Semiauto Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

French RSC Modele 1917 selfloading rifle

November 7, 2012 Ian McCollum 16

The French government had run a series of semiautomatic rifle trials in 1913 and had several designs with a lot of potential, like the A6 Meunier. In fact, most of the designs had dropped the […]

Australian Electrolux Charlton

October 12, 2012 Ian McCollum 12

As we mentioned earlier this week in the Charlton Automatic Rifle article, the Australian government expressed an interest in converting rifles to Philip Charlton’s self-loading design. Charlton spent several months in Australia negotiating the deal, […]

A Minor Controversy Over Cartridges

September 25, 2012 Ian McCollum 55

We’re having a bit of a friendly disagreement over cartridges here, and I’m curious to hear some unbiased (or at least differently biased) opinions from you guys. Suppose you were putting together a new, cool […]

Experimental Swiss AK44

August 31, 2012 Ian McCollum 4

The Swiss Army went into World War II with the Schmidt-Rubin K31 carbine – a straight-pull bolt action design that had been evolving since 1896. It was a good and very accurate weapon, but as […]

Mauser Gewehr 41(M) Manual

July 4, 2012 Ian McCollum 5

Last week, we posted a video on the Gewehr 41(W), which was the first really mass produced German self-loading combat rifle. Well, when the Heereswaffenamt (German ordnance department) requested designs for what would become the […]

StG45 at an IPSC 3-Gun Match (Video)

July 1, 2012 Ian McCollum 23

The Sturmgewehr 45 (aka Gerat 06H) was the first functional roller-delayed blowback rifle developed, and it was slated to replace the StG44 as Germany’s primary combat rifle when WWII ended. We have a reproduction of […]

Gewehr 41 (Walther) Video

June 27, 2012 Ian McCollum 17

The German military establishment during WWII has a reputation for innovation and excellence, which is pretty well deserved. But even they produced some real goose eggs, and the Gewehr 41 is one of them. That […]

Prototype .280 FAL

June 13, 2012 Ian McCollum 26

The first prototypes of the FAL rifle were produced by Fabrique Nationale on the company’s own initiative in the aftermath of World War II, and presented to the British government for testing in early 1947. […]

Sjogren Shotgun Photos

May 30, 2012 Ian McCollum 17

Thanks to reader David, we have several photos of a Sjogren 12ga shotgun. The Sjogren was a very early Swedish semiauto design using a recoil action with a fixed barrel. Most recoil orated firearms function […]

Pelo Rifle

May 23, 2012 Ian McCollum 0

Captain Carl Pelo (retired) of the Finnish Army was involved in arms design for twenty or thirty years (including a stint as technical manager of the Sako factory in the 1930s), and produced several prototype […]