Bolt Action Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

The Very Neat Peruvian Navy 1891 Mauser Carbine

May 31, 2018 Ian McCollum 14

This carbine is coming up for sale here. Peru acquired a large stock of Model 1891 Mausers from Argentina in 1901, and the carbine we are looking at today is a conversion form one of […]

Germany’s First Smokeless Carbines: the Kar 88 and Gewehr 91

May 27, 2018 Ian McCollum 5

The Kar88 in this video is coming up for auction here, and the Gewehr 91 here. With the development of the smokeless Gewehr 88 “Commission Rifle”, the German Army finally made a serious effort to […]

A Book and a Rifle: The Vercors Resistance in WWII

May 20, 2018 Ian McCollum 13

One of the single largest actions of the French Resistance during World War Two was Operation Montagnards – the plan to drop about 4,000 Allied paratroops onto the Vercors Massif when the resistance was activated […]

Iron Sights at 800 Yards: New Mexico Milsurps Match!

April 21, 2018 Ian McCollum 40

While traveling through Albuquerque, I was invited to join the New Mexico Milsurps club for one of their long range rifle matches. This is no typical shooting challenge – the course of fire is 20 […]

Turkish “Enfauser” – Mauser/Enfield Hybrid Rifle

April 16, 2018 Ian McCollum 15

In the mid 1930s, Turkey updated and overhauled the bolt action rifles in its inventory, to bring them all up to that same standard for sights, ammunition, sling configuration, etc. Most of the rifles overhauled […]

A Rare World War One Sniper’s Rifle: Model 1916 Lebel

February 28, 2018 Ian McCollum 9

Unlike Great Britain and Germany, the French military never developed a formal sniper doctrine during World War One – they had no dedicated schools or instruction manuals for that specialty. The three major arsenals did […]

Lee Metford MkI*: Britain’s First Repeating Rifle (Almost)

February 26, 2018 Ian McCollum 22

The first repeating rifle adopted by the British military was the Lee-Metford MkI, or as it was later redesigned, the Magazine Rifle MkI. This design combined the cock on closing action and detachable box magazine […]

Orden Y Patria: Carabineros de Chile Model 1935 Mauser

January 31, 2018 Ian McCollum 9

The Carabinieros de Chile were formed in 1927 by combining the Rural Police, Fiscal Police, and Corps of Carabinieros into a single national police organization. We do not have an organization like this in the […]

Repurposing Obsolete Rifles: The Lebel R35 Carbine

December 19, 2017 Ian McCollum 21

Get your “Only Dropped Once” shirt here, and do your part to push back against the stereotype of the French soldier! The French military had investigated the possibility of a Lebel carbine in the 1880s, […]

Papuan Vrijwilliger Korps Mauser Carbine

December 18, 2017 Ian McCollum 26

During the transition from Dutch colonial rule to independence, the Dutch government armed a group of Papuans to help defend the territory form Indonesian military incursion. This organization was the Papuan Vrijwiliger Korps (Papua […]