Handgun - Forgotten Weapons

Big Iron: Development of the Colt 1848 Dragoon Revolver

August 23, 2019 Ian McCollum 6

Selling in the September 2019 RIA auction. Walker, first variation, second variation, third variation, long barrel 3rd variation, and stocked 3rd variation. Sam Colt’s first foray into firearms manufacturing did not end well – after […]

1938 Swedish Army Trials Luger

August 20, 2019 Ian McCollum 17

Lot 524 in the September 2019 RIA auction. Sweden tested the Luger in 1904, along with all the major semiauto pistols available at the time. The Luger was found to be the most accurate gun […]

Dreyse Model 1835 Needlefire Breechloading Pistol

August 19, 2019 Ian McCollum 13

Lot 408 in the September 2019 RIA auction. Johann Nicolaus Dreyse, later promoted to the aristocracy as Nicolaus von Dreyse, designed the first mainstream military breechloading rifle. His rifle was adopted by Prussia and changed […]

Marston 3-Barrel Selectable Pocket Derringer

August 18, 2019 Ian McCollum 10

Lot 1173 in the September 2019 RIA auction. William Marston was born in the UK in 1822 and emigrated to the US in the 1830s with his father, who was a gun smith. William became […]

Scheintod Revolver: A German Tear Gas Pepperbox

August 15, 2019 Ian McCollum 13

Lot 3129 in the September 2019 RIA auction. First appearing in the decade of so before World War One, the Scheintod guns were designed to fire either flash or irritant cartridges, not lethal projectiles. The […]

Freeman’s Patent Revolver

August 13, 2019 Ian McCollum 8

Lot 259 in the September 2019 RIA auction. Patented by Austin H. Freeman in 1862, 2000 of these revolvers were manufactured by Hoard’s Armory in Watertown New York in 1863 and 1864. None were purchased […]

P7A13: H&K’s Entry into the US XM9 Pistol Trials

August 5, 2019 Ian McCollum 13

The US held three series of pistol trials beginning in the late 1970s to find a replacement for the venerable M1911 handgun. H&K was a participant in all three – in the first the entered […]

1885 Dimancea: A Revolver With Sprockets

August 2, 2019 Ian McCollum 27

Patented in 1885 by Romanian military officer Haralamb Dimancea, this revolver is actually a true hammerless design. Instead of simply shrouding a hammer inside the frame, Dimancea used a pair of rotating sprockets to cock […]

Belgian GP35: The First Military Browning High Power

July 29, 2019 Ian McCollum 30

The Grande Puissance – High Power – was John Browning’s last firearms design. In fact, he only began the design; it was taken to completion by his protege Dieudonné Saive at FN in Belgium. It […]

SIG Chylewski: One-Handed Vest Pocket Automatic

July 24, 2019 Ian McCollum 23

Designed by Witold Chylewski, this was only the second pistol manufactured by SIG (the first being the 6.5mm blow-forward 1894 MAnnlicher design). It was patented prior to WW1, but only after the war was Chylewski […]