Semiauto Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

RIA: Thompson Model 1923 Autorifle

April 19, 2016 Ian McCollum 42

One of the very early entrants into the United States Ordnance Department’s semiauto rifle trials was the Auto-Ordnance Company, makers of the Thompson submachine gun. For the rifle trials, they designed a .30-06 rifle using […]

RIA: CZ Model S Prototype (1929)

April 18, 2016 Ian McCollum 14

This CZ Model S rifle is one of many prototypes made between the world wars in Czechoslovakia in an effort to develop a military semiautomatic rifle. Similar efforts were underway in most other countries at […]

RIA: Walther A115 Prototype Rifle

April 7, 2016 Ian McCollum 46

The Walther A115 was one of the semiauto rifles developed in pre-WWII Germany. Apparently only three were made, and it uses a neat combination of sheet metal construction with a rotating bolt and annular gas […]

RIA: Japanese Trials Gas-Operated Pedersen Rifle

April 4, 2016 Ian McCollum 32

The Japanese semiauto rifle trials of the early 1930s had a total of four entrants – Kijiro Nambu and his company, Tokyo Gas & Electric, the Tokyo Army Arsenal, and Nippon Special Steel. This rifle […]

RIA: T3E2 Trials .276-Caliber Garand

April 1, 2016 Ian McCollum 67

By 1932, the competition for the new US emiautomatic service rifle had been narrowed down to just two designs: John Pedersen’s delayed blowback toggle action and John Garand’s gas-operated action. Both rifles were chambered for […]

RIA: Bendix-Hyde Second Model Prototype Carbine

March 31, 2016 Ian McCollum 19

In late 1940, the US military opened a competition for what would become the M1 Carbine – a rifle that needed to use the .30 Carbine cartridge and weigh no more than 5 pounds (2.27kg). […]

RIA: Japanese Type 4 Garand Copy

March 30, 2016 Ian McCollum 41

Partway through 1944, the Japanese Imperial Navy began a program to provide their infantry units with better firepower than was afforded by the bolt action Arisaka rifles. The initial experimentation was based on rechambering captured […]

Swiss SK-46 Prototype Semiauto Rifle (Video)

March 28, 2016 Ian McCollum 33

The SK-46 was one of several post-WWII experimental self-loading rifle designs developed for testing by the Swiss military, or for commercial export. It was manufactured by SIG at Neuhausen in both 7.5mm Swiss and 8mm […]

James D. Julia: The Very First H&K G3 Import (3/62)

March 6, 2016 Ian McCollum 29

We have all seen plenty of sporter CETME rifles and civilian HK-91s, but when the G3 was new to the Germany military, there was already na interest in bringing semiauto versions into the US. The […]

2-Gun Match: New Inland M1 Carbine

February 25, 2016 Ian McCollum 51

I had a chance to get my hands on one of the new-production M1 Carbines being sold by MKS Supply under the Inland trademark. These guns have gotten a lot of press recently, and I […]