Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

Angstadt Vanquish: An Inexpensive Integrally-Silenced 9mm AR Barrel

December 24, 2023 Ian McCollum 6

Angstadt Arms has released an interesting integrally silenced (suppressed, if you prefer) barrel for 9mm AR carbines. It uses a full-length barrel with venting ports (similar to the MP5SD system), combined with a tubular shroud […]

Making Do: South Africa’s 7.62mm NATO Bren Gun Conversions

December 23, 2023 Ian McCollum 3

During World War Two, the South African military used a lot of .303 caliber Bren guns. When 7.62mm NATO became the standard cartridge after the war, the Bren guns were put into storage, as converting […]

Overview of Soviet Military Handguns: Nagant, Tokarev, Makarov

December 22, 2023 Ian McCollum 16

Today we are looking at an overview of Soviet military service sidearms. This begins with the Model 1895 Nagant revolver, inherited from the Czarist Russian Army. The Nagant was adopted as the standard Red Army […]

Hamas Claims to Make Sniper Rifles in Gaza – Are They Really?

December 21, 2023 Ian McCollum 19

Hamas – or rather its specific military wing the Al Qassam Brigade – posted a video on Twitter / X yesterday purporting to show the manufacture of .50 caliber sniper rifles in Gaza. I was […]

Gear-Ratio-Accelerated? Yep, It’s a Thing: French MAT 1955 Prototype

December 20, 2023 Ian McCollum 21

EDIT: Shoot, I managed to get the gear ratio backwards. Sorry! The recoil action provides the necessary delay, and then the gear ratio provides acceleration to ensure the bolt can open reliably, akin to the […]

Extra Firepower for Vietnam: the Aussie “B!tch”

December 18, 2023 Ian McCollum 22

Many of the special forces groups that operated during the Vietnam War found they standard issue weapons a but unwieldy for use in confined jungle environments. They also found a need for something that could […]

PMM: Russia’s Modernized Makarov (Now With 50% More Mag Capacity!)

December 16, 2023 Ian McCollum 4

Having served as the standard Soviet military sidearm for several decades, the PM Makarov was getting a bit obsolescent by the late 1980s. More of the world was using locked breech, 9x19mm service pistols but […]

Weirdest of the French Trials SMGs: the EROP 1954

December 15, 2023 Ian McCollum 8

“EROP” was a small company based in Paris, which produced about 18 submachine gun prototypes between 1954 and 1956. These were submitted to French military trials in several different configurations first in 1954 and later […]

Gorilla GF-10: Lightweight Hunting Semiauto in 8.6mm Blackout (w/ Ballistics Gel)

December 13, 2023 Ian McCollum 4

Today I’ve got on of Gorilla Ammo’s GF-10 rifles to do some shooting with. It’s an AR-10 platform chambered for 8.6mm Blackout (they also offer it in .243 Win, .260 Rem, 6.5CM, and .308 Win). […]

The Pointless (and Dangerous) “Spetznaz” Makarov Holster

December 12, 2023 Ian McCollum 12

Today we have a look at the EFA-2k Makarov holster that was “made for Spetznaz”. I am extremely skeptical that any Spetznaz operator ever actually deployed with one of these things, though. It’s a holster […]