Video - Forgotten Weapons

Suomi m/31 – Finland’s Excellent Submachine Gun

August 17, 2018 Ian McCollum 15

RIA’s catalog page for this SMG (transferrable) Designed by Aimo Lahti, the Suomi m/31 submachine gun is in my opinion one of the standout submachine guns of the World War Two era. Despite its hefty […]

Colt Prototype Self-Ejecting Revolver

August 16, 2018 Ian McCollum 30

RIA’s catalog page for this revolver Robert Roy was a career Colt employee, who began his work as an engineer in 1963 (including work on the 1971/SSP pistols and the CMG machine gun series) and […]

Germany’s New Light Howitzer: the 7.5cm le.IG 18

August 15, 2018 Ian McCollum 43

RIA’s catalog page on this gun In the aftermath of World War One, every military force immediately began to assess what they thought was most important to improve in their arsenals for the next war. […]

WWI Steyr M95 Sniper Carbine

August 14, 2018 Ian McCollum 6

RIA’s catalog page for this rifle During World War One, Austria-Hungary produced about 13,000 sniper rifles and carbines – and while the significant majority of these were full length rifles, the Empire was the only […]

Garand Primer-Activated 1924 Trials Rifle

August 13, 2018 Ian McCollum 26

RIA’s catalog page for this rifle The first successful iteration of John Garand’s rifle was developed in 1921 and refined through 1924. A small batch were made for US military testing in 1924, where it […]

Book Review: Cold War Pistols of Czechoslovakia

August 12, 2018 Ian McCollum 17

Recently, we have been looking at a selection of books on Cold War eastern bloc pistols – and James D. Brown’s “Cold War Pistols of Czechoslovakia” is the best of them. While its scope is […]

Holy Mother of Muzzle Flash, the Rico Special

August 11, 2018 Ian McCollum 17

Rico is a gunsmith at SIG Neuhausen who likes to tinker. He put together this SIG 510 (aka Stgw 57), with a modern collapsing stock, quad rail foreend, Aimpoint red dot, heavy barrel, and massive […]

Maltese Flintlocks: Girard Mle 1733 Pistols of the Order of St. John

August 10, 2018 Ian McCollum 19

The Order of St John – the Knights of Malta – began as an order to protect Christian pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem, but transformed into an organization dedicated to corsairing in the Mediterranean […]

Project Ultra: Germany Wants a Stronger Compact Pistol

August 8, 2018 Ian McCollum 15

This pistol is one of just a couple surviving from a development project run by Walther in the mid to late 1930s. The goal was to produce a compact sidearm for pilots and officers using […]

Musgrave Ambidex: Straight Pull Rimfire Rifle for Lefties or Righties

August 6, 2018 Ian McCollum 16

The Ambidex was a rifle developed by the Musgrave company in South Africa in the late 1980s. It was a straight-pull bolt action rifle inspired by the Browning T-Bolt, but with the ability to have […]