Machine Guns - Forgotten Weapons

Rexim-Favor SMG

January 20, 2015 Ian McCollum 24

The Rexim-Favor was a Spanish-made, Swiss-marketed, and allegedly French-designed submachine gun produced during the 1950s. Only about 5000 were made in total, as the gun failed to procure any significant military or police contracts. Mechanically, […]

Vintage Saturday: Mitrailleuses

January 10, 2015 Ian McCollum 40

From left to right, a 1914 Hotchkiss, a captured German MG08, and a 1907 St. Etienne.

Hefah Machine Gun

January 6, 2015 Ian McCollum 28

The Hefah machine gun was a wartime expedient British light machine gun design. It was created by a private company (the Ductile Steel Company) in 1940, in response to a generalized concern that all LMG […]

Vintage Saturday: Child Labor

January 3, 2015 Ian McCollum 45

PPD-40 submachine guns being assembled by young girls.

Slow Motion: .303 Lewis Gun

January 2, 2015 Ian McCollum 30

A Lewis Gun, in .303 British, at 2000 frames per second: The Lewis Gun was developed by American Isaac Newton Lewis shortly before WWI, but the US military was not interested in it (in part […]

Vintage Saturday: Yer Doin’ It Rong

December 27, 2014 Ian McCollum 12

Waffen SS soldiers investigating a captured (and disassembled) DP-28 LMG pan magazine.

Luftgekühltes Maschinen Gewehr 08/15 (Video)

December 22, 2014 Ian McCollum 22

I recently had a chance to do some shooting with a friend’s luftgekühltes maschinen gewehr 08/15 – the air cooled, lightened version of the German MG08 Maxim gun. These were one of the standard armaments […]

Vintage Saturday: Legs and Wheels

December 13, 2014 Ian McCollum 18

Imperial Russian gun crew with a 1905 Maxim on an early Sokolov tripod mount.

Slow Motion: lMG 08/15 Maxim

December 11, 2014 Ian McCollum 16

Today we’re looking at a luftgekühlt maschinengewehr 08/15 in slow motion – a lightened and mair-cooled version of the Maxim used on German WWI aircraft. This particular example is set up as a Zeppelin gun, […]

Reproduction Nordenfelt Gun

December 5, 2014 Ian McCollum 21

A few days ago I was at a small machine gun shoot (which wound up being a bit larger than I’d expected), and was happily surprised to discover that one of the attendees had brought […]