Handgun - Forgotten Weapons

RIA: Colt 1907 Trials Pistol

August 19, 2016 Ian McCollum 34

The Colt 1907 was one of the significant developmental iterations of the design that would eventually be adopted as the Model 1911 by the US military. This pistol began as John Browning’s Model 1900 in […]

RIA: Real vs “Fake” Wheellocks – What is “Fake”, Anyway?

August 16, 2016 Ian McCollum 27

When someone makes a “fake” historical gun, they can do so with the intent to deceive or be up-front with the gun’s new manufacture. Those acknowledged reproductions are a great option to have – guns […]

RIA: Little All Right

August 14, 2016 Ian McCollum 42

Aren’t these 19th century little pocket pistols cute? This is another palm-type hideout gun, named the “Little All Right” and patented in 1876. It’s actually a pretty basic revolver mechanism, just put into an unusual […]

RIA: Himmler Presentation Sauer 38H for Snipers

August 12, 2016 Ian McCollum 62

Note: I debated whether or not to use the Nazi flag in the thumbnail image, and opted to put it in there because it was in fact the German flag when this pistol was made. […]

Book Review: Documenting the Weapons used at the Little Bighorn

August 2, 2016 Ian McCollum 31

I previously reviewed a book on archaeological study of the Little Bighorn battlefield, which did an excellent and very insightful job of tracing the battle through tangible artifacts, including forensic tracing of different individual weapons […]

British women sort through guns donated by Americans for the Home Guard.

Vintage Saturday: Send a Gun to Defend a British Home!

July 30, 2016 Ian McCollum 75

“When the ships from America approached our shores with their priceless arms special trains were waiting in all the ports to receive their cargoes,” Churchill recalled. “The Home Guard in every county, in every town, […]

British Pistol Use During WWI

July 28, 2016 Ian McCollum 43

Here’s an interesting piece of research, done in 2010 by one David Thomas as part of a degree in British First World War Studies: The Pistol in British Military Service During the Great War (pdf) This […]

Roth Steyr 1907 at a Run-n-Gun Steel Match (Video)

July 20, 2016 Ian McCollum 49

We have a monthly pistol competition here called Steelworkers – a bunch of stages of all steel targets. I finally accumulated enough stripper clips (3) for my 1907 Roth-Steyr to be able to compete, so […]

Bernardon-Martin 1909 Pistol in a Chinese Museum

July 12, 2016 Ian McCollum 38

Note: I’m slipping! I initially identified this as one of the mystery Chinese pistols, having not recognized it as a Bernardon-Martin. A bunch of folks in the comments did, though, and I have corrected the […]

Q&A #5: Rollin White and Other (Better) Designers

June 28, 2016 Ian McCollum 51

Questions in part I of today’s Q&A: 1:04 – What was Rollin White’s revolver like? 7:09 – Why did pan magazines disappear? 10:14 – Why no pointed pistol bullets? 13:24 – Funky rounds like Trounds […]