Video - Forgotten Weapons

Improvised & Craft-Built Firearms w/ Jonathan Ferguson & Nic Jenzen-Jone

December 27, 2017 Ian McCollum 24

Today I am joined for a round table discussion (well, octagon table, technically) by Jonathan Ferguson (Curator of the National Firearms Centre collection at the Royal Armouries) and Nic Jenzen-Jones (Director of Armament Research Services) […]

Just Shooting Compilation: 2017

December 26, 2017 Ian McCollum 3

The year in review with shooting! In order of appearance: EM-2 (.280/30) vz61 Skrpion kp/44 kp/31 Suomi ZB-26 RK-95/S American 180 Finnish Maxim KVKK-62 DP-28 Prototype Friberg/Kjellman SIG MP48 Dreyse light rifle PSM RSC-1918 RSC-1917 […]

Forgotten Weapons Field Test: 90-Round AK Magazine

December 25, 2017 Ian McCollum 30

Today I am joined by Forgotten Weapons Field Research Assistant Clay to test out one of those super-extended 90-round AK mags that are so often seen at the junk tables of gun shows. How bad […]

Captain Fraser’s Webley-Fosbery: WWI in Microcosm

December 23, 2017 Ian McCollum 20

Captain Percy Fraser, DSO was born on January 22, 1879 and died in Ypres on the night of February 23, 1915 while attempting to aid men wounded outside their trench. His unit of the Queen’s […]

Prototype Friberg/Kjellman Flapper-Locking Semiauto Rifle

December 22, 2017 Ian McCollum 11

The origins of flap-locking (as used in the G41(W), G43, DShK, DP, and RPD, among others) goes back to a Swedish Lieutenant Friberg in 1870, who patented the system. At that time, however, the fouling […]

Q&A #15: Disappointing Guns, 7.92×41 CETME, and 1873 Revolvers

December 21, 2017 Ian McCollum 58

Today’s question topics: 0:00:36 – Have I considered designing the perfect gun? 0:02:38 – Dealer sample machine gun market 0:07:20 – Stocked pistols and pistol-carbines 0:10:53 – P14 & M1917 nomenclature 0:12:45 – Particularly good […]

Vietnam Mk18 Mod0 Hand-Crank Grenade Launcher

December 20, 2017 Ian McCollum 32

The Mk18 Mod0 grenade launchers was developed by the Honeywell corporation in 1962, and was the first weapon in what would became a category of high volume grenade launchers used by the US military. The […]

Repurposing Obsolete Rifles: The Lebel R35 Carbine

December 19, 2017 Ian McCollum 21

Get your “Only Dropped Once” shirt here, and do your part to push back against the stereotype of the French soldier! The French military had investigated the possibility of a Lebel carbine in the 1880s, […]

Papuan Vrijwilliger Korps Mauser Carbine

December 18, 2017 Ian McCollum 26

During the transition from Dutch colonial rule to independence, the Dutch government armed a group of Papuans to help defend the territory form Indonesian military incursion. This organization was the Papuan Vrijwiliger Korps (Papua […]

Book Review: Vickers Guide WWII Germany (Volume I)

December 17, 2017 Ian McCollum 1

Larry Vickers and James Rupley have expanded the Vickers Guide series of coffee table books to World War Two Germany, to look at one of the periods of the most rapid small arms development in […]