Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

Book Review: Basque-Made Rolling Blocks of the 3rd Carlist War

May 12, 2019 Ian McCollum 6

This new book from Mowbray is an English translation of a work originally written in Spanish by Fernando de Aguinaga and Jose Luis de Aguinaga, which clearly involved a tremendous amount of original research. The […]

French 1878 Marine Kropatschek

May 10, 2019 Ian McCollum 14

Preorders now open for my book, Chassepot to FAMAS: French Military Rifles 1866-2016! Get your copy here! The French Navy chose not to adopt the Gras rifle, and continued to use the paper-cartridge, needlefire Chassepot […]

Developmental History of the AK with Max Popenker

May 9, 2019 Ian McCollum 61

I am very happy to be joined today via Skype by Russian small arms researcher Max Popenker. You may know Max from his nearly 20 years publishing Modern Firearms, one of the original small arms […]

The 1874 Gras: France Enters the Brass Cartridge Era

May 6, 2019 Ian McCollum 30

Preorders now open for my book, Chassepot to FAMAS: French Military Rifles 1866-2016! Get your copy here! After the disaster of the Franco-Prussian War, it was clear to the French military that the rationale for […]

Book Review: Foundations of Sniper Marksmanship

May 5, 2019 Ian McCollum 4

John C. Simpson has been teaching military and police sniper training since 1985 – nearly as long as I have been alive. I encountered him back when I filmed a video on a Confederate Whitworth […]

Chassepot: Best of the Needle Rifles

May 3, 2019 Ian McCollum 19

Preorders now open for my book, Chassepot to FAMAS: French Military Rifles 1866-2016! Get your copy here! The Model 1866 Chassepot was France’s first military cartridge-firing rifle. It used a self-contained paper cartridge on the […]

Marga Trials Rifle: Competition For the Belgian Army

April 30, 2019 Ian McCollum 15

This rifle is lot #410 in the upcoming May 2019 Rock Island auction. When the Belgian military decided to adopt a new rifle in the late 1880s, they attached a wide variety of competitors. The […]

Morse Carbine: If the Army Says No, Sell it Commercially!

April 28, 2019 Ian McCollum 10

This carbine is lot #3208 in the upcoming Rock Island May 2019 auction. George Morse was one of the most significant American inventors in the development of modern ammunition. In 1856 he received a patent […]

Lee Carbine: Gunmaking is not for Sissies

April 16, 2019 Ian McCollum 19

This rifle is lot #1386 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction. James Paris Lee is known today as the inventor of the detachable box magazine, and the “Lee” in the “Lee Enfield” rifle system – a […]

Italy Modernizes: the Carcano Needlefire Rifle Conversion

April 15, 2019 Ian McCollum 27

This rifle is lot #1415 in the upcoming April 2019 Morphy auction. When Prussia and its Dreyse needle fire rifles defeated Austria and its muzzleloaders at Shadow in 1866, much of the world took note. […]