Handgun - Forgotten Weapons

Musgrave 9mm: A Gun for the Black Market

March 27, 2019 Ian McCollum 40

In the brief couple of years between the election of a new black-majority government in South Africa in 1994 and the dissolution of the Musgrave company, it attempted to produce a new 9mm pistol to […]

Swing and a Miss: The Joslyn Army Revolver

March 19, 2019 Ian McCollum 8

Benjamin Joslyn patented this .44 caliber, 5 shot, side-hammer revolver in 1858. He initially contracted with one W.C. Freeman to act as manufacturer and sales agent, but Freeman was unable to actually fulfill the first […]

ManuFrance Commercial Luger

March 17, 2019 Ian McCollum 9

Between 1909 and 1915, the huge French mail-order firm of Manufacture Francais d’Armes et Cycles de St Etienne (later called Manufrance) sold Luger pistols (as well as many other types of firearms). They were enough […]

Whitney Wolverine: Atomic Age Design in a .22 Rimfire

March 16, 2019 Ian McCollum 40

The Whitney Wolverine was a .22LR semiauto pistol designed by Robert Hillberg in 1954. It is a very distinctive looking gun, with the nickeled versions in particular being the epitome of Atomic Age styling. Unfortunately, […]

Knoch Needlefire Pistol

March 15, 2019 Ian McCollum 5

This is a handmade, single shot needle fire pistol (zündnadelpistole) made by a German gunsmith named A. Knoch in Munich in 1850. I have been unable to find any documentation about the man, but the […]

Walther Model 3: A Tiny Early .32

March 14, 2019 Ian McCollum 17

Walther was founded as a rifle making company in the 1880s, and expanded into the flourishing market for semiautomatic pocket pistols around 1910. The Model 3 was the company’s first .32 ACP caliber pistol, and […]

Model 1927 Thompson Semi Automatic Carbine

March 13, 2019 Ian McCollum 11

One of the rarest versions of the Thompsons Submachine Gun is the Model of 1927 Thompson Semi Automatic Carbine. These were regular 1921 machine guns that had their fire control groups slightly modified to only […]

Forehand & Wadsworth Old Army Revolver

March 12, 2019 Ian McCollum 6

The Forehand & Wadsworth company was a better firearms manufacturer than most people tend to give them credit for. It evolved from Allen & Wheelock, with Sullivan Forehand and Henry Wadsworth both having married daughters […]

Springfield Arms Double Trigger Navy Revolver

March 6, 2019 Ian McCollum 7

The Springfield Arms Company existed only for a brief period in 1850 and 1851, making revolvers designed by its chief engineer, James Warner, before being driven out of business by Colt patent lawyers. During that […]

Colt M13 Aircrewman Revolver: So Light it was Unsafe

March 5, 2019 Ian McCollum 48

In 1951 and 1952, Colt supplied a small number of extremely lightweight revolvers to the US Air Force, designated the M13 Aircrewman. These guns were very similar to the commercial Colt Cobra; .38 special 6-shot […]