Select-fire Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

WF Bern C42 & E22: Swiss Stgw90 Trials Rifles

December 24, 2018 Ian McCollum 41

Today at the Kessler auction house in Kreuzlingen Switzerland we are taking a look at the W+F Bern C42 and E22 rifles. These are the guns supplied by Bern to compete for the Swiss military […]

M1916 Fedorov: Russia’s First Assault Rifle?

December 21, 2018 Ian McCollum 77

I have been trying to get my hands on Fedorov M1916 rifle for a while, and I finally had the opportunity at the NFC, part of the British Royal Armouries. The Fedorov was designed in […]

Winchester 1964 SPIW: Flechettes and a Blow-Forward Grenade Launcher

December 19, 2018 Ian McCollum 76

Today we are looking at the Winchester company’s entry into the 1964 SPIW (Special Purpose Infantry Weapon) trials. The SPIW program was an attempt to increase small arms lethality by increasing hit probability with ideas […]

Shooting the Full Auto XM-8 Carbine

December 15, 2018 Ian McCollum 53

Thanks to H&K and to Trijicon for range access, we are out today shooting an original and authentic XM-8 carbine! The XM-8 family are relatively bulky guns; moreso than one would expect from seeing photos […]

Almost Adopted: The H&K XM8 Family

December 14, 2018 Ian McCollum 46

Today we are in H&K’s Grey Room in Virginia, taking a look at the XM-8 program. The rifle evolved form the kinetic energy carbine portion of the doomed XM29/OICW program, and eventually became the G36 […]

XM29 OICW Mockup

December 12, 2018 Ian McCollum 39

The OICW – Objective Individual Combat Weapon – was part of a program in the 1980s and 1990s to replace the whole lineup of uS small arms with a consolidated group of new high-tech ones. […]

Shooting the Stoner: Mk23, Bren, and 63A Carbine

December 8, 2018 Ian McCollum 38

Is the Stoner 63 really as good of a gun as everyone says? Today is my first opportunity to try one out on the range, and I’m going to look at it in three different […]

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 […]

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 […]

Colt Model 639: MACVSOG’s Vietnam Carbine

October 24, 2018 Ian McCollum 21

This two-stamp transferrable Colt 639 is being sold at Morphys on October 30, 2018. The Colt Model 639 was the export version of the Colt Model 629, which was type classified by the US military […]