Handgun - Forgotten Weapons

The Volcanic: Smith & Wesson’s First Pistol

August 18, 2017 Ian McCollum 18

Guns in this video: S&W Navy model S&W Pocket Model Volcanic Navy model New Haven Pocket model The deep beginnings of the Volcanic go back to Walter Hunt’s Volitional Repeater, which became the Jennings repeating […]

Shooting the Webley-Fosbery Automatic Revolver – Including Safety PSA

August 10, 2017 Ian McCollum 28

Following up yesterday’s look at the history and mechanics of the Webley-Fosbery self-cocking revolvers, today we are out at the range to do some shooting with one. In terms of handling, it is a comfortable […]

Major Fosbery’s Automatic Revolver: History and Mechanics

August 9, 2017 Ian McCollum 17

George Fosbery, V.C., was a decorated British officer with substantial combat experience in India when he decided to design a better sidearm in 1895. True semiautomatic handguns were in their very early stages of development […]

W+F Bern P47 Experimental Gas-Delay Pistol

July 29, 2017 Ian McCollum 26

The Swiss were the first country to adopt a self-loading service pistol; the Luger in 1900. They would keep those in service clear through World War 2, at which point they began seriously looking for […]

W+F Bern P43: A Swiss Take on the Browning High Power

July 22, 2017 Ian McCollum 41

In 1940, Switzerland began a series of trials to replace their Luger service pistols with something equally high quality, but more economical. They had squeezed as much simplification out of the Luger as they could […]

B&T VP9 Silenced Pistol: A Modern Welrod

July 18, 2017 Ian McCollum 28

Armament Research Services (ARES) is a specialist technical intelligence consultancy, offering expertise and analysis to a range of government and non-government entities in the arms and munitions field. For detailed photos of the guns in […]

PSM Shooting: 5.45x18mm vs 7.62x25mm on Soft Armor

July 1, 2017 Ian McCollum 32

Following up on yesterday’s history and disassembly of the PSM, today we are taking it out to the range for some shooting. In addition, wehave some generic Level IIIA soft body armor to test. We […]

Soviet PSM Pistol History: Really a KGB Assassination Gun?

June 30, 2017 Ian McCollum 37

The PSM is a Soviet pistol from the late 1970s which has gotten itself quite the fanciful reputation here in the US, thanks to extreme rarity and some imaginative magazine articles. Common lore would have […]

Lewis Short Recoil .45ACP Prototype Pistol

June 28, 2017 Ian McCollum 15

Isaac Newton Lewis is best known for the Lewis light machine gun, but that was not his only foray into firearms design. He also patented two different types of handguns – one gas operated and […]

Warner Infallible: An Optimistic Competitor to Savage and Colt

June 14, 2017 Ian McCollum 26

The Warner Arms Company was formed in (or around) 1911 to import and sell Schwarzlose 1908 blow forward pistols in the United States. It was run by Franklin Warner, who also operated a sporting goods […]