posted my brief article on the original Maxim silencers, I’ve had more than a few people contact me saying that they have found one among the possessions of a deceased parent or grandparent. […]

Model 1871 Ward-Burton Rifle

December 2, 2013 Ian McCollum 10

The Model 1871 Ward-Burton was one of the early experimental rifles trialled by the US military in its search for a new breechloading rifle to replace the theoretically-interim Allin conversion that made muzzle-loading rifles into […]

Vintage Saturday: Mausers on the Silk Road

November 30, 2013 Ian McCollum 19

Commentary from the photographer: Full-length portrait of the four men, standing in a line with rifles. ‘While halting for the night I had an interesting opportunity of becoming acquainted with a small party of well-armed […]