Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

Transitional Swiss Sniper K31 Rifles (Video)

June 27, 2016 Ian McCollum 12

During World War II, the Swiss military experimented with two models of K31 carbine with integral optics (the K31/42 and K31/43). These were found to be not sufficient for military service, and after more experimentation […]

French soldiers attacking in the Argonne in 1915

Vintage Saturday: Fixed Bayonets

June 25, 2016 Ian McCollum 61

RIA – Swiss Model 1893: A Mannlicher Cavalry Carbine

June 21, 2016 Ian McCollum 24

The Swiss were the first country to adopt a bolt action repeating rifle with their Vetterli, and followed this by changing to a straight-pull design in the 1880s. The straight-pull Schmidt-Rubin system was quite good, […]

RIA: Winchester Thumb Trigger Rifle

June 19, 2016 Ian McCollum 31

The Winchester Thumb Trigger rifle was a very inexpensive boy’s rifle developed from the Model 1902. It is a single-shot .22 rimfire bolt action system, on which the trigger was replaced by a thumb-activated sear […]

RIA – Spanish FR-8: the “Cetmeton”

June 14, 2016 Ian McCollum 21

The FR-8 is a Spanish rifle manufactured in the 1950s as part of Spain’s adoption of the CETME semiautomatic rifles. Spain was not only moving to their first semiauto rifle, but also changing from 8mm […]

RIA: Gewehr 1898 – Germany’s Standard WWI Rifle

June 11, 2016 Ian McCollum 52

The Gewehr 1898 was the product of a decade of bolt action repeating rifle improvements by the Mauser company, and would be the standard German infantry rifle through both World Wars. Today we are looking […]

RIA: Spanish “El Tigre” Winchester 92 Copy

June 5, 2016 Ian McCollum 29

Spain was historically a major center of patent infringement in firearms manufacture because its patent law left open a big loophole: patents were only enforceable if the patent holder actually manufactured their guns in Spain. […]

RIA: Evans New Model Carbine

June 3, 2016 Ian McCollum 15

The Evans rifle/carbine was developed in 1873 by a Maine dentist named Warren Evans. Its main innovation was a large helical magazine that held a whopping 34 cartridges of Evan’s proprietary .44 caliber cartridge. By […]

Wolfgang Riess, one of the Commandos who used these CETMEs, later to work as an H&K weapons technician

French Marine Commandos with CETME Rifles

June 1, 2016 Ian McCollum 40

I was doing some reading up on the early roller-delayed rifles (in Blake Stevens’ exquisitely technical and detailed book Full Circle: A Treatise on Roller Locking) and came across this very cool story, which I […]

Japanese Type 4 Garand Photos

May 24, 2016 Ian McCollum 20

Towards the end of WWII, in 1944, the Japanese Navy developed a copy of the American M1 Garand rifle, chambered for the 7.7mm cartridge. This followed attempts to simply rebarrel captured US guns, which did […]