Semiauto Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

Madsen M1896 Flaadens Rekylgevær: The First Military Semiauto

May 18, 2018 Ian McCollum 8

After losing out in the 1888 trials, Madsen and Rasmussen continued to refine their rifle. They reduced the overall length and weight, and replaced the feeding clip with a more modern enclosed magazine (although it […]

Ken Hackathorn on the M1 Carbine: Reputation vs Reality

May 15, 2018 Ian McCollum 31

The M1 Carbine has long been a bit of an enigma to me, because I have never had really good luck with the design, and yet they were extremely popular with Americna soldiers, German soldiers, […]

Madsen M1888 Forsøgsrekylgevær: The Strangest Semiauto

May 11, 2018 Ian McCollum 13

Development of the weapon that would eventually become the very successful 1902 Madsen light machine gun began many years earlier, in 1883. Two Danes, Madsen and Rasmussen, began working on a recoil-operated self loading rifle […]

Short: How to Pronounce “Garand” (and why)

May 3, 2018 Ian McCollum 40

Is it “GUH-rand” or “GAIR-end”? Well, let’s find out by asking John Cantius himself…

SIG’s World War Two Semiauto Rifle: The Model U

April 12, 2018 Ian McCollum 34

The SIG company of Neuhausen Switzerland spent the 1920s, 30s, and 40s working on developmental semiauto rifles to sell both to the Swiss military and abroad. One of the experimental models in the succession of […]

The Original Retro AR-10: Armalite’s AR10B

April 11, 2018 Ian McCollum 13

In 1994, a man named Mark Westrom, owner of Eagle Arms, purchased the husk of the Armalite corporation, and acquired its trademarks. Westrom wanted to create a new commercial .308 AR pattern rifle, and did […]

H&K Quality Meets the Thumbhole Stock: The SR-9

April 8, 2018 Ian McCollum 13

The H&K SR9 was a the version of the H&K G3/91 designed to comply with (or avoid, if you prefer) the Bush Sr. 1989 import ban on “assault weapons”. About 4,000 of these were imported […]

Danish Gevaer m/50 – An American Gun Made in Italy

April 4, 2018 Ian McCollum 23

Dozens of countries around the world received M1 Garand rifles from the United States in the decades after World War Two, and Denmark was one of those that not only got some rifle but went […]

The Diamond of Collector FALs: The G-Series

April 2, 2018 Ian McCollum 25

When the Browning Arms Company first began importing semiautomatic FAL rifles from FN in 1959, the submitted an example for evaluation, and ATF determined that it was not a machine gun. The rifle was made […]

Israeli M1919 Brownings and the US Semiauto Market

March 28, 2018 Ian McCollum 37

In the world of converted semiautomatic “machine guns,” the Browning 1919 is a happy example of one of the most iconic and historically important US machine guns and also one of the cheapest semiautomatic belt […]