Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

RIA: Liegeoise 1888 Trials Rifle

August 19, 2015 Ian McCollum 69

The Belgian Army held rifle trials in the late 1880s to choose a new infantry rifle, and the winner was the Model 1889 Belgian Mauser. Quite a few different guns were involved in the competition […]

RIA: German Gewehr 41(M)

August 18, 2015 Ian McCollum 40

When the German military started looking for a self-loading rifle in the late 1930s, they had a pretty strict set of requirements. Most significantly, the rifles could not have gas ports or recoiling barrels, could […]

Garand converted to use AR10 magazines by Artillerie Inrichtingen

Dutch M1 with AR-10 Magazines

August 5, 2015 Ian McCollum 19

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Dutch government was looking to adopt a new rifle for its Army, and considered both the AR-10 (which was being produced domestically by Artillerie Inrichtingen) and the […]

French officer with a Lebel rifle and barrel-mounted light

Vintage Saturday: Throw Me a Line!

August 1, 2015 Ian McCollum 25

2-Gun Action Challenge Match: SMLE vs Kar 98AZ (Video)

July 29, 2015 Ian McCollum 45

In this month’s 2-Gun Action Challenge Match, we decided to both run World War I rifles – Karl with a 1914/1920 Kar 98AZ and I had a 1918 no1 MkIII* SMLE. In the previous enfield/Mauser matchup the […]

Irish troops unpacking a new Boys Anti-Tank Rifle

Vintage Saturday: Big Boys Toy

July 25, 2015 Ian McCollum 37

The Republic of Ireland opted to copy the German WWI Stahlhelm design rather than use British Brodie-style helmets. Until 1940, anyway, and I think it’s pretty clear why they changed. The rifle here, of course, […]

British trials Bang Rifle, caliber .303 (photo courtesy National Firearms Centre, Leeds, UK)

Danish Bang Rifle for British Trials

July 24, 2015 Ian McCollum 26

One of the first semiautomatic rifles tested by the US military was a design by a Dane named Søren Hansen Bang, which was first presented to the government in 1911. The rifles used a […]

Slow Motion: Scotti Model X

July 23, 2015 Ian McCollum 47

The Scotti Model X (the X standing for the 10th year of the Italian Fascist era, or 1932) was one of a bunch of semiauto rifles tested by the Italian military during the late 1920s […]

Father (Grandfather?) and Son in Afghanistan with a Martini and an SMLE

Vintage Saturday: Father and Son

July 18, 2015 Ian McCollum 29

One day the boy will inherit the SMLE, and probably go on fighting whichever country has decided to occupy Afghanistan by that time. Maybe it will be China? They haven’t taken a turn yet. Having […]

HMG’s US-Made Sturmgewehr

July 14, 2015 Ian McCollum 43

In all the time I have been able to look at MP-43/MP-44/StG-44 rifles, one of the comments that comes up over and over is the desire for someone to make a semiauto reproduction of the gun […]