Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

Beretta M1918: Italy’s 9mm Semiauto 9mm Carbine from WWI

December 31, 2025 Ian McCollum 7

Italy adopted the Villar Perosa in 1915, a gun that is sometimes considered the first submachine gun. Despite being fully automatic and chambered for pistol ammo (9mm Glisenti/Parabellum), it was actually not a submachine gun […]

Indonesian M95/51 Mannlicher Carbine & Short Rifle Converted to .303 British

December 27, 2025 Ian McCollum 9

When Indonesia won its independence in 1949, its military had a real mess of different equipment. The SMLE was adopted as the first standard rifle, ut these were in short supply and a lot of […]

AR-16: Armalite’s Lost Battle Rifle

December 22, 2025 Ian McCollum 25

The AR-16 was developed in the late 1950s as a less manufacturing intensive option to the AR-10. It began with the AR-12, which was a prototype intended to use a stamped receiver with the Stoner […]

M1E5 Experimental Paratrooper Garand

December 17, 2025 Ian McCollum 53

In January 1944 men of the 93rd Infantry Division field-modified an M1 to give it a shorter (18″) barrel, and the rifle was sent back to the US and tested by the Infantry Board. The […]

Knight’s Armament Silent Revolving Rifle

December 15, 2025 Ian McCollum 45

In the early 1990s, Knight’s Armament was approached by an unnamed agency looking for a very specialized weapon. It needed to be a repeating firearm that left no brass behind while being effectively silent and […]

T31: Garand’s Bizarre Bullpup

December 10, 2025 Ian McCollum 17

The T31 was John Garand’s last project during his employment at Springfield Armory. It was proposed in 1948 as a bullpup configuration rifle to minimize muzzle blast and flash. It was a select-fire rifle with […]

Semiauto SAR-80 “Sterling Assault Rifle” at the Range

November 29, 2025 Ian McCollum 24

The SAR-80 was a design by Frank Waters at Sterling in the UK, but was not actually put into production by Sterling. Instead, it was licensed to Chartered Industries of Singapore in 1977, who eventually […]

Preproduction wz89 Onyx: the Polish Krinkov

November 26, 2025 Ian McCollum 8

After developing the 5.45mm Tantal rifle (adopted in 1988), the Radom factory moved on to designing a compact “SMG” version. This would be designated the wz.89 “Onyx”, but never made it into mass production thanks […]

TKIV-85: Finland’s Ultimate Mosin Nagant Sniper Rifle

November 24, 2025 Ian McCollum 6

Join the Kickstarter for “Forged in Snow: Finnish Small Arms 1917-2025” here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/forged-in-snow?ref=desl1o Finland’s final iteration of Mosin Nagant sniper was adopted in the 1980s to replace a mix-and-match assortment of m/39-43, m/27-66, and m/28-76 […]

Pienoiskivääri m/91 Finnish .22 Mosin Trainer

November 21, 2025 Ian McCollum 1

This and all the other Finnish Mosins are detailed in my new book “Forged in Snow”: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/headstamp/forged-in-snow?ref=b8ft1r In the 1920s the Finnish Defense Forces wanted a reduced-power training rifle to allow low-cost marksmanship practice and […]