Antiques - Forgotten Weapons

Tales of the Hunt: Stories from Writing Clockwork Basilisk

November 22, 2022 Ian McCollum 3

“Clockwork Basilisk: The Early Revolvers of Elisha Collier and Artemas Wheeler” is available right now for preorder on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/clockwork-basilisk?ref=9fouz5 Today Professor Ben Nicholson joins me to talk about some of the work behind the […]

Announcing Clockwork Basilisk: Headstamp’s Fifth Book

November 17, 2022 Ian McCollum 7

I am very excited to announce today the launch of Headstamp Publishing’s fifth book, Clockwork Basilisk: The Early Revolvers of Elisha Collier and Artemas Wheeler. Written by Professor Ben Nicholson and a team of researchers, […]

A Very Rare Confederate Columbus Armory Carbine

November 14, 2022 Ian McCollum 2

Carbines made by the Columbus Armory are particularly scarce, and their history is not really well understood. They were manufactured by John Gray of Columbus SC, whose brother William Gray was a partner in another […]

Rogers & Spencer .44 Army: Possibly the Best Civil War Revolver

October 26, 2022 Ian McCollum 15

Amos Rogers and Julius Spencer ran a company making mostly farm equipment in the 1840s and 1850s. In 1859, they took on a firearms manufacturing contract (as mechanical fabrication companies often do) to make Pettengill […]

Older Gun With Newer Ammo: A Centerfire Winchester 1866

October 19, 2022 Ian McCollum 11

The Winchester 1866 was chambered for the .44 Henry rimfire cartridge, like the Henry rifle before it. Before too long, however, centerfire ammunition began to take over as the best and most common type of […]

Beautiful Perrin Revolving Carbine

May 23, 2022 Ian McCollum 20

The Perrin was an 1859 revolver design originating in France, which was initially an open-frame, double-action-only system. It went through some significant improvements in 1865, including a single action mechanism and a fully enclosed frame […]

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 […]

Delhaxhe “Apache”: The Other French Knife-Knuckle-Gun

January 17, 2022 Ian McCollum 21

Long associated with Parisian street gangs called “Apaches” (after the American Indian tribe), there were two main patterns of combination knife/knuckle/firearm made in the mid/late 1800s in France. This one was designed by J. Delhaxhe, […]

Adventures in Surplus: An M91 Mosin of Many Flags

December 23, 2021 Ian McCollum 11

Today we are taking a look at an early production M1891 Mosin Nagant rifle. This one has had quite a busy history…it was originally manufactured at the Izhevsk Arsenal in 1894, with several of the […]

The Sure Defender: An O.G. Knuckleduster Knife Gun

December 8, 2021 Ian McCollum 12

One of the early combination self-defense guns was the “Sure Defender”, with a combination of brass knuckles, a small and finicky wavy-bladed dagger, and a single shot percussion pistol barrel. The rather complex process for […]