Video - Forgotten Weapons

From the American Revolution: Short Land Pattern Brown Bess

March 22, 2023 Ian McCollum 33

The standard weapon of the British Army in the American War of Independence was the “Brown Bess”, and today we are looking at a 1769 Short Land Pattern example of the Brown Bess. This was […]

The Very Rare FN CAL at the Range

March 20, 2023 Ian McCollum 31

The FN CAL (Carabine Automatique Legere) was Fabrique Nationale’s first attempt at a 5.56mm rifle, and it was not successful. They replaced it with the FNC, which saw much wider success. The CAL is quite […]

VMP 1930 at the Range: does the Monopod Help?

March 18, 2023 Ian McCollum 15

Yesterday we took a look at the mechanics and history of Heinrich Vollmer’s 1930 pattern VMP, and today we have it out at the range. I’m curious is the mid-point monopod will actually help or […]

SMG With a Monopod? The Vollmer VMP-1930

March 17, 2023 Ian McCollum 12

In 1925, the German military began a series of secret SMG trials at the Kummersdorf testing grounds. One of the participants was Heinrich Vollmer. He was funded directly by the government for his small arms […]

Crude Khyber Pass Webley Revolver Copy

March 13, 2023 Ian McCollum 20

The town of Dara Adam Khel has became a locus of firearms manufacture in response to the British occupation of Pakistan and Afghanistan in the 19th century, and it has remained dedicated to that industry […]

Russia’s Big Fifty on the Range: DShK-38

March 11, 2023 Ian McCollum 21

Yesterday we looked at the history and the mechanics of the Soviet heavy machine guns from World War Two, the DShK-38. Today, we are taking it out to the range!

DShK-38: The Soviet Monster .50 Cal HMG

March 10, 2023 Ian McCollum 6

In 1925 the USSR began a program to develop a heavy machine gun for antiaircraft use. After some initial experimentation with a converted Dreyse machine gun, they brought in Degtyarev to scale up his recently-adopted […]

Prototype Birdshead Grip S&W No.3 Russian

March 6, 2023 Ian McCollum 12

This revolver appears to be one of the pre-production prototypes S&W made for the Russian No.3 revolver contract. Its frame has been expertly converted to a birdshead style. It handles very nicely, but was apparently […]

Beretta’s New 80X Cheetah at the BUG Match (feat. Symtac)

March 4, 2023 Ian McCollum 9

Back in 1975, Beretta introduced a line of mid-size semiauto pistols. The Model 81 was in .32 ACP (intended for the European market) and the Model 84 was chambered for .380 ACP for Americans. These […]

SSG-69: Steyr’s Cold War Sniper Rifle

March 2, 2023 Ian McCollum 15

In the 1960s, Steyr Daimler Pusch developed a modern sniper rifle for the Austrian military (and also for commercial civilian sale). It was adopted as the SSG-69 (Scharfschützen-Gewehr; sharpshooter’s rifle), replacing the SSG-98k in military […]