Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

Merrill Breechloading Conversion of the 1841 Mississippi Rifle

September 9, 2020 Ian McCollum 11

Lot 1171 in the September 2020 RIA Premier auction. James Merrill of Baltimore had his hands in several Civil War era firearms – rifles built from scratch, conversions of the Jenks carbines, and also conversions […]

Hall Model 1819: A Rifle to Change the Industrial World

September 7, 2020 Ian McCollum 25

Lot 1193 in the September 2020 RIA Premier auction. John Hall designed the first breechloading rifle to be used by the United States military, and the first breechloader issued in substantial numbers by any military […]

Norinco 84S: China Makes a 5.56mm AK Specifically for the US

September 4, 2020 Ian McCollum 17

Lot 1685 in the RIA September 2020 Premier auction. With the commercial success of the semiauto Type 56S AK rifles in the US, Norinco looked for other options for export rifles to sell. Given the […]

Peabody Sidehammer: The Best Martini Action You’ve Never Heard Of

August 31, 2020 Ian McCollum 23

Lot 152 (long rifle) and lot 1164 (carbine) in the RIA September 2020 Premier auction. Henry Peabody was one of the less-recognized American firearms designers. A machinist from the age of 17, he worked at […]

Not Always Bubba: A Factory Sporter Winchester-Lee Navy Rifle

August 26, 2020 Ian McCollum 12

Lot 3106 in the September 2020 RIA Premier auction. I am happy that the practice of sporterizing military rifles has fallen out of favor, but sometimes one can throw the baby out with the bathwater. […]

Chichester “Pocket Shotgun” Revolver

August 20, 2020 Ian McCollum 16

Lot 1059 in the September 2020 RIA Premier auction. The Chichester Rifle Company (actually of Jersey City, NJ) was one of many small firms that sold branded guns made by the Hopkins & Allen company. […]

Prototype Tube-Magazine Trapdoor Springfield

August 19, 2020 Ian McCollum 15

Lot 1078 in the September 2020 RIA Premier auction. This experimental repeating conversion of a Trapdoor Springfield was most likely made by Augustine Sheridan Jones, of the Dakota Territory in the 1880s. We know he […]

CETME-L Comparison: HMG and MarColMar

August 12, 2020 Ian McCollum 6

Today, a comparison between a semiauto CETME-L rifle from MarColMar Firearms and one from HMG (albeit an example I built myself).

Calico Reliability Testing: Round #2

August 9, 2020 Ian McCollum 13

When I ran my Calico carbine through the PCC course of fire last month, I was rather surprised to see it run through 150 rounds without any malfunctions. I plan to continue shooting it without […]

Competition with a Galil R5 and Armson OEG

August 8, 2020 Ian McCollum 10

Today I headed to the monthly 2-Gun match (which is rifle-only for this month) with a semiauto Galil R5 clone outfitted with an Armson OEG (Occluded Eye Gunsight). This particular OEG has a base specifically […]