Semiauto pistol - Forgotten Weapons

Tomiska’s Czech Army Pistol: Empty Magazine Auto-Ejection

January 2, 2026 Ian McCollum 6

Alois Tomiška is best known for designing the first commercially successful double-action semiautomatic pistol, the “Little Tom”. But he also designed this pistol for very early Czechoslovakian military pistol. The first trial in the program […]

SAP M10: RPB Makes a Semiauto MAC-10

December 26, 2025 Ian McCollum 6

When Wayne Daniels took over control of RPB in 1978, he introduced a semiautomatic pistol version of the iconic MAC submachine gun. Called the “SAP” (Semi Automatic Pistol), there were three versions; .380, 9mm, and […]

PSS: Russia’s Silent Captive-Piston Handgun

December 13, 2025 Ian McCollum 25

The PSS is a semiautomatic pistol using captive piston ammunition to achieve a comparable level of sound suppression to a .22 pistol with a good normal suppressor. It was developed to replace a couple multi-barrel […]

Origins of the Legendary CZ-75: Short Rail and Pre-B Models

November 28, 2025 Ian McCollum 4

Find something cool for Black Friday at Headstamp Publishing! https://www.headstamppublishing.com The CZ-75 began development in the late 1960s as a commercial project. It was not intended for Czechoslovak military use, but instead for export sales […]

Rideout Arsenal Dragon: A New Low-Bore-Axis Lever-Delayed Pistol

November 12, 2025 Ian McCollum 35

Wauser t-shirt available from Varusteleka: https://varusteleka.com/en/products/forgotten-weapons-wauser-cotton-t-shirt The Rideout Arsenal Dragon is a very interesting new pistol from an independent entrepreneurial designer, Travis Rideout. It is a lever-delayed action with a very low bore axis and […]

Project PRAK: Converting the CZ50 Pistol to 9x18mm Makarov

October 31, 2025 Ian McCollum 7

In 1966, CZ undertook Project PRAK (“Slingshot”) to investigate the possibility of converting the CZ50 pocket pistol to 9x18mm Makarov. The PM Makarov was adopted in the 1950s and used throughout the eastern bloc, but […]

Foldy-Glock: The Full Conceal M3D (History and Shooting)

October 18, 2025 Ian McCollum 49

Full Conceal was a company that designed a folding Glock. The intent was to create a pistol that could be easily, discreetly, and safely carried in a pocket but still offer the handing and capability […]

Forgotten SIGs: SIG Pro SP2009 & SP2022

October 10, 2025 Ian McCollum 1

In 1998, SIG released the SIG Pro SP2340, essentially a polymer framed P226 chambered for .40S&W. This was followed the next year by the SP2009; the same gun but in 9x19mm. These pistols proved quite […]

An Interesting Silenced Bulgarian Makarov

September 29, 2025 Ian McCollum 3

Today we are taking a look at an interesting silenced Bulgarian Makarov with a mechanism added to lock the slide. This sort of feature is usually thought of as a sneaky way to avoid ejecting […]

Prototype vz.38 “Nutcracker” in 9x19mm

September 19, 2025 Ian McCollum 19

Check out Headstamp Publishing’s extensive catalog of excellent books: https://www.headstamppublishing.com/home-forgotten The Czechoslovakian military adopted the vz.38 pistol as a simple blowback action chambered for .380 ACP (well, the Czech military version of .380 ACP). Other […]