Video - Forgotten Weapons

Modernizing a Classic: the Brownells BRN-180 Project

January 12, 2021 Ian McCollum 10

Today I am chatting with Paul Levy of Brownells about their BRN-180 upper; a modernization of the original Armalite AR-180. This particular project is an interesting combination of recreating an older design but simultaneously modernizing […]

First Range Trip with a Type 96 Nambu LMG (I Think I’m in Love)

January 9, 2021 Ian McCollum 36

What goes into preparing a gun for filming? Function checking, zeroing, and generally building some familiarity. Today we will go through that process with a Japanese Type 96 Nambu LMG. Rather like some French guns, […]

Curators Speak Out: Danny and Ashley on the World of Firearms Museums

January 8, 2021 Ian McCollum 12

When I posted my video last week about some of the problems with museum firearms collections, I touched on issues that Danny Michael and Ashley Hlebinsky deal with on a daily basis. They invited me […]

Mannlicher 88/95 – A Rare World War One Update

January 7, 2021 Ian McCollum 19

The Austro-Hungarian Empire went into World War One with the Steyr M95 straight-pull rifle as its standard infantry arm. Heavy losses in just the first few months of the war made it clear that the […]

Charger-Loading Lee Enfields: The CLLE MkI* and MkII

January 6, 2021 Ian McCollum 9

In our continuing series on the development of the British Lee Enfield rifles, we are looking at the CLLE conversions today. In 1907 the British adopted a new universal short rifle (the SMLE) that used […]

True Crime Collector Skulduggery: R.L. Wilson and the “Trade of the Century”

January 5, 2021 Ian McCollum 49

RL Wilson Case R.L. Wilson was a pillar of the firearms collecting community, and especially the Colt collecting community, in the 1970s and 80s. He wrote a slew of books on Colt, and was a […]

Tarn: A Terrible British WW2 Experimental Pistol

January 4, 2021 Ian McCollum 30

The Tarn was a 9x19mm pistol developed by a Polish ex=pat designer named Z. de Lubicz Bakanowski. It was a simple blowback design, with a quite heavy slide and recoil spring. It was manufactured by […]

Boys Mk I Anti-Tank Rifle at the Range

January 2, 2021 Ian McCollum 26

I have done several previous videos on the Boys antitank rifle, but never actually fired one – until today! We’re out at the range with a MkI Boys and five rounds of its .55 Boys […]

It Belongs in a Museum! Or, “Ian Offends Curators”

December 31, 2020 Ian McCollum 79

Have museums fundamentally changed since the advent of the internet? Does this impact decisions about whether artifacts like firearms are best held in museums versus private collections for the sake of study and understanding? How […]

1854 Treuille de Beaulieu: Open-Bolt Pinfire for the Imperial Guard

December 30, 2020 Ian McCollum 16

The Mousqueton Modele 1854, named for General Antoine Hector Thésée Treuille de Beaulieu, was the first breechloader adopted by the French military. It was issued to the Cent Gardes (personal bodyguard) of Emperor Napoleon III […]