Prototype - Forgotten Weapons

When M14 Meets M16: The Fort Ellis XR-86 Frankenrifle

November 22, 2018 Ian McCollum 33

This rifle failed to sell at Rock Island on November 30, 2018. This rifle is the home shop creation of one Wilfred Ellis, a talented gunsmith form Pennsylvania. It is basically a combination of an […]

Ishapore No6 Jungle Carbine SMLE Prototype

November 21, 2018 Ian McCollum 20

This rifle sold for $5,175 at Rock Island on December 2, 2018. In 1943, the British government began a program to develop a shortened and lightened version of the No1 SMLE rifle, for production in […]

British 1942 Prototype Simplified…Enfield?

November 18, 2018 Ian McCollum 47

This rifle sold for $5,750 at Rock Island on December 1, 2018. In 1942, the British government instituted a development program to design a new simplified rifle to replace the No4 MkI Lee Enfield. The […]

Vickers-Berthier 1919 US Trials Rifle (Second Type)

November 6, 2018 Ian McCollum 14

This rifle sold for $31,625 at Rock Island on December 1, 2018. After designing the bolt action rifle that bears his name, Andre Berthier went on to experiment with self-loading designs. He developed a light […]

Tommy Steele’s TS V: Integrally Suppressed 9mm Carbine

November 2, 2018 Ian McCollum 21

Thanks to a friend in South Africa, we have a chance today to take a look at one of the five prototypes of Tommy Steele’s TS V semiauto carbine. This thing is completely ambidextrous (including […]

August Coenders’ 9x19mm Belt-Fed MG

October 31, 2018 Ian McCollum 38

August Coenders was an independent arms designer in Germany. During the 1930s he spent several years working in England and at the French Puteaux Arsenal, which contributed to a general lack of trust and interest […]

Mauser C98: The System That Cost Paul Mauser an Eye

October 1, 2018 Ian McCollum 17

One of Paul Mauser’s lifelong projects was the design of a semiautomatic rifle for the German military. He would go through a multitude of different designs searching for something that would be sufficiently reliable, durable, […]

Prototype Clement 9x20mm Military Pistol

September 26, 2018 Ian McCollum 1

Charles Clement is best known for a series of civilian pocket pistol made in the years before World War One, but today we are looking at a prototype Clement military pistol from 1914. This gun […]

Thompson’s .30-06 1923 Autorifle: Blish Strikes Again

August 22, 2018 Ian McCollum 12

RIA’s catalog page for this rifle This is a Model 1923 Thompson Autoloading Rifle, one of a batch of 20 made by Colt for US military testing in 1924. The system is designed on the […]

Colt Prototype Self-Ejecting Revolver

August 16, 2018 Ian McCollum 30

RIA’s catalog page for this revolver Robert Roy was a career Colt employee, who began his work as an engineer in 1963 (including work on the 1971/SSP pistols and the CMG machine gun series) and […]