Video - Forgotten Weapons

Virtual Tour: Austrian Museum of Military History

May 20, 2022 Ian McCollum 19

02:30 – 17th Century hall 06:12 – 18th/19th Century hall 09:29 – World War One hall 17:13 – World War Two hall 20:24 – Naval history area I recently had a chance to visit the […]

Nicer Than It Looks: Yugoslav M56 at the Range

May 18, 2022 Ian McCollum 33

The Yugoslav M56 is a hybrid of the MP40 general design with the Soviet 7.62x25mm Tokarev cartridge, and a gun whose practical shootability is surprisingly better than its looks would lead one to expect. This […]

Business Intrigue Gone Wrong: High Powers for Oman

May 16, 2022 Ian McCollum 8

The story of the Browning High Power pistols with Omani national crests is and interesting one. It begins with a man named Paul Van Hee brokering a contract for Cadillac-Gage “Commando” armored cars for the […]

Steyr’s Take on the Uzi: MPi-69 at the Range

May 14, 2022 Ian McCollum 18

I expected the MPi-69 to be a rather difficult gun to shoot well, with its very simple construction and wire stock, but I was pleasantly surprised on the range. The rate of fire is quite […]

Austria’s Take on the Uzi: Steyr MPi-69

May 13, 2022 Ian McCollum 11

Designed in the 1960s by Steyr and adopted by the Austrian Army in 1969 to replace it aging MP40s, the MPi-69 is an economical and simple 9x19mm SMG. It uses many features seen in the […]

Denmark’s Post-WW2 SMG: the Hovea m/49

May 11, 2022 Ian McCollum 21

The Hovea m/49 was adopted by Denmark, but was originally designed by Huqvarna for Swedish military trials. The first 10 prototype were made in 1944 and competed against the Carl Gustav Stads design – which […]

Walther Prototype MP – A Missing Link From PP to P38

May 9, 2022 Ian McCollum 34

During the late 1920 and early 1930s, the Walther company worked on developing a military pistol in 9x19mm. They began from the basis of the PP/PPK design, and produced three separate designs, the first two […]

M8C Spotting Rifle at the Range

May 7, 2022 Ian McCollum 12

The M8C is a rifle that presents a whole lot of really intriguing possibilities. It is compact, with detachable magazines, a modular trigger system, and a neat cartridge that is a bit easier to handle […]

The Finnish RPK: Valmet 78 at the Range

May 5, 2022 Ian McCollum 15

Valmet designed the M78 hoping to sell it to the Finnish military as an equivalent to the RPK, but it was not adopted. Instead, they were old a semiautos on the commercial market. Because this […]

Rheinmetall MG42/59: The Slow-Fire Commercial MG42

May 4, 2022 Ian McCollum 66

After World War Two, when West Germany was allowed to reconstitute its army and join NATO, it needed small arms. The new Bundeswehr chose the MG42 as it’s standard GPMG, and the Rheinmetall firm undertook […]