Machine Guns - Forgotten Weapons

Project Lightening Episode 03: Walking Fire

February 21, 2019 Ian McCollum 17

Project Lightening is a collaborative series with Othais and Mae of C&Rsenal in which we test all seven light machine guns and automatic rifles of World War One and put them through a series of […]

BXP: Blowback eXperimental Parabellum

February 18, 2019 Ian McCollum 11

Andries Piek was a farmer in South Africa in the late 1970s when he mail ordered an LDP 9mm carbine from Rhodesia. The gun was impounded by South African customs, and Piek wound up designing […]

Chinese CS/LS2: A Modern Bullpup SMG with no Redeeming Qualities

February 9, 2019 Ian McCollum 35

This the fairly modern Chinese CS/LS2 – the 9mm Parabellum export model of the 5.8x21mm QCW-05 submachine gun. It takes most of its design cues form the QBZ-95 rifle, as you can see form the […]

Shooting a Type 99 Nambu in 7.62mm NATO

February 2, 2019 Ian McCollum 49

Some older footage from the vault – this was a gun I bid on, but did not win. Didn’t want to have the whole audience thinking about bidding against me…but now that it’s been sold […]

Semiauto M2 Hyde Reproduction: The Interim US WW2 Subgun

January 9, 2019 Ian McCollum 37

George Hyde designed the gun that would eventually be adopted as the M2 submachine gun in the late 1930s, and it was first tested at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in October of 1939. At that time, […]

Shooting the H&K MP5K Operational Briefcase

December 22, 2018 Ian McCollum 32

Heckler & Koch’s “Operational Briefcase” is a clever system for covert carry of a submachine gun without the need to conceal such a large type of weapon under bulky clothing. By putting the gun into […]

Shooting the Stoner: Mk23, Bren, and 63A Carbine

December 8, 2018 Ian McCollum 38

Is the Stoner 63 really as good of a gun as everyone says? Today is my first opportunity to try one out on the range, and I’m going to look at it in three different […]

Stoner 63, 63A, & Mk23: History and Mechanics

December 7, 2018 Ian McCollum 2

The Stoner 63 is a firearm surrounded by a tremendous amount of mythology. It was Eugene Stoner’s big project following on the AR-15, and it was a brilliant piece of engineering – a single modular […]

Pre-Production FG-42 (Type C)

December 3, 2018 Ian McCollum 29

Thanks to the generosity of a collector in the Association of Maltese Arms Collectors and Shooters, we have a chance today to take a look at a pre-production FG-42, serial number 015. This is one […]

Sport Systeme Dittrich Semiauto BD-38 (MP-38)

November 3, 2018 Ian McCollum 28

Sport Systeme Dittrich in Germany is a manufacturer of a remarkably wide range of reproduction German World War Two small arms (including the FG42, StG-44, G43, MP-3008, MP-35, and VG1-5 as well as the MP-38). […]