Austria - Forgotten Weapons

RIA – Swiss Model 1893: A Mannlicher Cavalry Carbine

June 21, 2016 Ian McCollum 23

The Swiss were the first country to adopt a bolt action repeating rifle with their Vetterli, and followed this by changing to a straight-pull design in the 1880s. The straight-pull Schmidt-Rubin system was quite good, […]

RIA: A Pair of Arresting Montenegrin Gasser Revolvers

June 20, 2016 Ian McCollum 26

This is quite the eye-catching pair of revolvers… The Model 1870 Gasser was a behemoth of a pistol designed by Leopold Gasser for the Austro-Hungarian cavalry – it was built around the 11x36mm cartridge used […]

RIA: Little Tom – the World’s First DAO Automatic

June 8, 2016 Ian McCollum 36

The Little Tom pistols designed by Alois Tomiška are notable for two particular features: their unusual reloading system and for being the first commercial DAO automatic pistols. Made in both .25ACP and .32 ACP in […]

RIA: Steyr-Hahn Pistol Variations

June 2, 2016 Ian McCollum 37

The Steyr-Hahn is one of the less glamorized pistols used in WWI, despite being made in quite large numbers (250,000-313,000, depending on who you read). The gun is an interesting mix of features, including bits […]

RIA: Reifgraber .38 S&W Automatic

April 17, 2016 Ian McCollum 21

Designed by Austrian immigrant Joseph Joachim Reifgraber, this is a prototype gas-assisted short recoil pistol in a .38 rimmed revolver cartridge. While this version did not see any serial production, the Union Firearms Company of […]

WWI Trench Hand Weapons

February 24, 2016 Ian McCollum 98

Karl and I recently did some work with a wide selection of hand weapons from WWI (some original, some reproductions) for a video in collaboration with the excellent YouTube channel The Great War. Have a […]

Union/Reifgraber .32 S&W Autopistol at RIA

November 28, 2015 Ian McCollum 36

The Reifgraber, aka Union Automatic Pistol, is an interesting mechanical design from an inventor with an interesting personal background. Joseph Joachim Reifgraber was born in Austria in 1856, and emigrated to the United States at […]

Erika 4.25mm Pistol at RIA

November 25, 2015 Ian McCollum 37

Today we’re looking an another early European micro-pistol. This is the Erika, developed by Franz Pfannl and chambered for the 4.25mm Liliput cartridge (which develops approximately 1/4 the energy of the .25 ACP). These pistols […]

Salvator-Dormus 1893 Machine Gun

October 13, 2015 Ian McCollum 38

One of the early potential competitors to the Maxim gun was the Austro-Hungarian Salvator-Dormus machine gun. Designed by Austrians Grand Duke Karl Salvator and Colonel von Dormus, is was first patented in 1888, although it […]

Mannlicher 1901/04 Carbine at James D Julia

September 29, 2015 Ian McCollum 13

Ferdinand von Mannlicher was a brilliant and prolific European gun designer with more than a few widely-adopted military arms to his name. One of his very last guns was this carbine, which was also one […]