Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

Johnston D-1918 machine gun

January 26, 2011 Ian McCollum 3

I don’t know much about this beyond the name. We have four photographs from the US Ordnance Department dated from 1937 identifying this as a Johnston (not Johnson – note the “t”) Model D-1918 machine […]

DTM Manual

January 24, 2011 Ian McCollum 0

Continuing in our series of Soviet weapons manuals, today we have added a 1962 DTM manual to the Original Manuals page of the Vault. The DTM was the tank variant of the modernized Degtyarev (DP) […]

Family photo!

January 22, 2011 Ian McCollum 10

So, who can tell me what all of these weapons are? And what they have in common? Continue on for details…

Howa Type 89

January 21, 2011 Ian McCollum 3

Not all interesting and obscure guns are a century old – there are plenty of guns in common use today that are not well known. One such gun is the Howa Type 89. It is […]

Howell Automatic Rifle

January 19, 2011 Ian McCollum 9

So, let us pretend we are 1940s British ordnance officers, and we need more automatic rifles. What are we to do? There is so much war material that needs to be produced, and we have […]

Bang rifle manual

January 17, 2011 Ian McCollum 0

Today’s update is the original manual for the Bang automatic rifle – the gun that was the basis for the original Garand rifle design. The Bang rifle impressed US ordnance officers when it was first […]

Gerat 06H

January 14, 2011 Ian McCollum 0

If you look at a Gerat 06H and squint really hard, you can almost see and HK91. Ok, only if you have some imagination – but the two are intimately related. The Gerat (“Device”) 06H […]

Chinese Thompson

January 12, 2011 Ian McCollum 4

I don’t have much background information on this piece, but it is a Chinese Thompson submachine gun in 7.62 x 25 caliber, using what appear to be PPS43 magazines. If anyone has information about these […]

RD-46 Manual and Photos

January 10, 2011 Ian McCollum 1

The Soviet standard light machine gun, the DP/DPM, was getting obsolete by the end of World War II. A mobile belt-fed gun was needed, and so the DP was adapted to that purpose. A top […]

Chauchat LMG manuals

January 7, 2011 Ian McCollum 6

So, do you know how to keep your 1915 Chauchat LMG running in case of German poison gas attack? What is the proper ammo loadout for your assistant gunner? Well, I hope you’ve found us […]