Prototype - Forgotten Weapons

M1E4: Origins of the M14 Gas Expansion/Cutoff System

October 12, 2026 Ian McCollum 10

The E-series Garands were a series of prototypes made at Springfield Armory to test all sorts of different changes to the basic rifle design, from flash hiders to folding stocks. The M1E4 is a design […]

ZKP-541: A Competition Pistol So Complex it was Never Produced

October 9, 2026 Ian McCollum 9

https://youtu.be/uTrQiArjn_I Designed by Augustin Nečas in 1954, the ZKP-541 is a .22 rimfire target pistol, also called the Universal Super Rapid. It is designed to use .22 short, and long rifle, with different bolt assemblies […]

Lercker M53 Experimental .380 Italian SMG (or PDW?)

October 2, 2026 Ian McCollum 28

Between 1952 and 1956 an Italian designer named Cesare Lercker from Bologna developed a series of pistols and submachine guns. He worked with Beretta, although it is unclear if he did the work at their […]

Saco Defense M683: A Super-Simple SMG for the US Army

September 2, 2026 Ian McCollum 12

During the 1980s, the US ran the Joint Service Small Arms Program to reduce the number of different small arms in US inventory. The most significant outcome of this program was the M9 pistol, but […]

MAS SE 1935 SMG: Emblematic of French Interwar Gun Development

August 26, 2026 Ian McCollum 24

Submachine guns made their entrance into military thinking during World War One. The French military saw this and decided to adopt one in the years after the war, although they saw it in a bit […]

A WW2 German Mystery: Knorr Bremse FG42 Prototype?

August 24, 2026 Ian McCollum 77

This is really a mystery rifle, or half of a mystery rifle. It is part of the collection at Springfield Armory National Historic Site, but its exact provenance from World War Two is not recorded. […]

The Very First FAL Prototype (in 8mm Kurz)

August 22, 2026 Ian McCollum 21

Dieudonne Saive at Fabrique Nationale began developing the FAL to submit for the British post-war program to adopt new small arms. He built the first example in the German 8x33mm Kurz cartridge, as this was […]

Colt’s Vietnam Prototype AK/M16 Hybrid: the Model 703

August 17, 2026 Ian McCollum 16

“From Hartford to Vietnam” is available here for preorder: Or you can find it bundled with “Tiger Stripe: The Vietnam Camouflage Story” on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/tiger-stripe?ref=3b3v8y The Model 703 was an experimental project at Colt which […]

FNA Brescia’s Last Project: The X4 and X5 SMG and Machine Pistol

August 10, 2026 Ian McCollum 8

FNA (Fabbrica Nazionale d’Armi) Brescia was a factory in the Val Trompia in northern Italy, the same valley that is home to Beretta and many other, smaller Italian arms shops. During World War Two the […]

Aimpoint Square: An Ambitious Failed Prototype

July 24, 2026 Ian McCollum 6

Between 1990 and 1993, Aimpoint experimented with a red dot optics that was pretty ambitious on several fronts. It used a rectangular window to maximize field of view for hunting rifles and shotguns (this was […]