Prototype - Forgotten Weapons

Ross Rudd’s Prototype Delayed Blowback AR180

March 30, 2020 Ian McCollum 68

Sold for $1,610 in the February 2020 Sport & Collectors auction. Ross Rudd was born in Toronto in 1915, but his family moved to Springfield Massachusetts in 1917, and he would grow up there. Interested […]

Prototype Locked-Breech 9x19mm Mauser HSc

March 23, 2020 Ian McCollum 20

When Mauser began development of the HSc pistol, it was intended to be a pair of guns – a simple blowback gun in .32 or .380 caliber for civilian and police use and a larger […]

High Standard’s Prototype World War One .45 ACP Pistol

March 2, 2020 Ian McCollum 17

The High Standard company only made on .45 caliber pistol, and it was an improvement on the Grant Hammond pistol tested by the US military during World War One. After his gun’s rejection by the […]

Forced-Air Cooling in an Experimental Ross Machine Gun

February 28, 2020 Ian McCollum 22

In addition to building three main patterns of straight-pull bolt action rifle for the Canadian military and the commercial market, Sir Charles Ross also experimented with self-loading rifles. Starting with a standard Ross Mk III, […]

The Prototype .280 FAL from 1950s NATO Trials

February 24, 2020 Ian McCollum 112

After World War Two, the new NATO defense alliance held a series of trials to adopt a standard cartridge and infantry rifle. This would eventually devolve and the goal of a standardized rifle would be […]

FN Grand Browning: The European 1911 that Never Happened

February 17, 2020 Ian McCollum 16

When John Browning licensed his handgun patents, the North American rights were granted to Colt, and the Western European rights to FN in Belgium. Browning provided the patents and patent model guns to the companies, […]

SIG 44/16: The Best Service Pistol, But The Road Not Traveled

February 7, 2020 Ian McCollum 13

When SIG was developing the pistol that would ultimately be adopted as the m/49 by the Danish Army and the P49 by the Swiss Army (P210 commercially), they initially experimented with both single stack and […]

Mauser-Norris Prototype: Origins of the Mauser Legacy

January 10, 2020 Ian McCollum 19

Today we are looking at one of the rarest and earliest rifles built by Paul and Wilhelm Mauser, a design which would set in motion all the events that led to the Mauser company becoming […]

Experimental Bullpup Over/Under Shotgun with a Secret

November 19, 2019 Ian McCollum 36

This is a prototype or one-off over/under sporting shotgun, made in a bullpup configuration. It is basically two long slabs of wood clamshell around a pair of barrels, with the action at the very end […]

Bill Ruger’s Prototype WW2 Light Machine Gun

October 23, 2019 Ian McCollum 21

In April 1940, the US Ordnance Department circulated a request for a new light machine gun to replace the Browning M1919A4. It was to be shorter and lighter than the Browning, and was not to […]