Video - Forgotten Weapons

A Very Rare Confederate Columbus Armory Carbine

November 14, 2022 Ian McCollum 2

Carbines made by the Columbus Armory are particularly scarce, and their history is not really well understood. They were manufactured by John Gray of Columbus SC, whose brother William Gray was a partner in another […]

Leningrad’s Emergency-Production PPS-42 at the Range

November 12, 2022 Ian McCollum 18

Yesterday we looked at the history of the PPS-42 and how it was developed into the much more common PPS-43. Today we are taking it out to the range – the only time one of […]

Born in the Heart of Besieged Leningrad: the PPS-42

November 11, 2022 Ian McCollum 24

One would think that the Shpagin PPSh-41 was as simple as a submachine gun could get, but that wasn’t the case in World War Two USSR. Barely had the PPSh gotten into real production than […]

The Added Safety on German Inter-War SMGs

November 10, 2022 Ian McCollum 2

Police in inter-war Germany used a variety of submachine guns, and sometimes added a distinctive extra safety mechanism to them. No patent or documentation ha been uncovered (that I am aware of, anyway), but the […]

German Troop Trials “Push-Button” Gewehr 41(W)

November 8, 2022 Ian McCollum 25

When the German Army wanted a new semiauto service rifle in 1941, it received submissions from two companies; Walther and Mauser. Walther’s design didn’t strictly meet the criteria set forth, but it was clearly the […]

M240 Bravo: America Replaces the M60

November 7, 2022 Ian McCollum 43

In 1977, the US military adopted the FN MAG as the M240 in vehicular configuration to replace the less-than-successful M73/M219 machine guns. The USMC would get an early start adapting the 240 to ground configuration […]

An Early .45 ACP Reising Model 50 at the Range

November 5, 2022 Ian McCollum 22

The Reising was adopted by the US Marine Corps and used in campaigns through 1942 and early 1943, and it garnered a pretty poor reputation for reliability on the islands of the Pacific. However, it’s […]

First to the Fight: The Marines’ Reising M50 SMG

November 4, 2022 Ian McCollum 23

Eugene Reising developed a .45 ACP submachine gun in the late 1930s that was basically the opposite of the Thompson – it was light and handy, fired from a closed bolt with a delayed blowback […]

Thompson SMG Cases: Police, FBI, and Secret Service

November 3, 2022 Ian McCollum 9

The Auto Ordnance company made a couple different types of cases for the Thompson SMG, and today we are going to look at two of the most common and one exceptionally cool type. The two […]

Belgian Gendarmerie FAL Parts Kits from FN America

November 2, 2022 Ian McCollum 8

Someone digging through the warehouses an FN in Herstal found 400 FAL rifles turned in by the Belgian Gendarmerie when they upgraded to newer arms…and they decided to send them to the US as parts […]