Book review - Forgotten Weapons

Book Review: FN Mauser Rifles by Anthony Vanderlinden

January 2, 2017 Ian McCollum 4

When I was waiting for my copy of Anthony Vanderlinden’s new book “FN Mauser Rifles” to arrive, I was expecting a typical sort of dry reference work. You know, the sort of thing that is […]

Book Review: The Makarov Pistol – Soviet Union & East Germany

October 25, 2016 Ian McCollum 16

Until recently, the only good reference book on the Makarov pistol has been Volume 16 of Fred Datig’s Soviet Arms series – which is hampered by the lack of public information available to the author […]

Book Review: “Star Firearms” and “Astra Firearms” by Leonardo Antaris

September 10, 2016 Ian McCollum 24

Leonardo Antaris has written massive and excellent volumes on two of the major companies in the Spanish firearms industry, Star and Astra. Both of these companies made a wide range of military and commercial handguns, […]

Book Review: Documenting the Weapons used at the Little Bighorn

August 2, 2016 Ian McCollum 31

I previously reviewed a book on archaeological study of the Little Bighorn battlefield, which did an excellent and very insightful job of tracing the battle through tangible artifacts, including forensic tracing of different individual weapons […]

Book Review: SOE Equipment Air Dropped in Europe 1940-1945

July 14, 2016 Ian McCollum 23

A while back I posted a review of a great little paperback account of Winston Churchill’s Toyshop – the development of clandestine warfare gear for use by saboteurs and resistance movements in occupied Europe during […]

Book Review: M91/30 Rifles and M38/M44 Carbines in 1941-1945

May 18, 2016 Ian McCollum 25

The full title is actually (deep breath) M91/30 Rifles and M38/M44 Carbines in 1941-1945: Accessories and Devices – History of Production, Development, and Maintenance, by Alexander Yuschenko and translated into English by Ryan Elliot. I saw […]

Book Review: The Armalite AR-10 The World’s Finest Battle Rifle

May 4, 2016 Ian McCollum 39

One of the topics that has been (somewhat oddly) lacking a detailed and well-researched history is the Armalite AR-10. There was a book written by a Major Pikula many years ago, but it is really […]

Book Review: The P08 Luger Pistol by S.I. Publicaties BV

October 6, 2015 Ian McCollum 10

I have seen a lot of folks asking for information on Lugers, so I figured I should recommend a good book or two. There are a lot of books out there on Lugers, cutting across […]

Book Review: Great Britain – The Tommy Gun Story

March 28, 2015 Ian McCollum 0

I recently got a copy of Tom Davis Jr’s brand new book on the history of British use of the Thompson SMG. This is very much a history book rather than a technical book, and […]

Book Review: Unique Pistols by Robert Adair

March 19, 2015 Ian McCollum 9

I recently became aware of a new book published by Robert L. Adair Jr. on the subject of the “Unique” brand pistols, made by Manufacturer d’Armes des Pyrénées Françaises. Today, the most commonly recognized Unique […]