Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

Origins of the vz.82: A Western Pistol for Communist Czechoslovakia

September 2, 2022 Ian McCollum 19

The vz.82 and its cousin the CZ 83 are pistols that originated when the Czech state export company during the Cold War began looking for arms it could export to bring in hard currency. The […]

East Meets West at the BUG Match: CZ’s vz.82

September 2, 2022 Ian McCollum 9

Yesterday we looked at the history and development of the vz.82 pistol; today I am taking it out to the BackUp Gun Match. this should be a pretty competitive pistol in this environment, and it […]

Ask Ian: Are Man-Portable Chain Guns Coming?

September 1, 2022 Ian McCollum 38

From Nikolas on Patreon: “Have there been any attempts to make miniaturized man-portable chain guns? Do you think there’s a future for such a machine gun given modern advances in energy storage?” Chain guns are […]

Arex AKB-15: A Lost AK Modernization Project

August 31, 2022 Ian McCollum 27

The AKB-15 was a project developed by Arex Defense in Slovenia in 2015. The company received a request from a small country (they decline to reveal exactly who) to modernize a stock of AKM rifles […]

Tour of the AREX Defense Factory in Slovenia

August 30, 2022 Ian McCollum 11

During my visit to Slovenia, I had a chance to tour the AREX Defense factory in Šentjernej. I came away really impressed by the quality and the breadth of operations that the factory performs in-house. […]

Soviet WW2 Bramit Silencer for the M91/30

August 29, 2022 Ian McCollum 19

https://youtu.be/Hecvt_oGvb4 The Soviet Union began to take an interest in military suppressors in the early 1930s, and experimented with things like suppressors for the DP light machine gun. Through the 1930s a variety of different […]

The Czech Unicorn LMG: A Squad Support CZ-2000

August 27, 2022 Ian McCollum 17

https://utreon.com/v/QvY5ixpjSXS The CZ-2000 project in the Czech Republic (derived from the Lada developed in the late years of Czechoslovakia) envisioned a full suite of infantry arms, much like the AK as used by other countries. […]

From Service Sidearm to Match Gun: the Astra 400 Target Model

August 26, 2022 Ian McCollum 4

A very small batch of special target model pistols was made at the very end of Astra 400 production in 1945. They were fitted with Patridge front sights and adjustable revolver-style square-notch rear sights, much […]

When MAC-10 Meets Skorpion: Croatia’s Homeland War ALKA mod 93

August 24, 2022 Ian McCollum 13

The ALKA model 93 is one of the nicest of the several dozen simple SMGs made in Croatia during the Homeland War of the 1990s. It was produced by the IM Metal company (later renamed […]

Ask Ian: Analyzing the Savage Rotating Barrel (at 7500 frames/sec)

August 23, 2022 Ian McCollum 24

A question I have been asked by several different people in several Q&A threads is: “Does the Savage rotating-barrel system actually do anything?” In his 1905 patent, Elbert Searle specifically claims that his design creates […]