Heavy MGs
MG08: The Devil’s Paintbrush
The MG08 was the German Army standard Maxim gun in World War One. The Germany Navy adopted the Maxim first in 1894, followed by the Army in 1899, then a new pattern in 1901, and […]
Articles by Ian McCollum
Antiques
Rupertus Pepperbox: A Sophisticated 8-Shot Rimfire Pocket Gun
The Rupertus Patent Pistol Manufacturing Company was founded in Philadelphia by Bavarian-born Jacob Rupertus. The company made a variety of derringers, pepperboxes, and revolvers and today we are looking at an 8-shot, .22 rimfire pepperbox […]
Light MGs
.30-06 M1918 American Chauchat – Doughboys Go to France
When the US entered World War One, the country had a grand total of 1,453 machine guns, split between 4 different models. This was not a useful inventory to equip even a single division headed […]
Semiauto Rifles
AMD-65: The Specialist’s AK Turns Standard-Issue
Get your copy of “Rifles On The Danube” today! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/rifles-on-the-danube?ref=84e865 The Hungarian AMD-65 (Automata Módosított Deszantfegyver – “Modified Paratrooper Automatic Rifle”) was requested first in 1964 because the standard AKM-63 rifles in Hungarian service were […]
Uncategorized
Rifles on the Danube: Hungarian Kalashnikovs – Headstamp’s New Book!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/rifles-on-the-danube?ref=1c2u2e Rifles on the Danube:
Hungarian AK-Pattern Firearms, 1959–2002 At the end of the Second World War, Hungary was occupied by Soviet troops and soon fell into the Soviet sphere of influence, joining the Warsaw […]
Submachine Guns
Madsen M50: From the Korean War to Star Trek
During World War Two, Madsen (DISA) manufactured a licensed copy of the Finnish Suomi (see: https://youtu.be/hjs1uiAIpNQ). When the war ended, they wanted to replace this with a more modern, inexpensive design of their own. The […]
Book review
Clockwork Basilisk – The Early Revolvers of Elisha Collier and Artemas Wheeler
Available now at: http://www.headstamppublishing.com/collier-book Clockwork Basilisk: The Early Revolvers of Elisha Collier & Artemas Wheeler reveals the first attempt to put a multi-shot firearm in the hands of the common soldier and sportsman. This novel […]
Commentary
How to Avoid the Legal Pitfalls of a Transferrable H&K Auto Sear
One of the particularly popular transferrable machine guns out there is the H&K auto sear. Since H&K grip and trigger assemblies are interchangeable between 9mm, 5.56mm, and 7.62x51mm guns (ie, MP5, HK33, and G3) a […]
Submachine Guns
M1 Thompson: Savage Simplifies the SMG
The Thompson submachine gun struggled to find a market when it was originally produced, with the first batch of 15,000 Colt-made guns not finally all selling until the late 1930s. By that time, the clouds […]
Antiques
Daly Arms “Tom Thumb” – A Tiny Ring-Trigger Revolver
The “Tom Thumb” is a tiny .22 rimfire revolver made in Belgium by an unknown shop and imported into the US to be sold by the Daly Arms Company of New York. These are antique […]