Handgun - Forgotten Weapons

James D. Julia: Presentation Colt 1851 w/ Canteen Stock

March 11, 2016 Ian McCollum 10

One of the less common accessories for Colt percussion pistols is the original factory shoulder stock. And far less common still is the factory stock made with a canteen inside it! The stocks were made […]

James D. Julia: An Assortment of James Reid “My Friend” Knucklers

March 10, 2016 Ian McCollum 14

James Reid was a Catskills gunsmith who emigrated form Ireland by way of Scotland. He made a number of different revolvers, but is best known for his line of “My Friend” knuckleduster pepperboxes (or “knucklers”, […]

The Gun as Art: Tiffany Colts from Two Eras

March 9, 2016 Ian McCollum 12

The famous American jewelry company Tiffany & Co has a long history of offering decorative firearms, and today I’m looking at two of them. One is a cartridge conversion Colt from the 1870s, engraved by […]

James D. Julia: Confederate Spiller & Burr Revolver (Presentation!)

March 7, 2016 Ian McCollum 13

The Spiller & Burr was a Confederate copy of the 1854 Whitney revolver, made in .36 caliber under contract to the CSA. As with so many Confederate arms projects, many thousands were promised and only […]

James D. Julia: Tucker & Sherrard Texas Confederate Revolver

March 3, 2016 Ian McCollum 17

The Tucker & Sherrard (and later Sherrard & Clark) is one of the more interesting Texas Confederate revolvers. The company initially was granted a contract with the Texas state government to provide 100 revolvers per […]

James D. Julia: LeMat Grapeshot Revolver Design Evolution

March 2, 2016 Ian McCollum 32

The LeMat grapeshot revolver is one of the most distinctive and powerful sidearms of the US Civil War, sporting both a 9-round .42 caliber cylinder of pistol bullets and a shotgun barrel as cylinder axis. […]

James D. Julia: Sisterdale Texas Confederate Revolver

February 28, 2016 Ian McCollum 40

The Sisterdale revolver is one of the most original designs of the Confederate revolvers. It was devised by a group of Texans led by one Alfred Kapp, son of a German immigrant in Sisterdale, Texas. […]

RIA: An Overview of the Pinfire Revolver System

February 22, 2016 Ian McCollum 21

The pinfire system was an early cartridge type which saw widespread use in Europe, but was not widely adopted in the United States. First invented by a French designer named Pauly, it was made commercially […]

RIA: Warwinck Copy of the Savage Automatic Pistol

February 20, 2016 Ian McCollum 22

The Eibar region of Spain is known as the center of a lot of pistol production from WWI through the Spanish Civil War, typically pistols called Ruby clones. Well, the various small gunmakers there were […]

RIA: Simple Key Pistol

February 14, 2016 Ian McCollum 45

We humans have built pretty much everything into weapons over time, and here’s an example of that. There are a variety of types of key pistols in existence, varying from the elaborate and complex to […]