Video - Forgotten Weapons

Swiss 1882 Ordnance Revolver (Shooting)

December 20, 2016 Ian McCollum 20

The Swiss military dabbled in revolvers with their rimfire 1872 model (about 900 made) and the followup 1878 centerfire version (5500-6000 made), but their first large-scale service revolver was the Model 1882, designed by Colonel […]

Shooting the 1883 Reichsrevolver (Video)

December 16, 2016 Ian McCollum 44

The 1883 Reichsrevolver is not the weapon most people would expect to see in German service – it was a decidely obsolete weapon from the moment of its adoption. The initial 1879 model was actually […]

Vickers Heavy Machine Gun (Video)

December 14, 2016 Ian McCollum 24

The Vickers is quite simply the best heavy machine gun ever made.

Winchester Experimental Mag-Fed Garands (Video)

December 12, 2016 Ian McCollum 38

Even during World War Two, it was clear that the United States was interested in improving on the M1 Garand rifle. A company that could develop and update to the Garand to make it selective-fire […]

Lewis Gas Operated Pistol (Video)

December 9, 2016 Ian McCollum 26

Isaac Newton Lewis is best known as the designer of the Lewis light machine gun, of course – but that was not his only work in the firearms field. In 1919, he patented a semiauto […]

Nomar M1911 Magazine-Stock (Video)

December 7, 2016 Ian McCollum 23

In 1936, Lewis Nolan Nomar patented this device, which is basically a large 40-round magazine for the 1911 pistol. He envisioned a military use for the device in trench raiding, giving men a compact weapon […]

What Was the First Automatic Pistol? (Video)

December 5, 2016 Ian McCollum 30

What was the first true semiautomatic pistol? Let’s take a look… Before there were self-loading pistols, there were manually operated repeating pistols with magazines – like the 1850s Volcanics. A surprising number of this type […]

Winchester’s Liberator Shotguns (Video)

December 3, 2016 Ian McCollum 48

In the early 1960s, an influential but little-known (today) firearms designer by the name of Robert Hillberg came up with an idea for a cheap-but-effective armament for the masses. With encouragement from DARPA, the Winchester […]

Roth-Theodorovic Pistol w/ Tambour Safety (Video)

December 1, 2016 Ian McCollum 23

Georg Roth’s company in Austria presided over a wonderful variety of interesting handgun development, and this is one example of that lineage. Roth’s licensed or purchased the patent for this pistol from its inventor, Wasa […]

Colt Paterson No.1 Carbine (Video)

November 30, 2016 Ian McCollum 13

Sam Colt’s very first work was done in Baltimore, but this ended fairly quickly, and it was with his subsequent move to Paterson New Jersey that the first true production Colt firearms were made. Colt […]