Semiauto pistol - Forgotten Weapons

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 […]

Slow Motion: M1912 Steyr Hahn

January 22, 2015 Ian McCollum 32

The Steyr M1912, or Steyr Hahn (meaning “hammer”, to distinguish it from the striker-fired Steyr 1907) has a number of features that make it unusual among pistols today. It uses a fixed internal magazine fed […]

Savage Prototype .25ACP (Video)

December 23, 2014 Ian McCollum 10

So, this is a video I took over a year ago, and then lost track of – a prototype .25ACP Savage pistol. It is plain blowback, not using the rotating-barrel mechanism of the mainstream .32 […]

Touring the Iraqi Tariq Pistol Factory

December 4, 2014 Ian McCollum 10

Nick Crawford contacted me after seeing my recent video on the Tariq pistol RIA is selling this weekend, to mention that he’d had the opportunity to poke around the factory where those pistols had been […]