Conversion - Forgotten Weapons

The History of Drop-In Auto Sears

December 17, 2022 Ian McCollum 19

https://utreon.com/v/Dv314wi3TLC When Colt decided to sell a semiauto-only civilian version of its AR-15 rifle, it had to make a number of changes to the design of the lower receiver to prevent full-auto fire control parts […]

Older Gun With Newer Ammo: A Centerfire Winchester 1866

October 19, 2022 Ian McCollum 11

The Winchester 1866 was chambered for the .44 Henry rimfire cartridge, like the Henry rifle before it. Before too long, however, centerfire ammunition began to take over as the best and most common type of […]

Evolving the Cheek Pistol Concept: Calico M950

October 15, 2022 Ian McCollum 35

I have found the “cheek pistol” concept form Rhett Neumayer at Demonstrated Concepts to be pretty interesting. When I was thinking about what pistol designs might be suitable for this sort of use, the Calico […]

Croatia’s Prototype Bullpup AK Conversion

September 7, 2022 Ian McCollum 21

The HS Produkt company, best known for making the XD pistols sold in the US by Springfield, was originally called IM Metal, and was a general fabrication company in Croatia. When the Croatian Homeland War […]

Arex AKB-15: A Lost AK Modernization Project

August 31, 2022 Ian McCollum 27

The AKB-15 was a project developed by Arex Defense in Slovenia in 2015. The company received a request from a small country (they decline to reveal exactly who) to modernize a stock of AKM rifles […]

Two World Wars: A Weimar Police C96 Mauser

June 22, 2022 Ian McCollum 32

In the aftermath of World War One, German police forces were responsible for maintaining social order is a very chaotic Germany. They were reequipped with small arms, and in particular needed pistols. The ideal sidearm […]

A .22LR Berthier for the French National Police (CRS)

June 15, 2022 Ian McCollum 17

In 1954, the Unique company (MAPF) in Hendaye France rebuilt a batch of 800 Berthier carbines into .22LR caliber for use by the Sûreté Nationale (later renamed the Police Nationale). These were to be used […]

Ukrainian DShK as Infantry Support Weapon

March 18, 2022 Ian McCollum 20

The initial Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014 stagnated into trench warfare after a few months, and Ukrainian forces found themselves often in entrenched positions 500m or more from Russian opposition. At that range, their […]

Lage Max11/15: A Conversion From Machine Pistol to LMG

March 9, 2022 Ian McCollum 9

Lage Manufacturing has been making conversion uppers for MAC-pattern machine pistols for a long time. They have a bunch of 9mm uppers in a variety of styles, some using magazines in the grip and some […]

The Short-Lived Suomi SMG for Armored Vehicle Mounts

January 31, 2022 Ian McCollum 14

Prior to the Winter War, Finland had just a few armored vehicles; mostly armored cars. These needed some armament, and one idea put forth was to fit an m/31 Suomi to a ball mount inside […]