Bolt Action Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

2-Gun Match: Enfield Jungle Carbine & Martini-Henry

February 26, 2022 Ian McCollum 18

https://youtu.be/IuSw8VbiRT I have been wanting to bring my new (to me) No5 MkI Enfield “Jungle Carbine” out to a match, and chose this month’s 2G-ACM to do it. In addition I am joined by Tom, […]

Nordic Cooperation: The Swedish M96 in Finnish Service

February 16, 2022 Ian McCollum 19

One of the significant foreign rifles in Finnish service during the Winter War and Continuation War was the Swedish M96 Mauser. These rifles began arriving in Finland even before Finland’s independence, and in 1919 the […]

Amsterdam Police Carbine: 8mm Mauser for the Carbine/SMG Squad

February 2, 2022 Ian McCollum 27

In the wake of World War Two, much of Europe was awash in small arms – but there were still organizations looking to purchase new arms rather than use the available surplus. The Gemeentepolitie Amsterdam […]

Krieghoff 8mm Mauser Carcano for the Volkssturm

January 10, 2022 Ian McCollum 24

When Italy surrendered in late 1943, German troops disarmed the Italian forces in areas under German control, and came away with nearly 400,000 Carcano rifles. These would form the core armaments of the Volkssturm forces […]

Adventures in Surplus: An M91 Mosin of Many Flags

December 23, 2021 Ian McCollum 11

Today we are taking a look at an early production M1891 Mosin Nagant rifle. This one has had quite a busy history…it was originally manufactured at the Izhevsk Arsenal in 1894, with several of the […]

Finland’s M/39 PH Sniper from the Continuation War

December 15, 2021 Ian McCollum 9

The basic equipment of the Finnish Army came from what was left in Finland by departing Russian soldiers when Finland declared independence. As the Russians had no scoped rifles at that time, Finland didn’t have […]

L8(T) Enfield: The British Army Fails to Make a Sniper

December 14, 2021 Ian McCollum 9

We looked at the 7.62mm conversion of the No4 Enfield into Rifle L8 yesterday. Part of that program was an attempt to develop a new sniper rifle on the L8 platform. To this end, six […]

7.62mm Rifle L8: The Last Gasp of the Service Lee Enfield

December 13, 2021 Ian McCollum 23

After the British adopted the FAL as the L1A1 rifle, there was still an interest in converting stocks of existing No4 Enfield rifles to the new 7.62x51mm cartridge for reserve and training use. A conversion […]

ASAC Presentation: Development of French Military Repeating Rifles

December 2, 2021 Ian McCollum 11

At the Fall 2021 meeting of the American Society of Arms Collectors, I had the opportunity to make a presentation on the development of French military repeating rifles. The story begins with the Mle 1874 […]

Ethiopian Oddities: Strange Smallbore Gewehr 71 Carbine

November 30, 2021 Ian McCollum 23

Today’s Ethiopian Oddity is a Gewehr 1871 carbine – remarkably still with its matching bolt – rechamsbered for a small bore, smokeless powder cartridge. It is a quite interesting example of an Ethiopian armorer’s work…