Semiauto Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

Meunier A6: France’s First Semiauto Battle Rifle

January 6, 2018 Ian McCollum 59

France began experimenting with self-loading rifle designs in the late 1890s, although most of this work is mostly unknown today. The work was done by the State arsenals, and kept as military secrets, without […]

Italian Trials Czech ZK-391 Semiauto Rifle

December 30, 2017 Ian McCollum 31

The ZK-391 is one in a series of Czech developmental semiautomatic rifles designed by Josef Koucký. It was developed initially in 1939 (hence the “39” in the designation), and was tested by the Italian military […]

Prototype Friberg/Kjellman Flapper-Locking Semiauto Rifle

December 22, 2017 Ian McCollum 11

The origins of flap-locking (as used in the G41(W), G43, DShK, DP, and RPD, among others) goes back to a Swedish Lieutenant Friberg in 1870, who patented the system. At that time, however, the fouling […]

The .32ACP Dreyse Light Carbine

December 2, 2017 Ian McCollum 41

Manufactured by Rheinmetall and designed by Louis Stange, this light .32ACP (7.65mm Browning) carbine is a bit of a mysterious item. Very little written information exists about it, but we know it was sold on […]

Navy 7.62mm NATO Conversion M1 Garand – Mk2 Mod1

November 22, 2017 Ian McCollum 25

When the M14 rifle was developed to replace the M1 Garand, is was met with some uncertainty by the US Navy. The Navy had a lot of things to spend money on, and not a […]

Action Arms Semiauto Uzi Carbines (Model A and Model B)

November 18, 2017 Ian McCollum 34

Guns in this video: Folding stock Model A Folding stock Model B Wood stock Model B Although it was adopted by the Israeli military in the 1950s, the Uzi submachien gun did not generate much […]

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 […]

Prototype Gustloff MKb-42(G) aka Model 206

September 27, 2017 Ian McCollum 18

This is a reposting of a video from September 2016 with a new introduction. The recent publication of the new and expanded edition of Hans-Dieter Handrich’s book “Sturmgewehr!” has revealed new information about the history […]

Communist Heresy: Norinco’s M305A M14 in 7.62x39mm

September 22, 2017 Ian McCollum 43

Norinco is a huge consortium of manufacturing plants in China that make all manner of goods for export, including military hardware. One of Norinco’s factories has been making copies of the American M14 rifle for […]

Shooting the RSC-1918 and RSC-1917 French Autoloaders

September 15, 2017 Ian McCollum 25

The day has come to do some shooting with an RSC-1918 – and an RSC-1917 as well! The 1917 was the first selfloading rifle to see substantial combat use, with just over 85,000 manufactured in […]