Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

Calzada Bayo CB-51

May 1, 2014 Ian McCollum 20

Thanks to reader Barton and some connections in Spain, we have some outstanding photos of a couple experimental rifles from the post-WWII era before Spain adopted the CETME rifle. After the war, virtually every major […]

Vintage Saturday: Ancient Superpower

April 26, 2014 Ian McCollum 39

Greek soldiers in the winter of 1940/41, fighting Italy. Note the 1903 Mannlicher-Schönauer rifle, one of very few military rifles to use a rotary magazine.

Dyer Multi-Caliber Rifle

April 25, 2014 Ian McCollum 75

I received a request from a collector trying to find information on the Dyer International Caliber Rifle. I have been unable to find anything myself, but the fellow did have a pair of technical drawings […]

Johnson Semiauto Rifle Senate Hearing

April 22, 2014 Ian McCollum 30

On May 29th, 1940 the US Senate held a hearing about Senate bill 3983, a measure to adopt the Johnson semiauto rifle as a standard US military arm. Opening the testimony was Melvin Johnson himself, […]

Experimental .30-40 Trapdoor Springfield Repro (Video)

April 21, 2014 Ian McCollum 26

We have often touched on the series of US magazine rifle trials that took place through the late 1800s – those trials brought out a slew of interesting new ideas and clever (or not so […]

Bonus Video: Lahti L39

April 18, 2014 Ian McCollum 30

I had the chance to shoot a 20mm L39 Lahti antitank rifle (cannon?) at a recent get-together. It is the cheapest of the 20mm guns you can generally find, but also one of the less […]

Reproduction Gerat 06 Rifles

April 15, 2014 Ian McCollum 42

For those of you who don’t regularly visit GunLab, Chuck posted an update there yesterday that’s worth checking out. He has spilled the beans about deciding to manufacture a small run of reproduction Gerat 06 […]

Vintage Saturday: On Maneuvers

April 12, 2014 Ian McCollum 28

Zouaves on maneuvers with M1886 Lebel rifles, in 1909.

Prototype FN-49 Photos

April 8, 2014 Ian McCollum 18

I was planning to do a brief post today on a photo of a Spencer-Lee slide-action rifle, but as I started looking I found more and more information about it. I’m going to need a […]

Book Review: The Burgess Long Range Repeating Rifle Model 1878

April 3, 2014 Ian McCollum 7

I’ve been getting curious to learn more about Andrew Burgess and his seldom-recognized guns, and took a look to see what books might be available on the subject. As it turns out, there are basically […]