Video - Forgotten Weapons

Becker Blow-Forward Revolving Shotgun

February 1, 2019 Ian McCollum 19

The Becker shotgun is a very unusual blow-forward, revolving cylinder shotgun made in Germany in the 1920s (although it was originally patented in the late 1890s). Only a very small number were made – allegedly […]

Luxembourg FN49 Semiauto Sniper Rifle

January 30, 2019 Ian McCollum 16

After World War Two, Luxembourg was one of the nations which opted to purchase new FN-49 rifles. It bought a total of 6,203 of them for the military – an initial purchase of 4,000 semiauto […]

P.A.F. Junior – South Africa’s First Production Gun

January 29, 2019 Ian McCollum 14

The Pretoria Arms Factory was founded in 1954 by Piet Nagel and Jan Willem Dekker. both Dutch immigrants to South Africa after WW2. They began manufacturing a simplified copy of the Baby Browning pocket pistol, […]

Bernardelli UB: Hammer and Striker Fired 9mm Blowback

January 28, 2019 Ian McCollum 32

In the years following World War Two, the Bernardelli company in Italy made an attempt to enter the full-power pistol market with a simple blowback 9mm Parabellum design. They basically scaled up their existing .32/.380 […]

Shooting the HK G41: Like an HK33 But Worse

January 26, 2019 Ian McCollum 51

We took a look at the history and mechanics of the G41 yesterday; now it’s time to actually try it out on the range… It, ah, did not go so well. But I did get […]

H&K G41: The HK33 Meets the M16

January 25, 2019 Ian McCollum 34

The H&K G41 was developed for the NATO trials of the early 1980s, which were set up to look at both rifles and cartridges for NATO standardization (although they did not end up choosing a […]

Paramax: Final Iteration of the LDP Kommando

January 23, 2019 Ian McCollum 54

The Kommando semiauto carbine was designed in 1975 by Alexis du Plessis in Rhodesia, and went on the be manufactured in South Africa a few years later by the Maxim Parabellum company. The final iteration […]

Ammunition Evaluation: 1941 Turkish 8mm Mauser

January 22, 2019 Ian McCollum 27

Turkey adopted the 8mm Mauser cartridge as part of its modernization after World War One, and with the assistance of German technicians developed a copy of the German 8mm S cartridge. Most of the surplus […]

Walther’s .45ACP MP (P38 Precursor)

January 21, 2019 Ian McCollum 17

During the process of developing the pistol which would become the German army’s P38, the Walther company was also interested in potential export contracts (like the one they actually did get from Sweden). One potential […]

Neophytou Gas-Operated .22 Rimfire Conversion for the R4/Galil

January 19, 2019 Ian McCollum 20

Today we are looking at – and shooting – a one of a kind .22 rimfire conversion kit for the Galil developed by South African designer Tony Neophytou (better known for the Neostead shotgun, Neopup […]