Handgun - Forgotten Weapons

Japanese Grandpa Nambu with Stock (Video)

November 15, 2016 Ian McCollum 4

The 1902 “Grandpa” Nambu is one of the first wave of successful military automatic pistols, developed by Kijiro Nambu and his team over the course of 5 years, from 1897 to 1902. It was the […]

Bergmann Simplex Pocket Pistols (Video)

November 13, 2016 Ian McCollum 22

The Bergmann 1896 Number 2 pistol was a relatively successful compact pocket gun for its day, but quickly became obsolete as semiautomatic handguns developed and improved. Bergman and his chief engineer Schmeisser spent the late […]

Chinese C96 “Wauser” Broomhandle

November 10, 2016 Ian McCollum 12

The C96 Mauser was a very popular handgun in China in the 1920s and 30s, which naturally led to a substantial number of domestically-produced copies of it. These ran the full range of quality, from […]

Collier Flintlock Revolvers (Video)

November 9, 2016 Ian McCollum 23

Elisha Collier is probably the best-known name in flintlock revolvers – to the extent that any flintlock revolvers are well known. Because of the great cost and required skill to manufacture a functional repeating flintlock […]

Astra Model F (Video)

November 4, 2016 Ian McCollum 25

The Astra Model F was the final evolution of the Astra 900, a C96 Mauser lookalike. The Model F used detachable magazines and was select-fire, with a very effective rate reducing mechanism in the grip. […]

Development of the Luger Automatic Pistol (Video)

October 31, 2016 Ian McCollum 60

Lugers! there are approximately a gazillion different recognized varieties, because the pistol became so popular and iconic. And yet…they all kinda look the same, don’t they? (If you are a Luger collector, don’t answer that!) […]

Müller 1902 Prototype Pistol (Video)

October 26, 2016 Ian McCollum 25

Bernhard Müller designed this locked-breech pistol in 1902, seemingly a hybrid of the Luger and P38 (of course, the P38 did not exist at that time). It appears to use a modified Luger magazine and […]

Book Review: The Makarov Pistol – Soviet Union & East Germany

October 25, 2016 Ian McCollum 16

Until recently, the only good reference book on the Makarov pistol has been Volume 16 of Fred Datig’s Soviet Arms series – which is hampered by the lack of public information available to the author […]

Bjorgum 1905 Norwegian Prototype Pistol (Video)

October 21, 2016 Ian McCollum 35

Niels Bjorgum was a Norwegian artist-turned-gun-designer who decided to try his hand at handguns for the Norwegian military. His design work ran from 1894 until 1921 or so, starting with long guns but later turning […]

Early Pistol Cartridges – What, When & Why?

October 12, 2016 Ian McCollum 38

In a recent discussion with a friend the topic of early automatic pistol cartridges came up. Specifically, looking at the context of which cartridges were actually available at which times, and how this might provide […]