Bolt Action Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

1884 Kropatschek: Groundwork for the Lebel

May 13, 2019 Ian McCollum 13

Preorders now open for my book, Chassepot to FAMAS: French Military Rifles 1866-2016! Get your copy here! After the adoption of the single-shot Gras rifle in 1874, attitudes towards repeating rifles began to shift in […]

French 1878 Marine Kropatschek

May 10, 2019 Ian McCollum 14

Preorders now open for my book, Chassepot to FAMAS: French Military Rifles 1866-2016! Get your copy here! The French Navy chose not to adopt the Gras rifle, and continued to use the paper-cartridge, needlefire Chassepot […]

The 1874 Gras: France Enters the Brass Cartridge Era

May 6, 2019 Ian McCollum 30

Preorders now open for my book, Chassepot to FAMAS: French Military Rifles 1866-2016! Get your copy here! After the disaster of the Franco-Prussian War, it was clear to the French military that the rationale for […]

Chassepot: Best of the Needle Rifles

May 3, 2019 Ian McCollum 19

Preorders now open for my book, Chassepot to FAMAS: French Military Rifles 1866-2016! Get your copy here! The Model 1866 Chassepot was France’s first military cartridge-firing rifle. It used a self-contained paper cartridge on the […]

Marga Trials Rifle: Competition For the Belgian Army

April 30, 2019 Ian McCollum 15

This rifle is lot #410 in the upcoming May 2019 Rock Island auction. When the Belgian military decided to adopt a new rifle in the late 1880s, they attached a wide variety of competitors. The […]

Italy Modernizes: the Carcano Needlefire Rifle Conversion

April 15, 2019 Ian McCollum 27

This rifle is lot #1415 in the upcoming April 2019 Morphy auction. When Prussia and its Dreyse needle fire rifles defeated Austria and its muzzleloaders at Shadow in 1866, much of the world took note. […]

Israeli SP66: A Modern Mauser Sniper

April 14, 2019 Ian McCollum 16

This rifle is lot #2172 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction. Around 1980, Israeli purchased a batch of modern Mauser SP66 precision rifles to supplement or replace their stocks of M14 and Mauser K98k sniper rifles. […]

Boys Anti-Tank Rifle: Mk I and Mk I* Improvements

April 11, 2019 Ian McCollum 19

These rifles are lots #1087 and #1088 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction: The Boys Anti-Tank Rifle was adopted by the British military in 1937, and remained in production until 1943 when it was replaced by […]

Silent Destroyer: Reimagining the DeLisle Commando Carbine

April 10, 2019 Ian McCollum 16

This suppressed carbine is lot #1079 in the upcoming April 2019 Morphy’s auction. Tom Denall’s “Silent Destroyer” (originally built on surplus Sanish “Destroyer” carbines) is a Ruger 77/44 bolt action rifle with a large integral […]

Heym SR30: Straight Pull Ball-Bearing Lock?

April 8, 2019 Ian McCollum 39

This rifle is lot #2168 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction. The Heym SR30 is a modern hunting rifle produced in Thuringia, Germany using a rather clever and interesting locking system. It is a straight-pull rifle […]