Machine Guns - Forgotten Weapons

The Swiss Cheap Out: SIG 310, aka MP48

December 1, 2017 Ian McCollum 38

The SIG 310, aka MP48, is the final evolution of SIG’s submachine gun design from the 1920s. It began as the MKM/P/S/O with a folding magazine well, wooden stock, and fancy lever-delayed operating system. Over […]

The MG-15: A Flexible Aircraft Machine Gun Pushed into Infantry Service

October 29, 2017 Ian McCollum 29

The MG-15 was the first standard flexible-mounted aircraft machine gun adopted by the Luftwaffe in the 1930s. Both it and the MG-17 are evolved form a Rheinmetall/Solothurn design which would also become the Austrian and […]

Shooting the ZB-26: A Jewel of an Interwar Light Machine Gun

October 27, 2017 Ian McCollum 18

Today we have a chance to do some shooting with a ZB-26, a German-occupation 8mm light machine gun made at Brno in Czechoslovakia. The ZB-26 does not get nearly as much attention as LMGs made […]

ZB26: The Best of the Light Machine Guns

October 26, 2017 Ian McCollum 38

The ZB-26 stands as one of the best magazine-fed light machine guns developed during the 1920s and 30s – it was a very popular gun for small military forces and many countries which did not […]

Shooting the Madsen LMG – The First True LMG

October 20, 2017 Ian McCollum 18

We have looked at a couple different Madsen light machine guns previously, but until today I have not had the chance to do any shooting with a fully automatic example of one. So I am […]

The St Etienne Mle 1907: France’s Domestic Heavy Machine Gun

October 19, 2017 Ian McCollum 37

When the French first began testing machine guns in the late 1890s, they were one of the few countries that did not purchase quantities of Maxim guns. One of the reasons was that in France’s […]

The Vickers Heavy Machine Gun: Queen of the Battlefield

October 17, 2017 Ian McCollum 17

https://youtu.be/wOqftB9fBIQ For the record, I never have any financial interest in any of the guns that I film at auction houses – with the exception of this one. This is actually my Vickers HMG, being […]

M1918 BAR: America’s Walking Fire Assault Rifle

October 14, 2017 Ian McCollum 25

John Browning developed the Browning Automatic Rifle for use by American troops in World War One, taking inspiration from the other light automatic weapons in service including the Chauchat, Lewis, and MG08/15. Rather than being […]

MG-34: The Universal Machine Gun Concept

October 7, 2017 Ian McCollum 59

The MG34 was the first German implementation of the universal machine gun concept – and really the first such fielded by any army. The idea was to have a single weapon which could be used […]

Book Review: Pistolas y Subfusiles de la República Producción de Guerra

October 1, 2017 Ian McCollum 13

“Pistolas y Subfusiles de la República Producción de Guerra” is a new 580-page reference book about the pistols and submachine guns made in the Republican zone during the Spanish Civil War. It is written by […]