Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

Japanese Pedersen Rifle at RIA

April 19, 2015 Ian McCollum 10

After he failed to win US military adoption of his toggle-locked rifle design, John Pedersen went looking for other countries that might be interested in the gun. One of these was Japan, which experimented with […]

ZH-29 Semiauto Rifle at RIA

April 17, 2015 Ian McCollum 23

The ZH-29 was the brainchild of noted Czech arms designer Emmanuel Holek in the late 1920s. It was one of the earliest practical and reliable semiauto rifles available, although Holek and the Brno factory were […]

Collected Works of John Pedersen

April 11, 2015 Ian McCollum 8

John Pedersen was one of the more prolific and successful gun designers in American history, having even been described by John Moses Browning as “the greatest gun designer in the world”. And yet, many people […]

Prototype Optic on an M1 at RIA

April 10, 2015 Ian McCollum 6

In the years after WWII, several countries experimented with general-use optical sights on service rifles. The Germans had pioneered the concept with the ZF-41 long eye relief optic during the war (and the ZF-4, to […]

PzB-39 German Anti-Tank Rifle at RIA

April 8, 2015 Ian McCollum 35

Most countries still had anti-tank rifles in their military inventory at the beginning of WWII – the Solothurn S18-100, the Lahti L39, the Boys AT Rifle, the PTRD and PTRS, and so on. For Germany, […]

Mondragon 1894 Straight-Pull at RIA

April 5, 2015 Ian McCollum 29

Most people who recognize the name Mondragon know it from Manuel Mondragon’s model 1908 semiauto rifle, the first such rifle to be adopted on a large scale by a military (the Mexican Army, in this […]

Duplex .22-06 M1 Garand at RIA

April 3, 2015 Ian McCollum 31

During the 1950s, the US Army ran a series of programs trying to find a better solution for infantry rifles than firing single semiauto bullets. These projects (including SALVO, SALVO II, and SPIW) would include […]

Pedersen GY at RIA: A Copy of the M1 Garand

March 31, 2015 Ian McCollum 27

Two of the scarcest and least known of John Pedersen’s designs are the Model GY and GX rifles, which are basically copies of the production model of the M1 Garand. After losing out in the […]

2-Gun Action Match: Gewehr 41

March 23, 2015 Ian McCollum 13

I recently picked up a Walther G41 rifle (1943 production) and have been excited to have a chance to put it through a 2-Gun match. This particular rifle has clearly led an interesting life – […]

Vintage Saturday: More Anti-Aircraft

March 21, 2015 Ian McCollum 37

Soviet snipers train at ranging aircraft with 91/30 PU rifles.