Rifles

Valmet M62/S: The AK in Finland

November 7, 2017 Ian McCollum 25

After the Winter War and Continuation War, Finland settled a peace treaty with the Soviet Union, and started looking to modernize its infantry rifles – something semiautomatic was needed to replace the Mosin Nagants it […]

America’s WW1 Trench Rifle: The Cameron-Yaggi 1903

November 6, 2017 Ian McCollum 11

Virtually all nations in World War One had a periscope trench rifle of some sort, and the United States was no exception – although it was not formally adopted. The Cameron-Yaggi conversion was developed by […]

Shooting the .950 JDJ: The Largest Sporting Rifle Made

November 3, 2017 Ian McCollum 44

Made by SSK Industries on a McMillan action, the .950 JDJ is the largest sporting rifle made. The cartridge began as a 20mm Vulcan round, cut down to 70mm case length and necked up to […]

Correction: Whitworth Accuracy and Figure of Merit vs MOA

November 2, 2017 Ian McCollum 23

In my recent video on the Whitworth rifle, I made a rather embarrassing mistake, interpreting “figure of merit” accuracy measurements as complete group sizes. This was incorrect, and caused me to seriously overestimate the accuracy […]

BM59: The Italian M14

October 25, 2017 Ian McCollum 27

After World War Two, both the Beretta and Breda companies in Italy began manufacturing M1 Garand rifles. When Italy decided that they wanted a more modern selective-fire, magazine-fed rifle, they chose to adapt the M1 […]

Confederate Morse Carbine: Centerfire Cartridges Ahead of Their Time

October 23, 2017 Ian McCollum 20

George Morse of Baton Rouge patented a design for a remarkably modern centerfire cartridge and breechloading rifle action in 1856 and 1858, using a standard percussion cap as a primer. This was coupled with a […]

Evolution of the Sturmgewehr: MP43/1, MP43, MP44, and StG44

October 18, 2017 Ian McCollum 41

MP43/1: https://jamesdjulia.com/item/52359-1-397/ MP44: https://jamesdjulia.com/item/52520-5-397/ StG44: https://jamesdjulia.com/item/52725-1-397/ Today we are going to look at the evolution of the Sturmgewehr – from the MP43/I and MP43 to the MP44 and StG44, what actually changed and why?