Book review - Forgotten Weapons

Book Review: Testing the War Weapons by Timothy Mullin

March 2, 2017 Ian McCollum 5

Written in 1997, Timothy Mullin’s “Testing the War Weapons” sets out to provide a practical users guide to a wide variety of military rifles and light machine guns from the late 1800s to the present […]

Book Review: The Schmeisser Myth by Martin Helebrant

February 17, 2017 Ian McCollum 20

“The Schmeisser Myth: German Submachine Guns Through Two World Wars” is a newly published history of SMG development from the Villar Perosa and MP18 through the MP38 and MP40, written by Martin Helebrant. Given that […]

Book Review: Vickers Guide AR-15

January 11, 2017 Ian McCollum 4

I don’t normally have much interest in coffee-table books, and the Vickers Guide: AR-15 would definitely be considered a coffee-table book. That said, it is substantially different than most such books, and much more worthy […]

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 […]