Prototype - Forgotten Weapons

RIA: Prototype Gustloff 206 Rifle

August 17, 2016 Ian McCollum 49

German arms development during World War II was quite the chaotic mess, in many ways. While it is not uncommon for different service branches to have independent procurement systems, in fascist-era Germany this was coupled […]

RIA: Japanese ZH-29 Copy by Tokyo Gas & Electric

August 15, 2016 Ian McCollum 36

The Japanese military experimented with self-loading rifle designs through the 1930s, and had 4 major rifles in testing during that period. One was a new design by Kijiro Nambu, one was a Pedersen copy made […]

Winchester-Williams WWII .50 BMG Antitank Rifle (Video)

August 3, 2016 Ian McCollum 43

David Marshall Williams was hired by the Winchester company in 1939, and would have a hand in a number of major projects during his 10-year stint with the company, although best known for the M1 […]

W.A.R. – the Winchester Automatic Rifle

August 1, 2016 Ian McCollum 31

With the failure of the G30M and G30R to lead to any military orders (American or otherwise), the Winchester company took the advice of the Ordnance Department to scale the design up to an automatic […]

Winchester M2 Rifle (Video)

July 29, 2016 Ian McCollum 10

In the previous video, we looked at the Winchester G30M rifle as it was submitted to Marine Corps trials in 1940. When the trial result came back with the G30M in last place, Winchester immediately […]

Winchester G30M (Video)

July 27, 2016 Ian McCollum 16

With the death of Jonathan “Ed” Browning in 1939, development of the Winchester G30 rifle was passed into the hands of a new employee at Winchester by the name of David Marshall Williams. Williams would […]

Ed Browning’s Winchester G30 Prototypes (Video)

July 25, 2016 Ian McCollum 39

After Jonathan Edward “Ed” Browning had his 1929 rifle dropped form US military testing, he took the design back to his shop in Utah and kept working on it. By 1938 he had made enough […]

Colt Model 1929 Prototype .276 Rifle

July 22, 2016 Ian McCollum 43

On October 1, 1928, the US War Department published a request for semiautomatic rifle designs. The Colt company submitted this .276 caliber rifle to the ensuing trials in 1929. It was designed by Jonathan Edward […]

Pavesi Prototype SVT Copy (Video)

July 15, 2016 Ian McCollum 36

This rifle is pretty much a big mystery – I have virtually no good information on it. Through inspection, we know it is a mechanical copy of the Soviet SVT 38 or 40 – it […]

Pavesi Model 1942 Prototype Semiauto (Video)

July 8, 2016 Ian McCollum 22

The Pavesi Model 1942 is a prototype Italian semiauto rifle chambered for the 8×59 Breda cartridge. It is a short recoil action with a 4-lug rotating bolt, and appears to use a Mannlicher type en […]