Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

Italian FNA-B43 Submachine Gun

June 6, 2012 Ian McCollum 1

The FNA-B43 (Fabbrica Nazionale d’Armie) was developed in Brescia, Italy during World War II. The Beretta M38 series of submachine guns were serving very well, but the volume of guns demanded by the war allowed […]

Mystery parts

June 5, 2012 Ian McCollum 7

We have a couple unusual parts that we dug out of the bin and can’t identify – one is clearly a bolt and one a rear sight, but we have no idea what they came […]

Chinese C96 Mauser Stock/Bayonet

June 4, 2012 Ian McCollum 6

Here’s an interesting item we ran across recently – a combination bayonet and shoulder stock made by the Chinese for the C96 “Broomhandle” Mauser (and also the TT33 Tokarev, I believe). This design is relatively […]

Vintage Saturday: Japanese ZB

June 2, 2012 Ian McCollum 6

Japanese troops with a ZB light machine gun in China, circa 1937

X8E1 & X8E2 SLR Manual

June 1, 2012 Ian McCollum 11

Before the British adopted the FAL as the L1A1 rifle, batches of several different variants were made for extended troop trials. The first two were the X8E1 and X8E2 – the X8E1 used standard FAL […]

Book Review: The Dutch Mannlicher M.95

May 31, 2012 Ian McCollum 3

In the 1880s, the Dutch decided that their single-shot Beaumont rifles were obsolete and needed replacement. They started a program to modify them with 4-round magazines, and simultaneously set about finding a more modern rifle […]

Sjogren Shotgun Photos

May 30, 2012 Ian McCollum 17

Thanks to reader David, we have several photos of a Sjogren 12ga shotgun. The Sjogren was a very early Swedish semiauto design using a recoil action with a fixed barrel. Most recoil orated firearms function […]

Cutaway Oerlikon Cannon

May 29, 2012 Ian McCollum 7

So a funny thing happened on the way back from the Naval training faciliity… We were at a museum in Europe looking around with a guide, and noticed a nice Oerlikon cannon on a naval […]

Cutaway AK kits available at Apex

May 28, 2012 Ian McCollum 3

I have been a bit remiss, and didn’t notice the cutaway Polish AK kits that Apex Gun Parts has had for a while. Well, they went on sale today, and I just took the opportunity […]

Treeby “Chain Gun”

May 28, 2012 Ian McCollum 9

We’re going to jump back a hundred years, and take a look at a design from 1854 today – although it was a design well ahead of its time. The Treeby chain gun was a […]