Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

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. […]

Israeli SP66: A Modern Mauser Sniper

April 14, 2019 Ian McCollum 16

This rifle is lot #2172 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction. Around 1980, Israeli purchased a batch of modern Mauser SP66 precision rifles to supplement or replace their stocks of M14 and Mauser K98k sniper rifles. […]

Boys Anti-Tank Rifle: Mk I and Mk I* Improvements

April 11, 2019 Ian McCollum 19

These rifles are lots #1087 and #1088 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction: The Boys Anti-Tank Rifle was adopted by the British military in 1937, and remained in production until 1943 when it was replaced by […]