Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

SC Robinson Confederate Sharps Carbine

March 4, 2018 Ian McCollum 6

During the Civil War, the Confederacy was perpetually in serious need of armaments, as the South did not have the amount of industrial infrastructure that the North did. This led to many attempts at arms […]

Nock’s Volley Gun: Clearing the Decks in the 1700s

March 3, 2018 Ian McCollum 27

The Nock Volley Gun was actually invented by an Englishman named James Wilson in 1789, and presented to the British military as a potential infantry weapons. This was declined as impractical, but the Royal Navy […]

A Rare World War One Sniper’s Rifle: Model 1916 Lebel

February 28, 2018 Ian McCollum 9

Unlike Great Britain and Germany, the French military never developed a formal sniper doctrine during World War One – they had no dedicated schools or instruction manuals for that specialty. The three major arsenals did […]

Lee Metford MkI*: Britain’s First Repeating Rifle (Almost)

February 26, 2018 Ian McCollum 22

The first repeating rifle adopted by the British military was the Lee-Metford MkI, or as it was later redesigned, the Magazine Rifle MkI. This design combined the cock on closing action and detachable box magazine […]

King Louis XV’s Magnificent Engraved Lorenzoni Rifle

February 25, 2018 Ian McCollum 14

This Lorenzoni-pattern rifle was presented to King Louis XV of France in the mid 1700s, and is an exquisite example of firearms deemed suitable for royalty at the height of the European kings. It is […]

Valmet M71 – How Does it Shoot in Full Auto?

February 24, 2018 Ian McCollum 20

The Valmet M71 was introduced as a commercial export rifle in 1971, and was the first AK available on the commercial market in the United States and Europe. It was offered in both .223 and […]

Slow Motion: Gerät 06 (German WWII Prototype)

February 15, 2018 Ian McCollum 27

Before the invention of the roller-delayed system which would become the H&K G3, Mauser engineers in late World War Two built a small number of prototype roller-locked, gas piston operated rifles in 8x33mm, designated the […]

Daewoo K1A1: A Hybrid AR-15 and AR-18

February 14, 2018 Ian McCollum 20

During and after the Korean War, the South Korean military was armed with American weapons – M1 Garands, M1 Carbines, M3/M3A1 Grease Guns, and so on. In the 1970s they wanted to modernize their equipment, […]

How to Identify a Real M1A1 Carbine vs a Fake

February 10, 2018 Ian McCollum 42

Looking for a light and compact weapon to equip its new Airborne units, the US military adopted the M1A1 Carbine in May of 1942. This was mechanically identical to the existing M1 Carbine but with […]

The Albanian SKS: A Few Different Details

February 2, 2018 Ian McCollum 30

The Albanian SKS is the rarest of the major adoptees of the SKS rifle (Russia, China, Romania, Yugoslavia, Albania), and has a handful of interested details that differ from all other examples of the SKS […]