Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

M1 Thumb in Slow Motion (Ouch!)

November 5, 2015 Ian McCollum 23

(Note: not for the mildly squeamish) A blog reader on Reddit named Oelund sent me this footage, of him deliberately inflicting M1 Thumb on himself at 1200 fps (twice!). I figured that ought to be […]

2-Gun WWI Extravaganza: BEF vs German Landser (Video)

November 4, 2015 Ian McCollum 34

This is the second of our two videos from the most recent 2-Gun match, which was designed with an explicit World War One theme. This one is a head to head match between me, kitted […]

2-Gun WW1 Extravaganza: 1918 German Sturmtruppen vs German Landser (Video)

October 29, 2015 Ian McCollum 57

This month’s 2-gun match was a special WWI themed event, with three long stages instead of the usual four shorter ones. The design included bayonetting, climbing ladders, crawling under wire, and throwing grenades. I shot […]

Differentiating Models of the 1894 Mondragon

October 28, 2015 Ian McCollum 24

I recently had a chance to examine 4 different examples of the 1894 Mondragon straight-pull bolt action rifle. These rifles were the predecessor to the self-loading Mondragon design which would be adopted by Mexico in […]

Firing a 10-Bore Flintlock Rifle (Video)

October 26, 2015 Ian McCollum 17

A while back I had the opportunity to hit the range with Mike Carrick, Q&A Editor for Arms Heritage Magazine (a very cool magazine, by the way). The main purpose of the trip was to work […]

Vintage Saturday: Mr. Lee Goes to China

October 24, 2015 Ian McCollum 51

Note the bandoliers of individual cartridges – these Lee-Metfords predate the adoption of charger clips, and would have been reloading one round at a time.

System Luger 1892/6 Bolt Action

October 20, 2015 Ian McCollum 21

Georg Luger is known today for just one firearm: the Luger pistol. However, he actually spent significantly more time during his career working on rifles than he did on that iconic handgun. One project in […]

Slow Motion: .276 Pedersen Rifle (Video)

October 15, 2015 Ian McCollum 56

I have assembled all the slow motion footage from my Pedersen shooting session into its own standalone video, for the folks who are interested. This does also include a malfunction that we caught on camera […]

Howard Francis 7.63mm SMLE

October 9, 2015 Ian McCollum 43

The Howard Francis carbine was a design submitted to the British Ordnance Board for consideration in 1943 – one of many weapons proposed to help meet wartime requirements. Specifically, the Howard Francis carbine was a […]

Q&A Video #1: H&K G11, Owen, F1, Worst Gun Ever, and More!

October 8, 2015 Ian McCollum 32

As part of my new fundraising system on Patreon, I am starting a monthly Q&A video series, answering questions from Patreon contributors. The support from you folks is a tremendous help to me in running […]