Prototype - Forgotten Weapons

RIA: Prototype Mauser HSv Pistols (Video)

August 24, 2016 Ian McCollum 35

When the German military finally could no longer tolerate the expense of the P.08 Luger in the late 1930s, they held a trial of possible replacements. The three main entrants were BSW with a gas-operated […]

RIA: Ethiopian ZH29 and Czech Experimental Z37

August 23, 2016 Ian McCollum 31

The ZH-29 was an influential early semiautomatic military rifle, although not one that saw any significant adoption. As best I can tell, only two countries purchased them in any quantity: China and Ethiopia. This ZH-29 […]

RIA: Prototype W+F Bern AK44 Copy of the SVT

August 22, 2016 Ian McCollum 45

The Swiss factories of SIG and W+F Bern both produced a remarkable number and variety of experimental self-loading rifles in the 1920s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. Nothing would be adopted by the Swiss military until […]

GX vs GY: What Are the Differences in Pedersen’s Garands?

August 20, 2016 Ian McCollum 24

In a last hopeful attempt to get a rifle adopted and produced for the US military, John Pedersen designed his own copy of the M1 Garand rifle in the late 1930s (approximately 1939). His toggle-locked […]

RIA: Colt 1907 Trials Pistol

August 19, 2016 Ian McCollum 34

The Colt 1907 was one of the significant developmental iterations of the design that would eventually be adopted as the Model 1911 by the US military. This pistol began as John Browning’s Model 1900 in […]

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 […]