Commentary - Forgotten Weapons

MG34.com Updated Web Site & Special Offer

March 2, 2014 Ian McCollum 14

Our friends at MG34.com (Allegheny Arsenal) have rebuilt their web site with a much nicer new layout, and are offering a month-long special to go along with it. You can get anything and everything they […]

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. […]