Handgun - Forgotten Weapons

The Luger in Finland

April 1, 2021 Ian McCollum 12

After the failure of the domestic production Ahlberg pistols and some disappointment with the performance of surplus French Ruby pistols, the Finnish military turned to DWM in Germany for a main service pistol in 1922. […]

Mauser 1912/14: Flapper-Delayed Blowback

March 31, 2021 Ian McCollum 19

Starting in 1909, Mauser had a plan to introduce a family of automatic pistols, with a picket gun in 6.35mm (.25 ACP) and a military/police service pistol in 9mm Parabellum that shared the same basic […]

Ian Fangirls Over Some Weird Bergmann (Prototype M1910)

March 26, 2021 Ian McCollum 14

This unique Bergmann Model 1910 was made by Anciens Etablissements Pieper with a grip angled slightly back compared to the standard model. It was also fitted with a square front sight and square rear notch […]

1896 Bittner: The Most Beautiful Steampunk Pistol

March 22, 2021 Ian McCollum 57

One of the very last, most common, and best looking of the Austrian manually operated pistols is the Bittner. Designed by Gustav Bittner in 1893 and going into production in 1896 (the known examples were […]

Maxim-Silverman .455 Caliber Behemoth of a Pistol

March 20, 2021 Ian McCollum 28

Hiram Maxim’s hired shop supervisor was a man named Louis Silverman. He was a skilled engineer, who was treated rather poorly by Maxim, and whose contributions were systematically understated. One of the most interesting projects […]

Colt’s Prototype Scaled-Down Model 1910 in .38/9.8mm

March 19, 2021 Ian McCollum 45

With the impending success of Colt’s program to develop new .45 caliber pistol for the US military (the 1911), the company began to look for ways to exploit the work that had gone into it. […]

Reiger Model 1889: Quick-Change Revolver Clips!

March 18, 2021 Ian McCollum 6

Edwin Reiger was an Austrian designer who took the basic mechanism of the Passler & Seidl ring trigger manual pistol and added a sort of revolver magazine to it. Reiger used a drop-in 6-round clip […]

Passler Model 1887 Ring Trigger Pistol – Now With Mannlicher Clips!

March 16, 2021 Ian McCollum 17

Franz Passler and Ferdinand Seidl formed a partnership to make manually-operated pistols in Austria in the late 1880s, but the arrangement did not last. Their design was initially patented by Passler in Austria, and then […]

Schouboe Model 1916: The Final Attempt

March 15, 2021 Ian McCollum 9

The final iteration of the Danish Schouboe pistol is this, the model 1916. Produced in prototype quantities only, it took the features of the 1910 pattern (safety and external barrel pivot) and made a few […]

Schulhof Model 1887 Manual Ring-Trigger Pistol

March 12, 2021 Ian McCollum 21

Josef Schulhof was the the first and most prolific designer of manually operated pistols in Austria in the 1880s. For a brief few years, there was a lot of developmental work done in this field, […]