China - Forgotten Weapons

Type 13 Manchurian Mauser – A WW1 Legacy in China

November 26, 2018 Ian McCollum 28

This rifle sold for $5,750 at Rock Island on December 2, 2018. The Liao Type 13 was produced at what would become known as the Mukden Arsenal in Manchuria starting in 1924, with production facilitated […]

North China Type 19: The Improved Nambu Pistol

November 15, 2018 Ian McCollum 13

This pistol sold for $8,625 at Rock Island on December 2, 2018. The North China Type 19 pistol (not to be confused with the North China Type 19 rifle) is an improvement on the Type […]

Book Review: The Makarov Pistol Part 2 (China, Bulgaria, Khyber Pass)

July 22, 2018 Ian McCollum 4

Henry Brown and Cameron White have released the second part of their work on the Makarov pistol, this time with additional assistance from Edwin Lowe. This second volume covers Chinese, Bulgarian, and craft-made (“Khyber Pass”) […]

China’s CF-98 Modular Service Pistol

February 16, 2018 Ian McCollum 61

China adopted this pistol in 1998 in a domestic 5.8x21mm cartridge, and also manufactured examples like this one in 9x19mm Parabellum for export. It is a design built around a sheet metal skeleton holding the […]

Inglis High Power: How a Chinese Whim Became A British Service Pistol

January 25, 2018 Ian McCollum 46

During World War Two, the Canadian government set up a loan program to help Chinese companies provide all manner of material aid to Canada’s allies. Among many others, one recipient of this aid was the […]

Communist Heresy: Norinco’s M305A M14 in 7.62x39mm

September 22, 2017 Ian McCollum 43

Norinco is a huge consortium of manufacturing plants in China that make all manner of goods for export, including military hardware. One of Norinco’s factories has been making copies of the American M14 rifle for […]

Shooting the Norinco QBZ/Type 97 NSR

September 9, 2017 Ian McCollum 27

Today it’s time to take the Norinco QBZ-97 – aka Type 97 NSR – out to the range for some shooting! This is the Canadian semiautomatic-only legal version of China’s new military rifle, and it […]

Mechanics and Disassembly of the Norinco QBZ-97 / Type 97 NSR

September 8, 2017 Ian McCollum 22

The Chinese military introduced a new 5.8x42mm cartridge in 1987, and then developed a new bullpup rifle to use it. The rifle was the QBZ Type 95, and it was a bullpup rifle with a […]

Dragunov Variations: Military SVD, Izhmash Tiger, Chinese NDM-86

April 20, 2017 Ian McCollum 28

The SVD Dragunov was the Soviet marksman’s rifle that finally replaced the failed attempt to issue the SVT-40 as a precision rifle. It was introduced in 1963, after about 5 years of development, and its […]

General Liu’s Prototype Rifle (Video)

November 28, 2016 Ian McCollum 27

The General Liu rifle (named for its designer – it never received an official designation that we know of) was China’s closest approach to an indigenous self-loading infantry rifle before World War II. Mechanically it […]