Light MGs - Forgotten Weapons

Belgian Model 1915/27 Improved Chauchat

December 9, 2019 Ian McCollum 46

The Belgian Army was the second to adopt the Chauchat automatic rifle, after the French. Almost all of Belgium was under German occupation during World War One, leaving Belgium significantly dependent on French aid for […]

Japanese WW2 Training Machine Gun

October 25, 2019 Ian McCollum 15

This is Lot 2086 in the upcoming October 2019 Morphy Extraordinary auction. Before and during World War Two, the Japanese used a variety of training rifles and machine guns in both formal military instruction and […]

Bill Ruger’s Prototype WW2 Light Machine Gun

October 23, 2019 Ian McCollum 21

In April 1940, the US Ordnance Department circulated a request for a new light machine gun to replace the Browning M1919A4. It was to be shorter and lighter than the Browning, and was not to […]

Origins of Constant Recoil: The Ultimax Mk3 (feat. Mae & a Yeti)

October 19, 2019 Ian McCollum 45

This is Lot 2052 in the upcoming October 2019 Morphy Extraordinary auction. The Ultimax light machine gun was developed by James Sullivan for the Singaporean military, and it is the first mass-production machine gun to […]

Before the Lewis Gun was the McClean Automatic Rifle

October 18, 2019 Ian McCollum 24

This is Lot 1158 in the upcoming October Morphy Extraordinary auction. Samuel McClean was a medical doctor from Iowa who began tinkering with firearms designs in 1889, and formed the McClean Arms Company in 1896. […]

WW1 Villar Perosa SMG at the Range

September 28, 2019 Ian McCollum 51

This is lot 1042 in the Morphy Extraordinary Auction on October 22, 2019. Courtesy of the Morphy Auction Company, I am out at the range today with a very rare Italian Villar Perosa machine gun from […]

C2A1: Canada’s Squad Automatic FAL

September 6, 2019 Ian McCollum 33

Canada was the first country to formally adopt the FN FAL as its standard service rifle, and in 1958 it added the C2 light machine gun version of the FAL to its arsenal. The C2, […]

Hiram’s Extra Light Maxim Gun

August 7, 2019 Ian McCollum 9

Designed in an effort to compete with the then-new Colt/Browning air cooled 1895 machine gun, the Extra-Light Maxim weighted in at just 27 (maybe 28) pounds for the gun, and 44 pounds with tripod. This […]

From Bolt Action Lee to LMG: The Charlton Automatic Rifle

July 26, 2019 Ian McCollum 27

The Charlton automatic rifle is one of very, very few examples of a conversion from bolt action to self-loading rifle actually working reasonably well. Typically this sort of project founders in expense and unreliability. Charlton, […]

History of the PK, PKM, and Pecheneg w/ Max Popenker

July 9, 2019 Ian McCollum 25

I’m happy to be joined once again by Russian small arms historian Max Popenker, for a discussion of the development of the Kalashnikov PK machine gun. This is universally regarded as one of the best […]