Handgun - Forgotten Weapons

BUG Match with a 98-Year-Old 6.35mm Le Français

October 16, 2021 Ian McCollum 39

Today I’m at the BackUp Gun Match in Tucson with a first model Le Français made in 1923. This is an early French semiauto pistol design intended for pocket carry. It has a 7-round magazine […]

A Tour of Chapuis Armes: Home of the MR-73 Revolver

October 5, 2021 Ian McCollum 19

With the MR-73 revolvers finally becoming regularly available in the US, I figured it would be really interesting to see how they are made! So, I headed over to Chapuis Armes, where the Directeur Général, […]

Milanese 7mm Pinfire Saber-Revolver

September 23, 2021 Ian McCollum 21

Tacticool is not a modern creation – people have been making arms that are impractical but cool looking for centuries. As a case in point, I present this Model 1864 Milanese style saber-revolver. Several different […]

Something of a Mystery: Rimfire 1874 Gasser Montenegrin

September 20, 2021 Ian McCollum 10

This revolver is a bit of a mystery. It is a Gasser-produced, Montengrin pattern model 1874, but it has been converted to use rimfire cartridges – and the specific caliber of rimfire cartridge is unclear. […]

Personalized 1911s from the WW1 American Expedition to Siberia

September 13, 2021 Ian McCollum 23

At the end of the Great War, the United States sent several thousand soldiers to eastern Siberia, to protect war supplies from the Red Russian forces and to help rescue the Czechoslovak Legion. Also known […]

Cheek Pistol Concept: Unorthodox But Effective

September 7, 2021 Ian McCollum 49

My friend Rhett Neumayer has been experimenting with an unorthodox but very interesting way to use handguns that don’t have reciprocating slides. He fits a red dot optic on a relatively tall mount, then presses […]

NAA .22 Magnum Mini-Revolver at the BUG Match

September 4, 2021 Ian McCollum 34

I’ve been taking a lot of big pistols to the (alleged) BackUp Gun Match, and I figured it was time to try out something that actually would quality as a back-up gun. So, I got […]

Marius Berger’s Ring-Trigger Tube-Magazine Pistol

August 18, 2021 Ian McCollum 21

The 1880s and 1890s were a fertile period of experimentation with repeating handguns. One such example is this design by Marius Berger, manufactured in France by St Etienne in 1880 and 1881. It uses a […]

Deliberately Obsolete: Ottoman S&W New Model No.3 in .44 Henry Rimfire

August 16, 2021 Ian McCollum 29

The S&W No.3 revolver was originally designed for the .44 Henry Rimfire cartridge, but initial US military testing caused it to be changed to a centerfire cartridge, and all serial production would use centerfire ammunition. […]

Why The Most Expensive US Martial Pistol Exploded A Lot

August 12, 2021 Ian McCollum 35

The Colt Model 1847 Walker is one of the most valuable of all US military handguns in the collecting community, with examples sometimes breaking seven figures. However, the Walker was in many ways a remarkable […]