Prototype - Forgotten Weapons

Experimental Pre-WWI Ross .30-06 Automatic Rifle

December 14, 2020 Ian McCollum 16

In August 1913, the British War Office wrote to Sir Charles Ross requesting a sample automatic rifle for trials in the UK. Ross was able to submit a prototype on May 1914, which was tested […]

Gardiner/Scott Prototype Grip Safety on an Early 1903 Springfield

October 22, 2020 Ian McCollum 8

In 1904, a man named Orlando Scott from Ontario filed a patent application for a safety device for breechloading rifles and shotguns. His idea was basically a spring loaded grip safety in the fore-end of […]

Mauser “Zigzag” Revolver Patent Model and its Unique Cartridge

September 16, 2020 Ian McCollum 16

The Mauser brothers’ first handgun was the single shot C77, which they quickly followed with the C78 “zig zag” revolver, so named for the cam grooves on the circumference of its cylinder. What we are […]

Toolroom Prototype Smith & Wesson No.3 Revolver

August 29, 2020 Ian McCollum 7

Lot 3197 in the September 2020 RIA Premier auction. Good inventors are always trying out new solutions to problems. Those solutions may or may not work (hence Thomas Edison’s 10,000 ways not to make a […]

Prototype Tube-Magazine Trapdoor Springfield

August 19, 2020 Ian McCollum 15

Lot 1078 in the September 2020 RIA Premier auction. This experimental repeating conversion of a Trapdoor Springfield was most likely made by Augustine Sheridan Jones, of the Dakota Territory in the 1880s. We know he […]

Prototype Colt-Vektor: A 1911 on the Outside and a Beretta on the Inside

August 10, 2020 Ian McCollum 31

In the late 1990s Colt was looking for pistols it could license for sale in the United States, in the wake of the failures of both eh Double Eagle and All-American 2000. They approached CZ, […]

Prototype .45 Caliber Roth-Krnka for US and UK Trials

August 7, 2020 Ian McCollum 24

In an effort to appeal to American and British military testing commissions, Georg Roth produced a handful of prototype Roth-Krnka pistols in .45 caliber. They used a proprietary cartridge; the 11.5mm Roth (approximately 200 grains […]

FAMAS Commando Prototypes

July 17, 2020 Ian McCollum 33

Unlike most countries that adopted bullpup rifles, the French military never had a short-barreled version of their standard FAMAS. However, GIAT created several prototypes as part of their (ultimately unsuccessful) effort to market the FAMAS […]

Exploring the Details of an E.M.2 with Jonathan Ferguson

May 6, 2020 Ian McCollum 13

Join the Kickstarter campaign and preorder your copy of Jonathan’s “Thorneycroft to SA80: British Bullpup Firearms 1901 – 2020”! Sorry for the poor audio quality – I am back at the Cody Firearms Museum talking […]

Brown/van Choate Trials Rifle: Internal Hammer in 1871

April 24, 2020 Ian McCollum 10

This is lot #3221 in the upcoming RIA Premier Auction. It was scheduled for April, but has been postponed – check their web site for upcoming Online Only auctions every month, though! Designed by Silvanus […]