Semiauto pistol - Forgotten Weapons

US Test Trials .45 Caliber Knoble Pistol at James D Julia

March 22, 2017 Ian McCollum 14

One of the domestic American pistols entered in the US 1907 pistol trials was this short recoil, toggle locked design by W.E. Knoble of Tacoma Washington. Knoble submitted two experimental pistols to the trial, one […]

Ralf Dieckmann Interview

March 14, 2017 Ian McCollum 46

Ralf Dieckmann is a German-born firearms designer who grew up as a small child in Berlin during World War II. His interest in firearms developed in the post-war years with war detritus literally lying about […]

Ross Experimental A2 Prototype (Video)

March 13, 2017 Ian McCollum 12

This is a very rare Ross automatic pistol, patented in 1903 by Charles Ross, of the Ross Rifle Company in Quebec. It is a short recoil, toggle locked design, made for the .45 Ross proprietary […]

Schwarzlose 1901 Toggle-Delayed Prototype (Video)

March 10, 2017 Ian McCollum 42

https://youtu.be/ddNsrxe4ddY Andreas Schwarzlose was a German designer who created several very interesting and unusual handgun designs (in addition to his 1907 heavy machine gun, which was adopted as a standard arm of the Austro-Hungarian military). […]

Sosso 1941 Italian Prototype Pistol (Video)

March 6, 2017 Ian McCollum 20

The Model 1941 Sosso is a huge Italian experimental semiauto pistol designed by Giulio Sosso. It uses a short recoil locking mechanism and is chambered for standard 9x19mm Parabellum ammunition, but its more unusual feature […]

Mannlicher 1901 & 1905 Pistols (Video)

March 3, 2017 Ian McCollum 25

The Model 1901 and 1905 automatic pistols were the final development of the Mannlicher system. In this iteration they used internal magazines, a straight walled 7.65mm cartridge, and a delayed blowback system in which the […]

Mannlicher Model 1896 Pistols

March 1, 2017 Ian McCollum 5

With the Model 1896 pistol, Ferdinand Mannlicher made an effort to improve the ballistics of his pistols and make them less awkward, by moving to a locked breech action and a bottlenecked higher velocity cartridge. […]

Shooting the MAC 1950 in Tactical Competition

February 28, 2017 Ian McCollum 26

Following up on yesterday’s discussion of the history and mechanics of the Pistolet Automatique Modele 1950, today I am running it in a run-n-gun pistol match. The gun worked well for me, not having any […]

MAC 1950: Disassembly & History (Video)

February 27, 2017 Ian McCollum 29

The MAC PA 1950 (Pistolet Automatique Modele 1950) was the result of a 1946 French effort to standardize on a single military pistol. By the end of WWII, the French military had accumulated a mess […]

Mannlicher Model 1894 Pistols

February 26, 2017 Ian McCollum 6

The Mannlicher Model 1894 was one of the first successful semiauto pistol designs, and used a very unusual blow forward action. Instead of having a moving slide, the bullet would actually pull the barrel forward […]