Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

Austria’s Take on the Uzi: Steyr MPi-69

May 13, 2022 Ian McCollum 11

Designed in the 1960s by Steyr and adopted by the Austrian Army in 1969 to replace it aging MP40s, the MPi-69 is an economical and simple 9x19mm SMG. It uses many features seen in the […]

Denmark’s Post-WW2 SMG: the Hovea m/49

May 11, 2022 Ian McCollum 21

The Hovea m/49 was adopted by Denmark, but was originally designed by Huqvarna for Swedish military trials. The first 10 prototype were made in 1944 and competed against the Carl Gustav Stads design – which […]

Walther Prototype MP – A Missing Link From PP to P38

May 9, 2022 Ian McCollum 34

During the late 1920 and early 1930s, the Walther company worked on developing a military pistol in 9x19mm. They began from the basis of the PP/PPK design, and produced three separate designs, the first two […]

M8C Spotting Rifle at the Range

May 7, 2022 Ian McCollum 12

The M8C is a rifle that presents a whole lot of really intriguing possibilities. It is compact, with detachable magazines, a modular trigger system, and a neat cartridge that is a bit easier to handle […]

A Gun For Aiming: M8C .50 Caliber Spotting Rifle

May 6, 2022 Ian McCollum 25

The M8C is a .50 caliber self-loading rifle designed to mount on top of the 106mm M40 recoilless rifle. The recoilless rifle creates a massive signature when fired, and so it is imperative that operators […]

The Finnish RPK: Valmet 78 at the Range

May 5, 2022 Ian McCollum 15

Valmet designed the M78 hoping to sell it to the Finnish military as an equivalent to the RPK, but it was not adopted. Instead, they were old a semiautos on the commercial market. Because this […]

Rheinmetall MG42/59: The Slow-Fire Commercial MG42

May 4, 2022 Ian McCollum 66

After World War Two, when West Germany was allowed to reconstitute its army and join NATO, it needed small arms. The new Bundeswehr chose the MG42 as it’s standard GPMG, and the Rheinmetall firm undertook […]

1930s German Rearmament: JP Sauer’s Pre-K98k Rifle

May 2, 2022 Ian McCollum 14

When the German Army announced in 1934 that it would be adopting a new standard rifle, the JP Sauer company jumped at the chance to submit a model for consideration. Auger has a complete production […]

A Belgian Sten Replacement: Vigneron M2 at the Range

April 30, 2022 Ian McCollum 14

The Vigneron was adopted to replace the Sten in Belgian service – so is it actually better than the Sten? In my opinion, yes. The sights and overall handling are better. The pistol grip is […]

Vigneron M2: Belgium’s Little-Known Post-War SMG

April 29, 2022 Ian McCollum 26

After World War Two, the Belgian military wanted to replace its many Sten guns with a better standard SMG. The solution was designed by Colonel Georges Vigneron in 1953, and adopted by all branches of […]