Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

Biography: Christopher Miner Spencer

February 27, 2013 Ian McCollum 15

“[A] quiet little Yankee who sold himself in relentless slavery to his idea for six weary years until it was perfect” – John Hay, secretary to Abraham Lincoln Christopher Spencer was born on a farm […]

John Garand on US Weapons Development (Video)

February 26, 2013 Ian McCollum 23

Thanks to a tip from Big Al last week, we found a couple minutes of video of John Garand talking about the development of US small arms. It was buried in an episode of “The […]

Ljungman AG42B Video

February 25, 2013 Ian McCollum 17

Being right in the depths of winter, it seemed like a good time to take a Scandinavian rifle out to the range. Specifically, a Swedish Ljungman AG-42B. This is one of the few semiauto military […]

Vintage Saturday: Wood-Spoked Technical

February 23, 2013 Ian McCollum 23

British soldiers with a Lewis-gun-armed truck in Palestine. Photo courtesy of reader Ruy A. Thanks, Ruy!

T31: John Garand’s Bullpup

February 22, 2013 Ian McCollum 6

The light rifle program was instituted in late 1945 to develop a new infantry rifle using the T65 cartridge (which would go on to be adopted as the 7.62x51mm NATO-standard). Initially the project involved just […]

Stuff for Sale!

February 21, 2013 Ian McCollum 27

I need to raise a bit of cash for some expenses, and so I’m putting a couple rifles and parts kits up for sale. Looking to add a rifle or a parts kit build project […]

Book Review: A Revolution in Arms

February 21, 2013 Ian McCollum 5

When I cracked open Joseph Bilby’s 2006 book A Revolution in Arms: A History of the First Repeating Rifles, I was hoping for a history of the development of repeating rifles, and didn’t quite get […]

“Rakov” DP-28 Magazine Loader

February 20, 2013 Ian McCollum 13

If you think about it for a minute, it suddenly seems odd that there aren’t any military surplus loading tools out there for DP28/DPM pan magazines. At least, that was my reaction when our friend […]

Wacky Propaganda

February 19, 2013 Ian McCollum 34

It’s always interesting to look at the propaganda that military organizations put out regarding their opponents – it can often reveal what was particularly worrisome to men in the field at the time. A good […]

Action Match Video: Leader T2 and Ballester Molina

February 18, 2013 Ian McCollum 11

I’m always up for the chance to put unusual guns through practical trials, so I jumped at the chance to try out the 2-Gun Action Challenge Match north of Tucson AZ this past weekend. For […]