Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

Vintage Saturday: What Would Roosevelt Shoot?

February 22, 2014 Ian McCollum 90

Not the cool Roosevelt – we know he liked his .405-caliber Big Medicine. I’m talking about the other one: Leszek found this on eBay (you can buy it if you want; I have no connection […]

The 1986 FBI Gunfight and Adoption of the 10mm Auto

February 21, 2014 Ian McCollum 46

Back in 1986 in Miami, a team of 8 FBI agents decided to execute a felony car stop on a pair of armed and volatile bank robbers named Platt and Matix. The ensuing gunfight has […]

Bolt Action Systems

February 20, 2014 Ian McCollum 22

Thanks to Robert, we have a series of high-resolution scans showing cutaway diagrams of a bunch of the major bolt-action systems. Very cool to look at – thanks Robert!

Browning M2 “Anti-Mechanization Weapon”

February 19, 2014 Ian McCollum 100

During the latter half of the 1930s, the US Cavalry decided to experiment with adapting the .50 caliber Browning M2 heavy machine gun into a bipod-mounted, shoulder-fired configuration. The goal was to devise a variant […]

On the Way to Being Forgotten: AKU-94 Bullpup AK Conversion

February 18, 2014 Ian McCollum 84

The AKU-94 was a bullpup conversion kit made for standard AK rifles by K-Var a while back. They were never particularly popular, probably because in stock form they weren’t particularly good. The sights are wobbly […]

Swiss Straight-Pull First Impressions

February 17, 2014 Ian McCollum 58

I recently picked up several Swiss rifles from Simpson Ltd (who has a who bunch of them, and all listed individually so you can choose the exact rifle you want). The Swiss used an evolving […]

Presentation Walther VG-1 (Video)

February 16, 2014 Ian McCollum 35

We took a look at this rifle with a few photos a while back, but I do now have some video of it as well – a VG-1 last ditch rifle with an inlaid plaque […]

Vintage Saturday: Militiawoman

February 15, 2014 Ian McCollum 24

Spanish militiawoman during the Civil War, with a Mauser rifle and what appears to be an early Star pistol (model 1919 possibly?)

Military History of Olympic Biathlon

February 14, 2014 Ian McCollum 11

Another busy day today – so I’ll point you to an article I wrote in TheFirearmBlog yesterday: Military History of Olympic Biathlon

Book Review: Winchester Model 07 Self-Loading .351 Caliber

February 13, 2014 Ian McCollum 57

The full title of this recently-published monograph by Leonard Speckin is actually Winchester Model 07 Self-Loading .351 Caliber: Its Past and Its Future with Modern Brass, Bullets and Powders. There is very little modern published […]