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HomeNeedlefire

Needlefire

Bolt Action Rifles

Shooting the Mle 1866 Chassepot

September 14, 2019 Ian McCollum 26

A while back, I visited @CanadianGunLover, and we did a bit of shooting with an 1866 Chassepot. I lost track of the footage and only just now found where I had put it – so […]

Needlefire

Dreyse Model 1835 Needlefire Breechloading Pistol

August 19, 2019 Ian McCollum 13

Lot 408 in the September 2019 RIA auction. Johann Nicolaus Dreyse, later promoted to the aristocracy as Nicolaus von Dreyse, designed the first mainstream military breechloading rifle. His rifle was adopted by Prussia and changed […]

Bolt Action Rifles

Book Review: The Dreyse Military Needle-Ignition System

May 19, 2019 Ian McCollum 7

Leonard and Guy A-R-West have released the second book in their series on antique military rifles, this time on the Dreyse system. As anyone interested in the Dreyse has probably already learned, there is very […]

Bolt Action Rifles

Chassepot: Best of the Needle Rifles

May 3, 2019 Ian McCollum 19

Preorders now open for my book, Chassepot to FAMAS: French Military Rifles 1866-2016! Get your copy here! The Model 1866 Chassepot was France’s first military cartridge-firing rifle. It used a self-contained paper cartridge on the […]

Bolt Action Rifles

Italy Modernizes: the Carcano Needlefire Rifle Conversion

April 15, 2019 Ian McCollum 26

This rifle is lot #1415 in the upcoming April 2019 Morphy auction. When Prussia and its Dreyse needle fire rifles defeated Austria and its muzzleloaders at Shadow in 1866, much of the world took note. […]

Bolt Action Rifles

The Last Dreyse Needlefire: 1874 Border Guard

March 31, 2019 Ian McCollum 8

This rifle is lot #1414 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction. The Dreyse needle fire rifle was invented by Niclaus von Dreyse in 1836, adopted by Prussia in 1841, and would serve as their standard military […]

Needlefire

Knoch Needlefire Pistol

March 15, 2019 Ian McCollum 5

This is a handmade, single shot needle fire pistol (zündnadelpistole) made by a German gunsmith named A. Knoch in Munich in 1850. I have been unable to find any documentation about the man, but the […]

Conversion

Merckelbagh Needlefire Conversion Rifle

March 3, 2019 Ian McCollum 9

This is an example of a needle fire conversion of a French 1822 rifle based on the patent of L. Merckelbagh. The conversion was done in Paris, probably in the early 1870s. Other base rifles […]

Book review

Book Review: The Modele 1866 Chassepot

January 7, 2018 Ian McCollum 10

  Until now, there has really been nothing substantial and scholarly printed on the Chassepot needle-fire rifle in English – but now that has changed, thanks to Guy & Leonard A-R-West. Their just-released book on […]

Needlefire

Q&A Video, November 2015

November 6, 2015 Ian McCollum 17

Thanks to the awesome people supporting Forgotten Weapons through Patreon for sending in more questions that I could get to for another month! This month the subjects include: Browning lock vs others in handguns Best […]

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