Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

The Original Shorty Mosin: The Model 1907 Carbine

August 22, 2022 Ian McCollum 13

The creation of a short and handy Mosin Nagant carbine to complement the standard M891 was prompted by the Russo-Japanese War. Lots of Russian troops with roles other than infantry – machine gun and artillery […]

Scrome J8 Commercial Production Update (For the FR-F2)

August 21, 2022 Ian McCollum 4

Scrome, the original maker of the J8 scope used by the French Army on the FR-F2 sniper rifle, is making a commercial run of J8 scopes for collectors who have the recently-released surplus FR-F2 rifles. […]

Roller-Delay Showdown: Angstadt MDP-9 vs H&K SP-5

August 20, 2022 Ian McCollum 4

Today we are out at the range to compare the Angstadt Arms MDP-9 to the classic H&K SP-5. We will do a bunch of runs on a course of fire that incudes precision targets, spinners […]

Angstadt Arms MDP-9: MP5 Meets AR15

August 19, 2022 Ian McCollum 10

Angstadt Arms has recently released their MDP-9 carbine, an AR-type lower coupled with a roller-delayed blowback upper assembly. This is the same operating system as the much-lauded MP5, and Angstadt version of the design is […]

Innovative and Interesting: Tinck Arms Perun X16

August 12, 2022 Ian McCollum 43

Don’t miss Bloke of the Range’s video of the X-16: The Tinck Arms Perun X-16 (distributed in the US by AEA Arms) is a much more interesting rifle than I expected from an initial glance. […]

L39A1: British Service Target Rifle Before the L42A1

August 5, 2022 Ian McCollum 4

The story of the conversion of the Lee Enfield to 7.62mm NATO would not be complete without the L39A1. This is essentially the civilian competition version of what would become the L42A1. It was actually […]

Spanish M43: The Worst Sniper Rifle Ever Made

August 3, 2022 Ian McCollum 13

The standard Spanish infantry rifle from 1943 until the adoption of the CETME was the M43, an 8mm Mauser short rifle made at the La Coruña arsenal. As is fairly common, a sniper rifle variant […]

Balanced Recoil AK-107 / Kalashnikov SR-1: Is It Any Good?

August 1, 2022 Ian McCollum 50

One of the really interesting variations on the AK to come out of Russian military development and testing is the balanced-recoil system, as exemplified on the military AK-107 and the commercial Kalashnikov SR-1 rifles. Contrary […]

Ask Ian: Did the Finns Hate the Carcano?

July 14, 2022 Ian McCollum 31

Asked by Prmetime on Utreon: In WW2, Finland was given approximately 100,000 Carcano M38 rifles in 7.35 Carcano. I have heard it stated that the Finns didn’t like the rifles. Can you comment on the […]

Surplus Delta Force SR25: A Sniper-Grade Carbine

July 11, 2022 Ian McCollum 13

Delta Force was an early adopter of a lot of civilian competition gear into military service, and the modern AR-10 is a great example. Delta worked with Knights Armament to fine-tune the SR-25 rifle, with […]