Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

RIA: Marlin 1897 Bicycle Rifle

February 23, 2016 Ian McCollum 33

Marlin’s 1892 lever action rifle in .22 rimfire caliber proved to be a very popular firearm, and so the company released an improved version in 1897, offered only as a rimfire takedown model. The 1897 […]

RIA: Danish 1889 Krag-Jorgensen Rifle

February 19, 2016 Ian McCollum 14

The Danes were the first military to adopt the Krag-Jorgensen rifle, with this infantry variant in 1889. It is chambered for the Danish 8x58R cartridge, which was also used in Remington Rolling Block rifles (although […]

RIA: Whitney-Scharf Lever-Action Rifle

February 18, 2016 Ian McCollum 10

The Whitney-Scharf was the final rifle manufactured by the Whitney company before it was bought out and closed down by Winchester in 1888. Only about 2,000 of these rifles were made before that time.

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: G33/40 Gebirgstruppen Carbine

February 16, 2016 Ian McCollum 25

The G33/40 carbine was made by the excellent Czech factory at Brno under German occupation (between 1940 and 1942). It was essentially a copy of the Czech vz.33 carbine, and was specifically issued to the […]

RIA: Soviet SVT-38 Self-Loading Rifle

February 12, 2016 Ian McCollum 14

A lot of people think that the US was the only country in World War II to mass-issue a semiautomatic infantry rifle, but that isn’t true. While the US was the only country to issue […]

RIA: Predecessor to the Mosin – the Russian Berdan II

February 10, 2016 Ian McCollum 43

Before adopting the M1891 Mosin-Nagant, the Russian Empire (like most major militaries) used a large-bore single-shot rifle as its standard infantry rifle. In this case, a .42-caliber rifle designed by American General Hiram Berdan (yes, […]

RIA: Gewehr 29/40 Mauser

February 8, 2016 Ian McCollum 20

Over the next couple weeks we will be looking at several Polish firearms, and the first one is today: the G29/40. When German forces overran the arms factory in Radom, Poland, they captured in nearly […]

RIA: Porter Turret Rifle

February 7, 2016 Ian McCollum 23

The Porter was one of the few turret rifles ever put into serial production. Turret rifles are similar in principle to revolvers, but they is a cylinder with radial chambers (like the spokes of a […]

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? […]