Semiauto pistol - Forgotten Weapons

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, […]

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 […]

M1911A1: America’s Definitive World War Two Pistol

June 12, 2024 Ian McCollum 65

The United States adopted the M1911 pistol just in time for the First World War, and between Colt and Springfield Arsenal some 643,000 of these pistols were made by the end of 1918. During that […]

Glock 46: A Revolutionary Design Change

May 31, 2024 Ian McCollum 29

Except for the .22 rimfire Glock 44, all the pistols from the Austrian powerhouse Glock have shared the same fundamental mechanical system. They use the Browning tilting-barrel action, which has been long proven by many […]

Arsenal Strike One: Russian Police Pistol Comes to the West

May 27, 2024 Ian McCollum 21

The Strike One pistol originated around 2011 as a collaboration between Nicola Bandini and Dimitry Streshinskiy as a pistol to replace the Makarov in Russian police use. By 2014 is was progressing very successfully through […]

Cartridge History: The .451 Detonics Magnum is a Supercharged .45 ACP

May 24, 2024 Ian McCollum 11

Detonics was founded as a company in the 1970s, making high-end 1911 pistols. Their first product that really put them on the map was their 3″ micro-compact 1911; something that just wasn’t available on a […]