Handgun - Forgotten Weapons

Allen & Wheelock Lipfire Navy Revolver at RIA

April 13, 2015 Ian McCollum 12

Not all companies responded in the same way to the development of cartridge revolvers and the Rollin White patent. Allen & Wheelock, for example, decided to simply ignore the patent and make revolvers for their […]

A Selection of Chinese Mystery Pistols at RIA

April 12, 2015 Ian McCollum 18

During the 1920s and 1930s, a combination of civil wars and international arms embargoes led to a lot of domestic firearms production in China. The size and quality of manufacturing facilities varied widely – everything […]

Collected Works of John Pedersen

April 11, 2015 Ian McCollum 8

John Pedersen was one of the more prolific and successful gun designers in American history, having even been described by John Moses Browning as “the greatest gun designer in the world”. And yet, many people […]

North Korean Type 70 Pistol at RIA

April 9, 2015 Ian McCollum 87

The “Hermit Kingdom” of North Korea has a number of somewhat unusual military firearms that are not quite direct copies of anything else, but we very rarely get to see example of them up close. […]

Grant Hammond .32ACP Prototype at RIA

April 7, 2015 Ian McCollum 33

Grant Hammond is best known (to the extent he is known at all) for a .45 caliber pistol submitted to US military trials in 1917 and 1918. This pistol is a proof of concept prototype […]

Merwin & Bray .42 Caliber Cupfire Revolver at RIA

April 6, 2015 Ian McCollum 18

One of the many revolver systems designed to work around the Rollin White patent was the Pant’s Patent cupfire revolver, made by Merwin & Bray in several calibers (.28, .30, and .42). This particular example […]

7.65mm Radium Pistol at RIA

April 4, 2015 Ian McCollum 18

The Radium was the predecessor to the much more well-known (and more successful) Ruby pistol made by Gabilonda y Urresti, which was sold to the French Army by the hundreds of thousands during World War […]

Colt “Cloverleaf” House Revolver at RIA

April 2, 2015 Ian McCollum 11

The Colt House revolver, better known as the Cloverleaf (and sometimes as the Jim Fisk Model) was the first revolver Colt designed from the ground up for rimfire ammunition. It entered the market in 1871, […]

Elgin Cutlass Pistol at RIA

March 30, 2015 Ian McCollum 15

In an effort to take advantage of Jim Bowie’s popularity, George Elgin patented a huge knife attached to a single shot percussion pistol in 1837. The idea was simply to offer a dual-purpose weapon, and […]

KrauseWerke .45ACP Luger at RIA

March 29, 2015 Ian McCollum 18

The story of the .45ACP Lugers is a bit complex, and widely misunderstood. What most people believe is that two such guns were made for US military testing, one was lost, and the other is […]