Select-fire Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

Larry Vickers Shoots an Original FG42

March 20, 2014 Ian McCollum 64

I’ve gotten to take apart an original second model FG-42, and play with an SMG reproduction second model (and shoot against one in a 2-gun match), but I’ve never gotten my hands on an original […]

Galil AR, by Seth Cane

March 5, 2014 Ian McCollum 23

Today we have the second of a three-part guest series by Seth Cane on the Galil rifle. Today he looks at the Galil AR… Galil AR by Seth Cane The Galil AR was the standard-infantry […]

Galil ARM

February 27, 2014 Ian McCollum 62

Today’s article is a guest post by Seth Cane, on the development of the Galil ARM… The Galil ARM by Seth Cane The Galil rifle began life in the late 1960’s. The Six Day War […]

The Vahan is a rifle designed by Armenian inventor Vahan Minasyan. It uses a lever-delayed blowback mechanism similar to the San Cristobal or FAMAS, and is designed for the 5.45x39mm cartridge using standard AK74 magazines […]

Pakistani 44-Bore Followup

November 19, 2013 Ian McCollum 48

Thanks to a Pakistani reader named Adi who happens to own a 44-Bore rifle (an AK with the chamber reamed to accept 8×33 Kurz cartridges), we have some a bit more information on this interesting […]

Pathan “44-Bore” AK in 8×33 Kurz

November 1, 2013 Ian McCollum 40

Today’s rifle is an curious example of forgotten weapons going full-circle and being reinvented. What we’re looking at is the “44 Bore”, a colloquial name given to AK-pattern rifles rechambered for the German 7.92×33 Kurz […]

Book Review: Testing the War Weapons

October 4, 2013 Ian McCollum 11

I was pretty excited to dig into Tim Mullin’s Testing The War Weapons when I first got a copy of it, having already read his book on SMGs, shotguns, and machine pistols cover to cover. I […]

T25 Rifle Report

September 13, 2013 Ian McCollum 20

I recently got my grubby hands on a big pile of gun-related documentation (thanks, Mike!), and one of the items that jumped out at me while looking through it was a 1949 report on the […]

US Army Tokarev Rifle Manual

August 21, 2013 Ian McCollum 19

One problem I have consistently found with Russian weapons manuals is that they are all written in Russian, which I can’t read. The illustrations are still interesting and useful, but it does make some of […]

1964 SPIW 60-round Magazine

July 31, 2013 Ian McCollum 59

Let’s step back to 1964 for a few minutes, into the midst of the SPIW development program. This was the US military’s attempt to increase hit probability from infantry rifles by, basically, changing focus from […]