Semiauto pistol - Forgotten Weapons

American Eagle Lugers at RIA

December 2, 2014 Ian McCollum 20

Many people are aware of the .45 caliber Lugers made for US military field trials – but far fewer people realize that Lugers were both tested by the US military and sold commercially several years […]

Development of the Model 1911 Pistol (Video)

December 1, 2014 Ian McCollum 25

When I was looking through the catalog for this upcoming Rock Island auction, I noticed that there were a lot of early-type Colt automatic pistols listed. I looked a bit closer, and noticed that there […]

Walther HP at RIA

November 26, 2014 Ian McCollum 25

The Walther HP was the immediate predecessor to the P38 pistol that was adopted into widespread German service. The HP (Heeres Pistole, or Army Pistol) was offered for commercial sale and export by Walther. It […]

Walther KPK Pistol at RIA

November 20, 2014 Ian McCollum 21

The Walther KPK was a modified version of the PPK automatic pistol made in very small numbers by Walther in hopes of winning a new military contract. Mechanically identical to the PPK, the KPK has […]

Iraqi Tariq Pistol at RIA

November 12, 2014 Ian McCollum 32

The official issue sidearm for the Iraqi Army (and many of its police agencies) is the Tariq, a domestically-manufactured copy of the Beretta M1951 pistol. The Beretta is a pretty decent pistol, mechanically fine and […]

Colt Offensive Pistol at RIA

November 6, 2014 Ian McCollum 11

I had the opportunity to visit Rock Island Auction again to check out the guns they have up for sale in their December 2014 Premier Auction, and put together a big batch of videos, which […]

Slow Motion: Star Model B Super

October 30, 2014 Ian McCollum 29

Today’s high speed video analysis is the first Browning-style pistol that was at hand when I took out the camera: a Star Model B Super. Manufactured in Spain for many years, this basic pistol was […]

Bergmann 1894 Grip Style

October 29, 2014 Ian McCollum 21

I recently had the opportunity to examine a very early model 1894 Bergmann pistol, and made an interesting discovery (discovery to me, at any rate). The gun has a rather elegant bird’s-head grip, and a […]

Colt All-American 2000 (Video)

October 27, 2014 Ian McCollum 71

The All-American 2000 was Colt’s attempt to break into the polymer high-cap pistol market in the early 1990s, when Glock was dominating that field. Colt took what appears to have been a pretty good pistol […]

Slow Motion: Fémáru 37M

October 16, 2014 Ian McCollum 9

The Frommer/Femaru 37M was the last in the line of handguns designed by Rudolf Frommer. The 37M was a single-action blowback pistol chambered for .380, although it was also purchased by Germany in .32 ACP […]