Semiauto pistol - Forgotten Weapons

2.7mm Kolibri Semiauto at RIA

August 29, 2014 Ian McCollum 26

Today’s item at the September Rock Island auction is an example of the smallest centerfire pistol ever made – a 2.7mm Kolibri semiauto. About a thousand of these were made between 1910 and 1914, firing […]

Handmade Auto-Revolver at RIA

August 27, 2014 Ian McCollum 22

This very odd one-off pistol first appeared in a 1958 Golden State Arms catalog, with no description of its history or mechanical design. I have often seen it referred to as an automatic revolver, but […]

Krnka 1895 Semiauto Pistol at RIA

August 26, 2014 Ian McCollum 14

This prototype 1895 Krnka automatic pistol is another of the items up for sale at the upcoming Rock Island Premier Auction. This pistol, serial number 7, was the first in the developmental line that led […]

Colt 1911 with unusual folding wire shoulder stock

Folding 1911 Shoulder Stock

August 20, 2014 Ian McCollum 36

From Tom Laemlein: A few years back I found these photos of a Marine Corps modification of the standard M1911 .45 caliber pistol. Unfortunately there was no accompanying documentation. A unique folding extension stock—it would […]

Thumb-Safety Glock

August 19, 2014 Ian McCollum 67

(photo and text by Miles Vining) One of the more revolutionary and innovative features of the Glock series of handguns is in their signature slogan “GLOCK Safe Action”. This is based on the fact that […]

Slow Motion: Frommer Stop

August 14, 2014 Ian McCollum 35

This week’s slow motion gun is the Frommer Stop, put into production in 1912. The Hungarian designer Rudolf Frommer was responsible for a series of long-recoil pistols, of which the Stop was the last and […]

Mauser 1912/14 Automatic Pistol (Video)

August 11, 2014 Ian McCollum 13

The Mauser 1912/14 automatic pistol was the final stage of a dead-end development track for a military sidearm in 9mm Parabellum made by Mauser. The program began as a plain blowback pistol in 1909, which […]

Slow Motion: Colt All American 2000

August 7, 2014 Ian McCollum 57

The All-American 2000 was Colt’s attempt to compete with Glock for the military and police service pistol market. It had a polymer frame (except a few early ones with aluminum frames), a double-action-only striker firing […]

C96 High-Speed Video and Smith-Condit article

August 1, 2014 Ian McCollum 11

Now that I have this high speed camera to use, I am going to be making high-speed video a regular weekly feature, at least until I run out of guns to film this way. Today’s […]

Slow Motion Schwarzlose 1908

July 25, 2014 Ian McCollum 34

I am getting high speed footage of a bunch of interesting pistols right off the bat now that I have my Edgertronic camera, and one that has been on my list ever since I first […]