Semiauto pistol - Forgotten Weapons

Smith & Beecham Prototype Polymer High Power

June 12, 2019 Ian McCollum 32

The South African company Smith and Beecham was not a large operation, and their most notable product was a .380 caliber compact pistol, of which not more than 2000 were ever made (it was not […]

Book Review: P38 Pistol – Spreewerk Production

June 9, 2019 Ian McCollum 8

I initially put off getting a copy of Jan Balcar and Ron Clarin’s book on the Spreewerk P38 because, well, I assumed it was just about Spreewerk. Upon finally reading it, I discovered that it […]

Charola Y Anitua: Tiny Spanish Broomhandles

June 3, 2019 Ian McCollum 15

Manufactured from 1899 until 1905, the Charola y Anitua pistols (later becoming just the Charola pistols) were basically scaled down C96 Mauser designs chambered for the 5mm Clement and 7mm Charola cartridges. They were briefly […]

Swiss 1929 Simplified Luger (Yes, Swiss and Simplified)

May 15, 2019 Ian McCollum 18

Switzerland was the First Nation to adopt the Luger as a service pistol, and they purchased them DWM in Germany from 1900 until 1914. World War One stopped deliveries, of course, and after the war […]

Erma/Glaser Luger .22 Rimfire Conversion

May 1, 2019 Ian McCollum 11

This conversion kit is lot #1713 in the upcoming Rock Island May 2019 auction. In 1927, a Berlin resident named Richard Kulisch patented a .22 rimfire conversion kit for the Luger pistol. Kulisch’s conversion used […]

Engraved Glock 19 Pistols – Yes, That’s a Thing

April 29, 2019 Ian McCollum 21

These three Glocks are lots 1731 (simplest), 1732 (intermediate), and 1733 (best) in the upcoming May 2019 Rock Island auction. Would you believe it? Factory engraved Glocks are actually a thing! They have not made […]

Finnish m/44 Prototype Blowback 9mm Pistol

April 24, 2019 Ian McCollum 15

The m/44 pistol was intended to be a lower-cost replacement for the Lahti L35 pistol for the Finnish Defense Forces, but production delays resulted in the first batch of 25 examples not being completed until […]

S&W 3566: An IPSC Game-Changer that Didn’t

April 18, 2019 Ian McCollum 49

This pistol (and its ammunition) is lot #2401 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction. In 1994, Smith & Wesson began shipping the Model 3566, a double-stack, single action pistols tuned for high-level USPSA competition. It was […]

Musgrave 9mm: A Gun for the Black Market

March 27, 2019 Ian McCollum 40

In the brief couple of years between the election of a new black-majority government in South Africa in 1994 and the dissolution of the Musgrave company, it attempted to produce a new 9mm pistol to […]

ManuFrance Commercial Luger

March 17, 2019 Ian McCollum 9

Between 1909 and 1915, the huge French mail-order firm of Manufacture Francais d’Armes et Cycles de St Etienne (later called Manufrance) sold Luger pistols (as well as many other types of firearms). They were enough […]