Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

Stoner 63, 63A, & Mk23: History and Mechanics

December 7, 2018 Ian McCollum 2

The Stoner 63 is a firearm surrounded by a tremendous amount of mythology. It was Eugene Stoner’s big project following on the AR-15, and it was a brilliant piece of engineering – a single modular […]

LDP / Kommando: the “Rhuzi”

December 5, 2018 Ian McCollum 48

The Kommando was a semiauto SMG-type carbine designed by Alex du Plessis in Salisbury Rhodesia in the late 1970s. It was manufactured by a company called Lacoste Engineering, and financed by a man named Hubert […]

Pre-Production FG-42 (Type C)

December 3, 2018 Ian McCollum 29

Thanks to the generosity of a collector in the Association of Maltese Arms Collectors and Shooters, we have a chance today to take a look at a pre-production FG-42, serial number 015. This is one […]

Type 13 Manchurian Mauser – A WW1 Legacy in China

November 26, 2018 Ian McCollum 28

This rifle sold for $5,750 at Rock Island on December 2, 2018. The Liao Type 13 was produced at what would become known as the Mukden Arsenal in Manchuria starting in 1924, with production facilitated […]

Germany’s WW1 Zeiss Bifocal Scope: the Glasvisier 16

November 24, 2018 Ian McCollum 6

This rifle sold for $4,600 at Rock Island on December 2, 2018. The Zeiss 2.5x Glasvizier 16 optic is one of the most unusual and interesting of the German sighting systems used on rifles during […]

The Israeli Galil

November 23, 2018 Ian McCollum 35

These rifles are selling at Rock Island on November 30 and December 1, 2018 – the 5.56mm Model 392 brought $4,600 and 7.62mm Model 323S brought $3,738. The Galil was the result of a program to […]

When M14 Meets M16: The Fort Ellis XR-86 Frankenrifle

November 22, 2018 Ian McCollum 33

This rifle failed to sell at Rock Island on November 30, 2018. This rifle is the home shop creation of one Wilfred Ellis, a talented gunsmith form Pennsylvania. It is basically a combination of an […]

Ishapore No6 Jungle Carbine SMLE Prototype

November 21, 2018 Ian McCollum 20

This rifle sold for $5,175 at Rock Island on December 2, 2018. In 1943, the British government began a program to develop a shortened and lightened version of the No1 SMLE rifle, for production in […]

Mosin-Nagant Factory Pressure Test Rifle

November 20, 2018 Ian McCollum 17

This rifle sold for $3,450 at Rock Island on December 1, 2018. How did people determine chamber pressure in the years before computers and fancy electronics? Well, by squishing a calibrated slug of copper. Factories […]

Wehrmannsgewehr – German Shooting Competition After WW1

November 19, 2018 Ian McCollum 16

This rifle failed to sell at Rock Island on December 1, 2018. Introduced by a Dutchman in 1897, the Wehrmannsgewehr was a type of 3-position shooting competition using military pattern rifles in a sporting caliber […]