Semiauto pistol - Forgotten Weapons

Chinese Warlord Pistols: the “Horn Grip Type”

May 28, 2021 Ian McCollum 8

Interested in these guns? Check out the Kickstarter for my new book on the subject, “Pistols of the Warlords”! In the course of researching Chinese domestic pistols of the Warlord Era, I sorted through several […]

Tipo Alleggerito Beretta: Because Italian Gun Laws are Wacky

May 24, 2021 Ian McCollum 19

Today we are looking at two examples of prewar/wartime Beretta compact pistols. The first is a Tipo Alleggerito Model 34 in .380. This was developed because of a quirk in Italian law which prohibited the […]

Chinese FN 1900s: From Wauser to Browningsbrowningsbrownings

May 21, 2021 Ian McCollum 18

Check out the Kickstarter-exclusive options for my new book, “Pistols of the Warlords”! One of the most popular pistols in Warlord Era China was the FN 1900, a compact and reliable officer’s pistol in .32 […]

Roth-Steyr 1907 at the Backup Gun Match

May 15, 2021 Ian McCollum 17

Posting a couple videos on interesting versions of the Roth-Steyr pistols recently made me think about just how nice of a pistol the 1907 is to shoot, So, I figured I’d bring it out to […]

Just Too Powerful: The C96 in 9mm Mauser Export

May 11, 2021 Ian McCollum 30

In an effort to widen its potential marked for the C96 pistol, Mauser offered it in 9x25mm (aka 9mm Mauser Export) as well as the much more common 7.63x25mm cartridge. The 9mm cartridge was made […]

Roth Steyr Developmental Models 1904 and 1906

April 30, 2021 Ian McCollum 10

Before the Austro-Hungarian Empire adopted the Roth Steyr Model 1907 as its official cavalry pistol, they of course went through a series of pistol trials. The winners of two sets of trials were the Roth […]

Hill SMG/Pistol: Inspiration for the FN P90

April 28, 2021 Ian McCollum 49

John L. Hill was a World War One fighter pilot who went into the oil and gas industry, and enjoyed tinkering with guns in his free time. In 1949 he got an idea for a […]

Lugers Under Versailles: The 1926 Simson P08

April 24, 2021 Ian McCollum 12

Simson & Co of Suhl was chosen as the sole contractor legally allowed to manufacture and rework military small arms for the German military under the Versailles treaty. They acquired the P08 Luger tooling from […]

Fritz Mann Model 1921: Chamber-Ring-Delayed Blowback

April 13, 2021 Ian McCollum 50

In 1920, Fritz Mann of Germany patented the idea of cutting a shallow ring in the chamber of a pistol as a delaying mechanism. When fired, a cartridge case would expand into this groove, thus […]

1945: The French Occupy Mauser and Make Lugers

April 7, 2021 Ian McCollum 25

In July 1945, just a few months after the first French troops entered Oberndorf, the Mauser factory began assembling guns under French oversight. In addition to HSc pistols, P38 pistols, K98k rifles, and Model 45 […]