Shotgun - Forgotten Weapons

Winchester’s Liberator Shotguns (Video)

December 3, 2016 Ian McCollum 48

In the early 1960s, an influential but little-known (today) firearms designer by the name of Robert Hillberg came up with an idea for a cheap-but-effective armament for the masses. With encouragement from DARPA, the Winchester […]

Confederate Baby LeMat

October 1, 2016 Ian McCollum 30

One of the rarest models of LeMat grapeshot revolver is this, the “Baby” LeMat. This is a substantially smaller gun than the normal LeMat, although it retains a 9-shot cylinder and a central barrel. In […]

RIA: Cripple Stock Shotgun

June 17, 2016 Ian McCollum 16

Okay, so the name may not be considered very PC today – you could also call this a cross-dominant stock. The concept was to allow a shooter to mount the gun in one shoulder but […]

RIA: Darne 1892 Rotary Shotgun

June 6, 2016 Ian McCollum 28

The most popular shotgun made by the French Darne company was their 1897 sliding breech side-by-side, which saw sales and use worldwide. Before that, however, Darne invented a rotating breechblock system – first a series […]

Greener MkIII Police in a 2-Gun Shotgun Match (Video)

May 23, 2016 Ian McCollum 39

Every few years, there is a special 2-Gun match at my local club, using shotgun and pistol instead of rifle and pistol. The rules of this match are a bit different than most multigun competition […]

RIA: Whitmore 4-Barrel Swivel-Breech Rifle

April 12, 2016 Ian McCollum 17

One of the options for having multiple shots available in the age of the muzzleloading rifle was the swivel-breech rifle. Such a rifle would have typically two barrels and one lock – one the first […]

Techno Arms MAG-7 Shotgun: Shooting, History, & Disassembly

March 16, 2016 Ian McCollum 46

The MAG-7 is an unusual shotgun made in South Africa in the 1990s, and imported to the US in small numbers. The idea of the gun was to offer maximum firepower in the smallest package […]

James D. Julia: LeMat Grapeshot Revolver Design Evolution

March 2, 2016 Ian McCollum 32

The LeMat grapeshot revolver is one of the most distinctive and powerful sidearms of the US Civil War, sporting both a 9-round .42 caliber cylinder of pistol bullets and a shotgun barrel as cylinder axis. […]

RIA: Colt Shotguns of the Old West (1878 & 1883)

February 21, 2016 Ian McCollum 21

When someone says “Old West Colt”, the first thought is usually not double barreled shotguns. However, Colt made two quite high-end side-by-side shotguns during this period, and they played a role in the remarkable Colt/Winchester […]

Smoothbore Spencer: Tracing a Mystery Gun

February 3, 2016 Ian McCollum 21

Today’s firearm is not a normal gun; it is a conversion of a Spencer into a shotgun. My question is, what path did this weapon travel? What did it begin as, and how did it […]