Semiauto pistol - Forgotten Weapons

Maxim-Silverman 1896 Pistol

October 2, 2013 Ian McCollum 35

We all know of Hiram Maxim for his groundbreaking work in machine gun development – but not many people are familiar with his automatic pistol designs. In fact, this is at least partly because the […]

Skorpion Scarab 9mm (Video)

September 30, 2013 Ian McCollum 22

In my defense, I want to point out that the only reason I wanted to get one of these pistols was to see how much it actually resembled the Czech vz.61 Skorpion, wich is a […]

H&K VP-70Z (Video)

September 23, 2013 Ian McCollum 53

I recently had the chance to hit the range with a VP-70Z, the semiauto civilian version of H&K’s 1970 machine pistol. It is notable both for being one of the few production machine pistols around […]

Book Review: Handguns of the World

September 12, 2013 Ian McCollum 7

I normally don’t have all that much interest in coffee table type gun books – the glossy photos are nice, but they generally don’t have all that much actual information. I had assumed initially that […]

Union Auto-Revolver Addition

September 8, 2013 Ian McCollum 13

I forgot to post this with the video last week on the Union automatic revolver – it’s a scan of a vintage catalog page from the Union Firearms Company, listing both their automatic revolver and […]

Biography: William John Whiting

September 6, 2013 Ian McCollum 16

Today is a continuation of an occasion series on the life stories of notable gun designers. I find it interesting to learn more about the men whose inventiveness and industriousness are responsible for the guns […]

RIA Premier Auction (Part I)

September 3, 2013 Ian McCollum 5

There is another Rock Island Premier Auction coming up in a couple weeks (September 13-15, to be specific), and as usual there is some really cool stuff going on the block. Unlike the regional auctions, […]

Union Automatic Revolver (Video)

September 2, 2013 Ian McCollum 16

The most well-known historic automatic revolver is the British Webley-Fosbery, but there were other handguns of the type that were put into production. One example is the Union auto-revolver, made in Toledo, Ohio shortly before […]

Looking for a Bergmann 1910?

September 1, 2013 Ian McCollum 28

I’ve always had a crush on the Bergmann 1910 pistol, and I’ve posted about them enough that people looking to sell them often seem to find my comments. Today, for example, I have a gun […]

Prototype Clausius Model 1905?

August 30, 2013 Ian McCollum 14

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about a series of pistols designed by a German inventor named Claus Claudius, which began with a long-recoil design in 1895. He then progressed to a floating […]