Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

Hammerli FK-31: Diopter Competition Rifles for the Haganah

January 15, 2024 Ian McCollum 2

In 1949, Israel was still fighting its war of independence, and purchasing arms internationally was difficult to do. The recently-formalized IDF wanted sniper rifles, and looked to Hammerli in Switzerland for a variant of the […]

Historical What-If: The CAR-15 SD

January 14, 2024 Ian McCollum 4

What is the MP5 was never adopted, and instead the vented barrel and telescoping silencer used by the SD model was instead developed for the AR-15? Broad River Tactical thought it would be fun to […]

SVT-40: The Soviet Standard Semiauto from WW2

January 10, 2024 Ian McCollum 10

The Red Army was interested in developing a semiautomatic rifle clear back to the mid 1920s, and they spent about 15 years running trials and development programs to find one. First in 1930 a Degtyarev […]

Beecher’s Bible: A Sharps 1853 from John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry

January 8, 2024 Ian McCollum 63

On October 16, 1859 John Brown and 19 men left the Kennedy farmhouse and made their way a few miles south to the Harpers Ferry Arsenal. They planned to seize the Arsenal and use its […]

Variations on Gras Cavalry Carbines & Conversions from Ethiopia

January 7, 2024 Ian McCollum 2

While I was at InterOrdnance unpacking French rifles, I took the opportunity to pull out a couple different examples of Gras Cavalry Carbines to show the differences between original French production examples and Belgian commercial […]

Angstadt Vanquish: An Inexpensive Integrally-Silenced 9mm AR Barrel

December 24, 2023 Ian McCollum 5

Angstadt Arms has released an interesting integrally silenced (suppressed, if you prefer) barrel for 9mm AR carbines. It uses a full-length barrel with venting ports (similar to the MP5SD system), combined with a tubular shroud […]

Hamas Claims to Make Sniper Rifles in Gaza – Are They Really?

December 21, 2023 Ian McCollum 19

Hamas – or rather its specific military wing the Al Qassam Brigade – posted a video on Twitter / X yesterday purporting to show the manufacture of .50 caliber sniper rifles in Gaza. I was […]

Gear-Ratio-Accelerated? Yep, It’s a Thing: French MAT 1955 Prototype

December 20, 2023 Ian McCollum 21

EDIT: Shoot, I managed to get the gear ratio backwards. Sorry! The recoil action provides the necessary delay, and then the gear ratio provides acceleration to ensure the bolt can open reliably, akin to the […]

Extra Firepower for Vietnam: the Aussie “B!tch”

December 18, 2023 Ian McCollum 22

Many of the special forces groups that operated during the Vietnam War found they standard issue weapons a but unwieldy for use in confined jungle environments. They also found a need for something that could […]

Gorilla GF-10: Lightweight Hunting Semiauto in 8.6mm Blackout (w/ Ballistics Gel)

December 13, 2023 Ian McCollum 4

Today I’ve got on of Gorilla Ammo’s GF-10 rifles to do some shooting with. It’s an AR-10 platform chambered for 8.6mm Blackout (they also offer it in .243 Win, .260 Rem, 6.5CM, and .308 Win). […]