Video - Forgotten Weapons

Ammo Evaluation: Romanian 8mm Mauser

January 8, 2019 Ian McCollum 15

Towards the end of the Cold War, Romania was a major exporter of arms and ammunition on the world market. Today we are looking at Romanian pattern 1971 8mm Mauser ammunition, made between 1972 and […]

H&K P8A1: The Bundeswehr’s USP

January 7, 2019 Ian McCollum 57

Thanks to my friends at Bear Arms in Scottsdale, we have an H&K P8A1 to take a look at today – the current Bundeswehr issue version of the USP. Chambered for 9x19mm and adopted in […]

Book Review: AK47 – The Grim Reaper (Second Edition)

January 6, 2019 Ian McCollum 16

The expanded second edition of Frank Iannamico’s “AK47: The Grim Reaper” is a hefty 1100-page tome which tackles the ambition goal of being a single reference for all things Kalashnikov. Ot begins with a section […]

Evolution of the Dutch-Made AR10

January 5, 2019 Ian McCollum 25

The AR-10 rifle was developed in the United States (Hollywood California, specifically) by Eugene Stoner, but the Armalite company did not have a suitable large scale manufacturing facility to produce the number of guns they […]

FN CAL: Short-Lived Predecessor to the FNC

January 4, 2019 Ian McCollum 23

The CAL (Carabine Automatique Leger; Light Automatic Carbine) was FN’s first attempt to produce a 5.56mm rifle as a counterpart to the 7.62mm FAL. While light and handy, the CAL was a relatively complex and […]

Vektor H5: Pump Action Adaptation of the South African Galil

January 2, 2019 Ian McCollum 10

The H5 is a pump-action conversion of the South African R4/R5 Galil rifles, developed by Vektor in the early 1990s. It was fairly difficult at that time to get a permit for a semiautomatic rifle […]

Book Review: Italian Partisan Weapons in WWII

December 30, 2018 Ian McCollum 8

“Italian Partisan Weapons in WWII” was originally written and published in Italian by Gianluigi Usai, and recently (2016) translated into English by Ralph Riccio and published by Schiffer in the US. It was intended to […]

Stopper 37mm: A Simple South African Riot Control Gun

December 29, 2018 Ian McCollum 7

The Stopper is a simple 37mm single shot riot control gun designed by Andries Piek in 1980. The South African police services were at that time using 37mm guns made by Federal Labs in the […]

H&K G36: Germany Adopts the 5.56mm Cartridge

December 28, 2018 Ian McCollum 36

When the G11 program was cancelled and German reunified, the West German military was still using the 7.62mm G3 rifle, while the East German forces had AK-74 variants. Neither of these were suitable for a […]

Zeroing the FR-F1

December 27, 2018 Ian McCollum 20

After about 2 years or working and waiting, my FR-F1 has arrived from France – so it’s time to get it zeroed! I am using the only commercial ammo available in the us; PPU 139gr […]