Semiauto pistol - Forgotten Weapons

RIA: Japanese 8mm Hamada Pistol

April 11, 2016 Ian McCollum 32

Just as production of the .32ACP Type Hamada pistols was reaching full scale, Bunji Hamada was asked to redesign his pistol to use the standard 8mm Nambu cartridge. This he did, and after several changes […]

RIA: Japanese 7.65mm Hamada Pistol

April 10, 2016 Ian McCollum 33

The Hamada was one of very few Japanese military weapons made by a private commercial firm. Designed and introduced in 1940, the basic Type Hamada pistol was a blowback .32ACP handgun similar in style to […]

RIA: Yovanovitch Model 1931 Pistol

April 5, 2016 Ian McCollum 20

Lazar Yovanovitch was a Serbian native of Yugoslavia, born in Belgrade. He left engineering school to design firearms, and developed a couple .22 and .380 caliber pistols. None were adopted by the Yugoslav military, but […]

Ross Model A-2 Pistol Photos

March 23, 2016 Ian McCollum 27

A reader named Paul sent me these photos of a very odd pistol that was allegedly found in Germany during WWII. In fact, this is a very rare Ross automatic pistol, patented in 1903 by Charles […]

Savage .25ACP Automatic Pistol

March 21, 2016 Ian McCollum 33

Savage made more than a quarter-million pocket pistols in .32 and .380 caliber, but never commercially marketed a .25ACP design. They did design such a “baby” pistol, though, beginning in about 1912. Despite a significant […]

Today’s New Tech: Red Dot Handguns

March 14, 2016 Ian McCollum 75

https://youtu.be/U3ogBYjTQqk I am often asked what is the coolest new thing in firearms technology…and the answer isn’t anything having to do with the actual gun design. Our guns today are mechanically the same as they […]

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: Radom’s Vis 35: Poland’s Excellent Automatic Pistol

February 9, 2016 Ian McCollum 23

In the 1920s Poland began looking for a new standard military pistol, and tested a variety of compact .380s. The representative from FN brought along an early iteration of the High Power (along with their […]

RIA: Norwegian M1914 Kongsberg Colt (Video)

February 1, 2016 Ian McCollum 36

After a series of pistol trials, Norway adopted a copy of the Colt 1911 in .45 ACP as its standard service pistol in 1914. A license was purchased from FN (while under German occupation, interestingly) […]

Le Français .32ACP Pistol (Video)

January 31, 2016 Ian McCollum 88

The Le Français was a staple of Manufrance production, being first designed in 1912 and produced until the late 1960s. This example is in .32ACP caliber, which was only made for the commercial market in […]