Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

Book Review: FN Mauser Rifles by Anthony Vanderlinden

January 2, 2017 Ian McCollum 4

When I was waiting for my copy of Anthony Vanderlinden’s new book “FN Mauser Rifles” to arrive, I was expecting a typical sort of dry reference work. You know, the sort of thing that is […]

Winchester Proto-M14 Rifle (Video)

December 30, 2016 Ian McCollum 40

In the aftermath of World War II, the United States spent 12 years looking for a successor to the M1 Garand rifle. The new standard infantry arm was expected to be select-fire, lightweight, accurate, controllable, […]

Enfield L85A1 (Video)

December 29, 2016 Ian McCollum 70

The L85A1 (part of the SA80 small arms family) was adopted by the British military in 1985 as a new generation of small arms to replace the L1A1 FAL (one quick note, where “A1” indicates […]

Explaining the AR Safety Lever Design (Video)

December 26, 2016 Ian McCollum 49

The AR safety lever design stems from the American emphasis on carefully aimed semiauto fire, right? It flips naturally to semiauto, while the AK moves naturally to full-auto. Well, that’s not why. It’s actually a […]

Vintage Saturday: Goumier

December 17, 2016 Ian McCollum 52

Moroccan troops, known as les Goumiers Marocains were part of the French auxiliaries in the Army of Africa. As with all post-surrender French forces in WWII, they were armed and equipped with other Allied equipment; […]

Winchester Experimental Mag-Fed Garands (Video)

December 12, 2016 Ian McCollum 38

Even during World War Two, it was clear that the United States was interested in improving on the M1 Garand rifle. A company that could develop and update to the Garand to make it selective-fire […]

Looking for ZH-29 (and Z-36, Z-37, etc) Numbers and Data

December 11, 2016 Ian McCollum 1

I am trying to put together a database of ZH29 rifle information to figure out how many were made, who they were sold to, and find out anything I can about the later evolutions of […]

German soldiers with captured American arms

Vintage Saturday: More Spoils

December 10, 2016 Ian McCollum 62

German soldiers with captured American small arms, circa 1944. The other guy’s stuff is always better than yours, right? Well, I would rather have an M1 than a K98k, but the Thompsons? No thanks. Interesting […]

Uruguay’s Forgotten Mauser: the Dovitiis

December 6, 2016 Ian McCollum 11

Uruguay’s Model 1871/94 Mauser conversions – known usually as either Daudetau or Dovitiis Mausers – are a really interesting story of arms history. It begins with Antonio Dovitiis, and Italian tailor and merchant of military […]

Colt Paterson No.1 Carbine (Video)

November 30, 2016 Ian McCollum 13

Sam Colt’s very first work was done in Baltimore, but this ended fairly quickly, and it was with his subsequent move to Paterson New Jersey that the first true production Colt firearms were made. Colt […]