Percussion - Forgotten Weapons

Four-Barrel Mule Ear Custom Rifle from the 1850s

August 9, 2025 Ian McCollum 15

This is a custom rifle made by gunsmith P.E. Hall of Ashtabula, Ohio most likely between 1848 and 1854. It has a cluster of four .36 caliber rifles barrels (24 inches long) in an octagonal […]

Military-Issue Colt Model 1839 Paterson Revolving Rifle

April 23, 2025 Ian McCollum 10

The first rifle made in Sam Colt’s Paterson NJ factory was the 1837 “ring lever” rifle. These were rather fragile and underpowered and while they were used successfully in the First Seminole War, they needed […]

A DAO Service Revolver in the Civil War: the Pettengill Army

November 15, 2024 Ian McCollum 8

The Pettengill revolver is a 6-shot, muzzleloading double-action-only system designed and patented by C.S. Pettengill in 1856, and improved by Edward Raymond and Charles Robitaille in 1858. In 1859, the Rogers & Spencer company was […]

Tallassee Carbine: The Confederacy’s Last-Ditch Effort

April 10, 2023 Ian McCollum 5

In 1863, the Confederate military decided to design a new standard pattern of cavalry carbine. The designs was put together rather quickly at the Richmond Arsenal; a 25 inch barrel, brass furniture, and Enfield type […]

Colt vs Collier: Patents Lawsuits and Lawyers Oh My!

December 8, 2022 Ian McCollum 13

“Clockwork Basilisk: The Early Revolvers of Elisha Collier and Artemas Wheeler” is available right now for preorder on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/clockwork-basilisk?ref=7zdbzu Most of the historical recognition of Elisha Collier comes from the 1851 and 1852 patent […]

A Very Rare Confederate Columbus Armory Carbine

November 14, 2022 Ian McCollum 2

Carbines made by the Columbus Armory are particularly scarce, and their history is not really well understood. They were manufactured by John Gray of Columbus SC, whose brother William Gray was a partner in another […]

Rogers & Spencer .44 Army: Possibly the Best Civil War Revolver

October 26, 2022 Ian McCollum 15

Amos Rogers and Julius Spencer ran a company making mostly farm equipment in the 1840s and 1850s. In 1859, they took on a firearms manufacturing contract (as mechanical fabrication companies often do) to make Pettengill […]

The Sure Defender: An O.G. Knuckleduster Knife Gun

December 8, 2021 Ian McCollum 12

One of the early combination self-defense guns was the “Sure Defender”, with a combination of brass knuckles, a small and finicky wavy-bladed dagger, and a single shot percussion pistol barrel. The rather complex process for […]

Lindner’s Improbable Tube-Fed Striker-Fired Caseless Ammo Revolver

December 6, 2021 Ian McCollum 23

Edward Lindner was a Bavarian-born gunsmith who spent much of his professional life in the United States. He was granted no less than 13 firearms patents, and was involved in some very forward-thinking designs. Among […]

Unique Rotating Single-Shot Percussion Rifle

November 8, 2021 Ian McCollum 29

This is a very unusual single-shot muzzleloading rifle. It is devoid of markings that might identify it, but appears (to my eye, anyway) to have been built from what was originally intended to be a […]