Commentary - Forgotten Weapons

Perspectives on French Rifle Sight Design

January 5, 2016 Ian McCollum 28

Holy moley, is that the most dense and snooty post title ever? I think it might be. However, I think it’s a much more interesting subject than most folks might anticipate, and it’s something that […]

Should Guns be in Museums or Private Collections? (Video)

December 16, 2015 Ian McCollum 69

Guns in museums get condemned to a purgatory behind glass. Guns in private collections get shot and broken. What are we to do? As it happens, I have spent the last two days in museum […]

ARES Research Note: Durability of Self-Loading Rifles

July 21, 2015 Ian McCollum 12

I occasionally do work for Armament Research Service, and they recently published one of my pieces as Research Note #8, on the subject of self-loading rifle durability. Rifles, in general, are pretty durable items, with […]

Format and Feedback

April 24, 2015 Ian McCollum 101

Well, today is the first day of RIA’s April Premiere auction – if you are bidding on anything, good luck! Of course, this also means we are finished with the current series of videos and […]

How to Become a Professional Gun Nerd

December 26, 2014 Ian McCollum 64

I get an email every so often from a young person in high school or college who is interested in firearms, and wants to know what I would recommend for getting into the industry. I’ve […]

Winchester Lee Navy Safety?

November 4, 2014 Ian McCollum 69

It appears that a fellow in Pennsylvania had an 1895 Lee Navy rifle explode in his hands this past Sunday while out shooting. This sort of thing happens from time to time with all sorts […]

Bergmann 1894 Grip Style

October 29, 2014 Ian McCollum 21

I recently had the opportunity to examine a very early model 1894 Bergmann pistol, and made an interesting discovery (discovery to me, at any rate). The gun has a rather elegant bird’s-head grip, and a […]

Rock Island Regional Auction – July 2014

July 8, 2014 Ian McCollum 21

Yep, it’s time for another Rock Island Regional Auction this coming weekend! These are typically less valuable guns than the Premier auctions, and most of the lots include multiple guns instead of just one. Sometimes […]

New Orleans Museums: WWII and Confederacy

June 17, 2014 Ian McCollum 19

I recently had the opportunity to travel to New Orleans, and spent some time in two different military museums there (of course!). One was the massive National World War II Museum founded by Stephen Ambrose, […]

BAR Comparison: M1918 vs M1918A2

June 3, 2014 Ian McCollum 87

I was doing some reading up on the BAR, and some shooting with a semiauto Ohio Ordnance Works A3 model BAR recently, in addition to the recent 2-gun match we did with it. I got […]