Commentary - Forgotten Weapons

What I Didn’t Buy Last Weekend

February 25, 2014 Ian McCollum 18

So this past weekend was a Regional auction at the Rock Island Auction house, which I neglected to post about beforehand. The Regional auctions are the ones with typically lots of less valuable guns packaged […]

The 1986 FBI Gunfight and Adoption of the 10mm Auto

February 21, 2014 Ian McCollum 46

Back in 1986 in Miami, a team of 8 FBI agents decided to execute a felony car stop on a pair of armed and volatile bank robbers named Platt and Matix. The ensuing gunfight has […]

Fake Nazi Marked Steyr M95

December 24, 2013 Ian McCollum 25

What is the fastest way to add a couple hundred bucks to the price of a WWII-era firearm? Add a Waffenamt to it, of course! German markings on a gun always drive up interest and […]

The Sad Gun Show Dilemma

December 17, 2013 Ian McCollum 27

There is an outstanding gun show sponsored by SAR in Phoenix each year that I always make a point to attend, and this year’s was about two weeks ago. One of the things that came […]

The Most Elegant Pistol Ever

December 10, 2013 Ian McCollum 60

Most of the time, guns intended to be fancy and particularly fancy leave me rather cold. I can recognize the mind-blowing skill that goes into really high-end hand engraving, but engraved guns just aren’t really […]

“I Found This Old Maxim Silencer…”

December 3, 2013 Ian McCollum 39

Since I posted my brief article on the original Maxim silencers, I’ve had more than a few people contact me saying that they have found one among the possessions of a deceased parent or grandparent. […]

Gun Nation Podcast

November 7, 2013 Ian McCollum 3

Sorry guys – I don’t have a book review ready today. I’ve got a bunch of books in hand, but I’m still working my way through them. Instead, I do have the episode of Gun […]

Cavalry Use of Pistols?

October 29, 2013 Ian McCollum 66

Here’s a subject I don’t know much about, and I’m hoping some of the folks reading this can help educate me: cavalry use of handguns. How many groups actually experimented with handguns as a primary […]

US Army Rifle and Carbine Adoption 1865-1900

October 23, 2013 Ian McCollum 43

Courtesy of reader Mike, we have today a copy of a Master’s thesis written by Major John Davis in 2007, as a part of a Staff College degree. The title of the paper is “U.S. […]

The New York Times, on Smokeless Powder

October 22, 2013 Ian McCollum 29

I ran across this brief article from the September 17, 1896 edition of the New York Times. They seem to have gotten things pretty well figured out… THE NEW SMOKELESS POWDER Change of Tactics Made […]