Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

2-Gun on the Elbe: SVT40 vs M1 Garand

January 20, 2024 Ian McCollum 11

Today I’m taking an SVT-40 to the monthly 2-Gun Action Challenge Match, and I’m joined by my friend Tom shooting an M1 Garand. We’re both using moderately accurate gear, and so naturally I have a […]

MAS-49 Carabine Mitrailleuse: A French Prototype Lever-Delayed Assault Rifle

January 17, 2024 Ian McCollum 35

When France was developing it’s new suite of small arms in the late 1940s, there was a debate over whether to adopt an intermediate-power cartridge or retain the full-power 7.5x54mm round for the infantry rifle. […]

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 6

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 […]