Lever Action Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

RIA: Whitney-Kennedy Lever Action Rifles

February 17, 2016 Ian McCollum 29

Eli Whitney Jr., son of the inventor of the famous “cotton gin”, ran the Whitneyville Armory for many years, producing a wide variety of firearms until nearly the end of the 1800s. Among other gun […]

RIA: An Introduction to Early Lever-Action Rifles

February 6, 2016 Ian McCollum 18

We’ve all seen lever action rifles galore in movies about the old west, and most of us have handled and shot a bunch of them as well. But do you know where they came from? […]

Smoothbore Spencer: Tracing a Mystery Gun

February 3, 2016 Ian McCollum 21

Today’s firearm is not a normal gun; it is a conversion of a Spencer into a shotgun. My question is, what path did this weapon travel? What did it begin as, and how did it […]

RIA: Russian Winchester 1895 in 7.62x54R

February 2, 2016 Ian McCollum 64

The Winchester 1895 was the last of Winchester’s lever-action rifles, and has an interesting place in a couple different parts of world history. On the one hand, the 1895 in .405 Winchester caliber is known […]

Winchester 94 with Maxim Silencer at James D Julia

February 23, 2015 Ian McCollum 13

The Winchester Model 94 is one of the most iconic American sporting rifles ever made, and this particular one is chambered in the equally iconic .30-30 cartridge. It is a takedown version, made in 1907, […]

Colt-Burgess 1883 Carbine at RIA

November 27, 2014 Ian McCollum 8

The 1883 Colt-Burgess was the Colt company’s single, brief endeavor to enter the lever action “cowboy” rifle market. Winchester had been making some moves to break into Colt’s lucrative shotgun and pistol markets, and Colt […]

Spencer Rifle Conversion at RIA

November 13, 2014 Ian McCollum 23

The Spencer repeating rifle was a major leap forward in infantry firepower, and more than one hundred thousand of them were purchased by the US military during the Civil War. The Spencer offered a 7-round […]

Rock Island Regional Auction – July 2014

July 8, 2014 Ian McCollum 21

Yep, it’s time for another Rock Island Regional Auction this coming weekend! These are typically less valuable guns than the Premier auctions, and most of the lots include multiple guns instead of just one. Sometimes […]

Battle of the Greasy Grass

June 25, 2014 Ian McCollum 49

On this day 138 years ago, the combined forces of the Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho tribes delivered a staggering defeat to the US Army’s 7th Cavalry under the command of General George Armstrong Custer. The […]

Book Review: The Burgess Long Range Repeating Rifle Model 1878

April 3, 2014 Ian McCollum 7

I’ve been getting curious to learn more about Andrew Burgess and his seldom-recognized guns, and took a look to see what books might be available on the subject. As it turns out, there are basically […]