Handgun - Forgotten Weapons

Mauser M80SA: Actually a High Power and Actually Hungarian

January 21, 2026 Ian McCollum 20

Our book on Hungarian AKs, “Rifles on the Danube”, is available here: https://www.headstamppublishing.com/danube-book In the 1980s, the Mauser company was completely adrift, without any real plans or goals or good leadership. They had been trying […]

Tomiska’s Czech Army Pistol: Empty Magazine Auto-Ejection

January 2, 2026 Ian McCollum 10

Alois Tomiška is best known for designing the first commercially successful double-action semiautomatic pistol, the “Little Tom”. But he also designed this pistol for very early Czechoslovakian military pistol. The first trial in the program […]

SAP M10: RPB Makes a Semiauto MAC-10

December 26, 2025 Ian McCollum 6

When Wayne Daniels took over control of RPB in 1978, he introduced a semiautomatic pistol version of the iconic MAC submachine gun. Called the “SAP” (Semi Automatic Pistol), there were three versions; .380, 9mm, and […]

Japanese National Police Revolvers: S&W 37-2 and 360J

December 19, 2025 Ian McCollum 13

Before World War Two, the national police in Japan were used substantially as an enforcement agency for political reasons. After the war this changed, and the police were re-formed with a vision of them being […]

PSS: Russia’s Silent Captive-Piston Handgun

December 13, 2025 Ian McCollum 25

The PSS is a semiautomatic pistol using captive piston ammunition to achieve a comparable level of sound suppression to a .22 pistol with a good normal suppressor. It was developed to replace a couple multi-barrel […]

Steyr M1912/16 Automatic “Repetierpistole”

December 8, 2025 Ian McCollum 7

In the latter half of World War One the Austro-Hungarian military experimented with a number of select-fire pistol type weapons. One of these was the Steyr Repetierpistole M1912/16, an automatic adaptation of the regular M1912 […]

Origins of the Legendary CZ-75: Short Rail and Pre-B Models

November 28, 2025 Ian McCollum 4

Find something cool for Black Friday at Headstamp Publishing! https://www.headstamppublishing.com The CZ-75 began development in the late 1960s as a commercial project. It was not intended for Czechoslovak military use, but instead for export sales […]

Rideout Arsenal Dragon: A New Low-Bore-Axis Lever-Delayed Pistol

November 12, 2025 Ian McCollum 37

Wauser t-shirt available from Varusteleka: https://varusteleka.com/en/products/forgotten-weapons-wauser-cotton-t-shirt The Rideout Arsenal Dragon is a very interesting new pistol from an independent entrepreneurial designer, Travis Rideout. It is a lever-delayed action with a very low bore axis and […]

Project PRAK: Converting the CZ50 Pistol to 9x18mm Makarov

October 31, 2025 Ian McCollum 7

In 1966, CZ undertook Project PRAK (“Slingshot”) to investigate the possibility of converting the CZ50 pocket pistol to 9x18mm Makarov. The PM Makarov was adopted in the 1950s and used throughout the eastern bloc, but […]

Foldy-Glock: The Full Conceal M3D (History and Shooting)

October 18, 2025 Ian McCollum 49

Full Conceal was a company that designed a folding Glock. The intent was to create a pistol that could be easily, discreetly, and safely carried in a pocket but still offer the handing and capability […]