Heavy MGs - Forgotten Weapons

Salvator-Dormus 1893 Machine Gun

October 13, 2015 Ian McCollum 38

One of the early potential competitors to the Maxim gun was the Austro-Hungarian Salvator-Dormus machine gun. Designed by Austrians Grand Duke Karl Salvator and Colonel von Dormus, is was first patented in 1888, although it […]

Vintage Saturday: Maxim’s First Maxim

October 10, 2015 Ian McCollum 19

Not actually a photo, but a good likeness of both Maxim and his first working machine gun. That lever on the side is to set the rate of fire, and one of these is still […]

Heavy Machine Guns of the Western Front, WWI

August 14, 2015 Ian McCollum 60

I have been really enjoying The Great War series on YouTube (a rolling weekly account of what happened in WWI this week 100 years ago), so I figured I ought to take advantage of an opportunity […]

Slow Motion Video from the Pattern Room

July 28, 2015 Ian McCollum 25

As someone who is very interested in the practical handling of old firearms, the idea of gun museums leaves me a bit conflicted. On the one hand, I am absolutely in favor of guns being […]

Papasan Chair as Antiaircraft Mount

July 11, 2015 Ian McCollum 18

German MG08 Maxim in antiaircraft mounting, at some point during WWI. Note the spider sights mounted halfway down the jacket, and the belt reel. Those reels allowed the guns to reliably feed at all manner […]

Three Videos: Finland, Spain, and Hungary

May 25, 2015 Ian McCollum 30

From Vesamatti, a Finnish gunsmith student who reads the site, we have this neat video of a few older Finnish Army machine guns. The KP-31, KP-44, Sten, KVKK, and DP-27. Not guns we get all […]

Backlog of Video!

April 28, 2015 Ian McCollum 13

While I have been posting daily videos from the recent series of Rock Island Auction material, I have also been publishing the occasional video on InRange TV – and some of those would probably be […]

Type 92 Japanese HMG at James D Julia

March 10, 2015 Ian McCollum 29

The Type 92 was the final iteration of a machine gun that began as the Model 1897 Hotchkiss HMG made in France. The Japanese army purchased many of these guns, and then produced their own […]

M1907/12 Schwarzlose HMG at James D Julia

March 3, 2015 Ian McCollum 37

The M1907/12 heavy machine gun was the standard mounted MG of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the First World War, and saw sporadic use clear through the end of WWII. The design is unusual among heavy […]

Vickers Semiauto Conversion at RIA (Video)

February 16, 2015 Ian McCollum 34

The Vickers machine gun was an evolution of the Maxim, the world’s first successful machine gun. The Vickers was adopted by the British armed forces shortly before World War I and remained in active service […]