Video - Forgotten Weapons

Prarie Gun Works Timberwolf: British Trials Sniper Rifle

September 26, 2017 Ian McCollum 17

Armament Research Services (ARES) is a specialist technical intelligence consultancy, offering expertise and analysis to a range of government and non-government entities in the arms and munitions field. For detailed photos of the guns in […]

MAS-36: The Backup Rifle is Called to Action

September 25, 2017 Ian McCollum 44

There is a common assumption that the MAS-36 was a fool’s errand from the outset – why would a country develop a brand new bolt action rifle in the mid 1930s, when obviously semiautomatic combat […]

Book Review: The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare by Damien Lewis

September 24, 2017 Ian McCollum 21

I ordered a copy of Damien Lewis’ book on the exploits of British SOE in WWII expecting to find an overview of, well, what SOE had done during the war. That’s not quite what this […]

MP-40/I: The Dual-Magazine Experimental MP-40

September 23, 2017 Ian McCollum 17

The MP40/I was an experimental modification of the MP-40 submachine gun developed by the Erma company (we think) in late 1942. It was presumably developed in response to complaints of Soviet fire superiority with […]

Communist Heresy: Norinco’s M305A M14 in 7.62x39mm

September 22, 2017 Ian McCollum 43

Norinco is a huge consortium of manufacturing plants in China that make all manner of goods for export, including military hardware. One of Norinco’s factories has been making copies of the American M14 rifle for […]

Fosbery’s Pump Shotgun: An AR15 Bolt in 1891

September 21, 2017 Ian McCollum 26

Armament Research Services (ARES) is a specialist technical intelligence consultancy, offering expertise and analysis to a range of government and non-government entities in the arms and munitions field. For detailed photos of the guns in […]

Shooting the Ishapore MkIII Vickers-Berthier LMG

September 20, 2017 Ian McCollum 14

The Vickers-Berthier MkIII was adopted by the Indian army in 1933, and served through World War Two and into the 1970s (at least). It is chambered for the standard .303 British cartridge, fires from […]

History and Disassembly of the Vickers-Berthier MkIII LMG

September 19, 2017 Ian McCollum 30

The Vickers-Berthier was initially designed by Andre Berthier in France prior to World War One. It went through a number of substantial design changes before the war, and was actually ordered in quantity by the […]

Final Prices: RIA September 2017 Premier Auction (and what I bought!)

September 18, 2017 Ian McCollum 28

As usual, I have a recap today of the final prices of the guns I filmed form the most recent RIA auction (#71; September 2017). There were a bunch of machine guns in this one, […]

Book Review: Sturmgewehr! From Firepower to Striking Power (New Expanded Edition)

September 17, 2017 Ian McCollum 39

Collector Grade is known for being a premiere publisher of technical firearms reference books, and I would be willing to argue that “Sturmgewehr!” by Hans-Dieter Handrich is the best book they have yet printed. The […]