Handgun - Forgotten Weapons

Spanish JoLoAr One-Handed Pistol at the BUG Match

August 31, 2024 Ian McCollum 9

Today for the monthly BackUp Gun Match I am using a Spanish JoLoAr pistol in .380 ACP. It’s an interesting piece designed with a lever on the side that allows it to be cocked one-handed. […]

Welrod .32 at the Range: British SOE’s Silent Assassin’s Pistol

August 17, 2024 Ian McCollum 25

I had the chance to take a .32ACP Welrod MkII out to the range for a bit of shooting. These use a combination of baffles and rubber wipes, and the suppressor’s effectiveness quickly drops from […]

CZ’s New P09 Nocturne: DA/SA Polymer Frame Now With Optics

August 16, 2024 Ian McCollum 32

CZ has just released their new P09 Nocturne pistols, an update to the previous P07/P09 pairing. These guns fundamentally go back to the classic CZ-75. While that was (and still is) a very popular design, […]

The Experimental SOE Welrod MkI Prototype

August 12, 2024 Ian McCollum 17

The Welrod was a program to develop a silent assassination pistol for British SOE (Special Operations Executive) late in 1942. It needed to be chambered in the .32 ACP cartridge, be effective to a range […]

How Companies Bend US Import Laws (An Example)

August 2, 2024 Ian McCollum 12

Part of the 1968 Gun Control Act in the US put restrictions on importation of small handguns. These rules intended to protect US manufacturers and prevent people from having access to particularly inexpensive and concealable […]

Colt Service Model Ace: Carbine Williams Makes a .22 1911

July 17, 2024 Ian McCollum 20

“Carbine Williams”, aka David Marshall Williams, has a reputation as the designer of the M1 Carbine, and a very colorful history. He was a moonshiner who pled guilty to second degree murder of a sheriff’s […]

Landstad 1900: A True Semiautomatic Revolver

July 3, 2024 Ian McCollum 16

The Landstad Model 1900 is a magazine-fed, semiautomatic revolver designed by Norwegian Halvard Folkestad Landstad, who lived in Kristiana (now called Oslo). He designed the gun on his own dime, and presented it to military […]

Handguns in the US Army in World War Two

June 28, 2024 Ian McCollum 45

Was the 1911 an emotional support totem or a viable combat weapon? Or both? American soldiers had a bit different take on handguns than soldiers of many other armies, and I think it stems from […]

The GI’s Darling: M1911A1 at the BUG Match

June 22, 2024 Ian McCollum 2

What more classic backup gun is there than the M1911A1, beloved by GIs as a backup to their M1 Carbines, M1 Garands, BARs, and tanks? Today I’m running an April 1945 production original military M1911A1 […]

Makarov PB: Silenced KGB “Wet Work” Pistol

June 19, 2024 Ian McCollum 6

In 1967, the Tula arsenal introduced a specialized silenced version of the Makarov for covert use. This was a very effective pistol, and its design was also very heavily changed from that of the regular […]