France - Forgotten Weapons

Ammunition Documents

April 29, 2014 Ian McCollum 10

Courtesy of reader Robert, we have a couple documents for you today. First up is a British 1918 manual on identifying different types of ammunition by projectile, case, and packaging markings. Given the variety of […]

Vintage Saturday: On Maneuvers

April 12, 2014 Ian McCollum 28

Zouaves on maneuvers with M1886 Lebel rifles, in 1909.

Vintage Saturday: A Long Way From Home

December 14, 2013 Ian McCollum 26

Malagasy soldier from the French army, World War I. Armed with a M1886/93 Lebel rifle and early style bayonet with hooked quillion.

Book Review: Allied Rifle Contracts in America

November 21, 2013 Ian McCollum 6

One of the characteristics that often leads me to be particularly interested in a given gun is a long and convoluted history. I really enjoy finding firearms that have found their way across the world […]

Vintage Saturday: Three or Five?

September 28, 2013 Ian McCollum 25

Members of the French resistance in Paris, August 1944. Interesting to see that the shooter has an M-16 Berthier with a 5-round magazines, but the window sill has a pile of three-round clips. Also interesting […]

Book Review: Honour Bound – The Chauchat Machine Rifle

July 25, 2013 Ian McCollum 17

I’ve discussed the much-maligned CSRG machine rifle (the Chauchat) previously – it was not the utter disaster that common knowledge would lead you to believe. You won’t find much literature on the Chauchat, but fortunately […]

Hotchkiss M1922 LMG

May 24, 2013 Ian McCollum 47

Many people are unaware of just how many different firearms were produced by the Hotchkiss company over the decades – not many of them received the worldwide acclaim of the more well known arms companies. […]

French MAS-38 SMG

May 17, 2013 Ian McCollum 39

In the early 1930s, France adopted a new standard pistol and a new cartridge to go with it – the MAS 1935 and the 7.65x20mm, closely patterned on the us M1918 Pedersen Device cartridge. They […]

Book Review: A Gun For All Nations

May 9, 2013 Ian McCollum 3

I ran across a mention of this book while trying to find some information on this 37mm Hotchkiss machine gun – and this book was the only reference I could find any mention of it […]

Richard Wray Machine Gun Auction Followup

April 30, 2013 Ian McCollum 23

So, the auction of the late Richard Wray’s machine gun collection (see previous post) was yesterday, with the non-NFA guns being auctioned today. The final prices are interesting to look at, with some wallet-wrenchingly high […]