Semiauto pistol - Forgotten Weapons

Mauser 1912/14 Experimental .45ACP Pistol at James D Julia

March 8, 2015 Ian McCollum 11

Before World War One, the Mauser company tried to make a follow-up automatic pistol to replace its famous C96 “Broomhandle” design with something more modern. The result was a very successful pocket pistol in .25ACP […]

BSA Prototype .45ACP Pistol at James D Julia

March 5, 2015 Ian McCollum 25

BSA (Birmingham Small Arms) was the largest private arms maker in the UK during World War One, and when the war ended it of course saw its huge military contracts evaporate. One of BSA’s efforts […]

20-Shot C96 “Broomhandle” Mauser at James D Julia

March 4, 2015 Ian McCollum 21

Early in the production of the C96 Mauser, the company tried a variety of different configurations of the pistol, to see what would be popular and sell well. Most of these were abandoned by about […]

Mars Automatic Pistols at James D. Julia

March 2, 2015 Ian McCollum 49

The Mars pistol was designed by Sir Hugh Gabbett-Fairfax in England in 1898, and only 81 were produced by the time manufacturing ended in 1907. These pistols were chambered for several different cartridges, all of […]

Walther MP-PP Prototype at James D Julia

February 26, 2015 Ian McCollum 19

During the late 1920s, it looked like the German Army was going to replace the P08 Luger with a less expensive sidearm, and several major German companies developed prototype guns to meet this anticipated need. […]

Two Prototype Webley Automatic Pistols at James D Julia

February 25, 2015 Ian McCollum 18

So, I may have gone a bit overboard and filmed more video at this upcoming Julia auction than I actually had time to publish before the auction takes place (but there were so many amazing […]

Shansei .45ACP Broomhandle Mauser at RIA (Video)

February 12, 2015 Ian McCollum 21

During the Chinese civil war in the 1920s and 30s, international arms embargoes made rifles difficult to acquire – which led to a lot of popularity for pistols with shoulder stocks. The C96 “broomhandle” Mauser […]

Colombo Ricci Automatic Revolver

January 30, 2015 Ian McCollum 21

The Colombo-Ricci is (was) an automatic revolver reportedly designed in Italy around 1910, and chambered for the standard 10.4mm Italian revolver cartridge. Very little information is available on the gun, but it seems reasonable to […]

Slow Motion: Steyr-Mannlicher M1905

January 29, 2015 Ian McCollum 32

The 1905 Steyr-Mannlicher was developed by Ferdinand Mannlicher, one of Europe’s most prolific gun designers. It uses the 7.65mm Mannlicher cartridge, which is roughly equivalent to .32 ACP, with a 10-round fixed internal magazine. The […]

Chinese Pistols Coming Soon!

January 23, 2015 Ian McCollum 16

I just recently spent some time at RIA doing video for their upcoming Regional auction, and happened to notice a batch of guns they were in the process of sorting and writing descriptions of for […]