Machine Guns - Forgotten Weapons

M15 Automatic Rifle (aka T44E5): Adopted But Not Produced

March 23, 2026 Ian McCollum 59

When the US replaced the M1 Garand, the plan was to adopt both a select-fire infantry rifle and a heavy-barreled support weapon on the same platform. During development, both the T44 (later M14) and T48 […]

Madsen Model 1945: A Rather Unusual SMG

March 9, 2026 Ian McCollum 20

At the end of World War Two, the Danish Madsen company wanted to replace its production of licensed Suomi submachine guns with a design of its own. The result was the Model 1945, a quite […]

Stamm-Saurer Model 1916 Short-Recoil Light Machine Gun

January 23, 2026 Ian McCollum 15

Hans Stamm developed a series of firearms in Switzerland in the early 1900s, and today we are looking at a Model 1916 light machine gun. This was developed while Stamm was working for the Saurer […]

LMG-25: The Swiss Toggle-Locked Light Machine Gun

December 29, 2025 Ian McCollum 36

The LMG-25 was designed by Adolph Furrer at Waffenfabrik Bern in the 1920s. Furrer was a devoted fan of the toggle locking system, and also designed a toggle-locked submachine gun that Switzerland (unwisely) adopted in […]

Ian Must Face the Cursed Chauchats

December 23, 2025 Ian McCollum 34

Just for reference, here’s the Belgian M1927 Chauchat:

Between SMG and PDW: Sweden’s CBJ-MS

December 20, 2025 Ian McCollum 10

The CBJ-MS is a submachine gun designed by Swedish arms developed Carl Bertil Johansson, perhaps better known for his remarkable armor-piercing 6.5x25mm CBJ cartridge. He developed the gun at about the same time as the […]

The Extremely Rare Folding Stock Beretta 38/43

December 12, 2025 Ian McCollum 2

The Beretta Model 38 SMG was a very successful design, and a folding-stocked version of it was a natural development. Beretta first made a prototype of such a thing in 1941, but it never went […]

Walther’s Forgotten SMG: The MPK (and MPL)

December 3, 2025 Ian McCollum 29

https://youtu.be/3qElfsloKH8 Walther began developing a modern stamped sheet metal SMG in the late 1950s, and it entered production in 1963. It was an open-bolt, simple blowback gun available in a short (MPK; 6.75” barrel) and […]

The First M60 Prototype: FG42 + MG42 = T44

December 1, 2025 Ian McCollum 56

The FG-42 caught the attention of a lot of countries at the end of World War Two. The British and Swiss both used it as the starting point for some developments. The US went one […]

Drum-Fed LMG for Chinese Warlords: the Finnish LS-26/31

November 8, 2025 Ian McCollum 29

Join the Forged in Snow launch here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/forged-in-snow?ref=2sw39d After the Finnish Defense Forces adopted the LS26 light machine gun, Aimo Lahti and the Tikkakoski factory continued to work on further developing it. They designed a […]