Video - Forgotten Weapons

Gevarm A6: An Open Bolt Semiauto .22 Sporting Rifle

May 26, 2018 Ian McCollum 58

Gevarm, a gunmaking offshoot of the Gevelot cartridge company, produced a line of open-bolt semiautomatic rimfire sporting rifles from the early 1960s until 1995. This is an A6 model, the base type. It is chambered […]

PTRD 41: The Simple Soviet Antitank Rifle of WWII

May 25, 2018 Ian McCollum 46

The Soviet Union had originally eschewed the use of large numbers of antitank rifles, anticipating that any potential combat use of them would be largely against tanks impervious to AT rifle cartridges. However, when […]

Interview: Mathieu Willemsen, Curator of the Dutch National Military Museum

May 24, 2018 Ian McCollum 8

Today we have a brief conversation with Mathieu Willemsen, Curator of the Dutch National Military Museum. This was shorter than I would have preferred, because it came right at the end of a long day […]

Russian Type 2 AK: Introducing the Milled Receiver

May 23, 2018 Ian McCollum 44

With recognition of the production problems of the original Type 1 AK, an alternative was needed. Russian engineer Valeriy Kharkov led a team of engineers who designed a replacement drop-forged and machined receiver for the […]

Ribeyrolles 1918 – France’s First Assault Rifle or a Failed Prototype?

May 22, 2018 Ian McCollum 12

Paul Ribeyrolles was the manager of the Gladiator bicycle factory, and by 1918 he had significant experience in small arms design, having been a core member of the team that designed and built the 1915 […]

Type 1 Russian AK: The Actual AK-47

May 21, 2018 Ian McCollum 75

https://youtu.be/f5UFzsnmIlQ The AK-47 rifle was formally adopted in 1947, as the name implies, and went into production in 1948. In this very first form, it used a stamped receiver with front and rear trunnions riveted […]

A Book and a Rifle: The Vercors Resistance in WWII

May 20, 2018 Ian McCollum 13

One of the single largest actions of the French Resistance during World War Two was Operation Montagnards – the plan to drop about 4,000 Allied paratroops onto the Vercors Massif when the resistance was activated […]

M1918 Chauchat: First Shots (Will It Work?)

May 19, 2018 Ian McCollum 33

This M1918 Chauchat is still awaiting NFA transfer, but my dealer was able to bring it out to a public range where I could do some initial testing on it. I was expecting to get […]

Madsen M1896 Flaadens Rekylgevær: The First Military Semiauto

May 18, 2018 Ian McCollum 8

After losing out in the 1888 trials, Madsen and Rasmussen continued to refine their rifle. They reduced the overall length and weight, and replaced the feeding clip with a more modern enclosed magazine (although it […]

Q&A 18: Ammunition Adventures (and more)

May 17, 2018 Ian McCollum 34

00:30 – Belts or links, and why? 04:53 – What determines locations of gun manufacturing centers? 06:40 – Why did France not use 7.62 NATO? 09:38 – CMMG Guard, yea or nay? 12:32 – How […]