Germany - Forgotten Weapons

Book Review: SS Contract Walther PP/PPK

July 11, 2021 Ian McCollum 4

I have done some videos previously with Tom Whiteman from Legacy Collectibles – mostly ones about his area of specialty; German WW2 handguns. Well, he has now published a reference book compiling more than 20 […]

Mauser 1912/14 Development in .45ACP

May 31, 2021 Ian McCollum 21

Mauser did not limit their Model 1912 and 1912/14 pistols to just being chambered in 9mm – they also developed a number of prototypes in .45ACP. Today we have a series of three such prototypes […]

How Russia Captured its First MKb-42(H)

May 30, 2021 Ian McCollum 99

This guest article written by Andrey Ulanov. When a new weapon model gets to the front, there is always a risk of it getting captured by the enemy. Armed forces go to great lengths to […]

The Mauser Train: High Adventure in the Last Days of WWII

May 18, 2021 Ian McCollum 19

Only days ahead of the French Army in April 1945, Ott-Helmuth von Lossnitzer and about 250 Mauser engineers and technicians fled Oberndorf with the core of Mauser’s new projects. They had the drawings, components, and […]

Just Too Powerful: The C96 in 9mm Mauser Export

May 11, 2021 Ian McCollum 30

In an effort to widen its potential marked for the C96 pistol, Mauser offered it in 9x25mm (aka 9mm Mauser Export) as well as the much more common 7.63x25mm cartridge. The 9mm cartridge was made […]

H&K 512 Old-School Tactical Shotgun

May 8, 2021 Ian McCollum 24

In the late 1970s, H&K decided that it wanted to offer a tactical shotgun for the police and security market. Having no experience with shotgun manufacture, they turned to Franchi in Italy – for whom […]

German World War One Gewehr 98 Sniper

May 7, 2021 Ian McCollum 21

Germany was the earliest adopter of scoped rifles in World War One, and produced more of them over the course of the war than any other power. After an initial stop-gap effort to scrounge up […]

Lugers Under Versailles: The 1926 Simson P08

April 24, 2021 Ian McCollum 12

Simson & Co of Suhl was chosen as the sole contractor legally allowed to manufacture and rework military small arms for the German military under the Versailles treaty. They acquired the P08 Luger tooling from […]

MAS-45: The French .22 Trainer Designed by Mauser

April 14, 2021 Ian McCollum 17

When the French occupied the Mauser factory in April 1945, they found all the tooling to produce .22 caliber rifles still in place and in good order (among other things). The French military did not […]

Fritz Mann Model 1921: Chamber-Ring-Delayed Blowback

April 13, 2021 Ian McCollum 50

In 1920, Fritz Mann of Germany patented the idea of cutting a shallow ring in the chamber of a pistol as a delaying mechanism. When fired, a cartridge case would expand into this groove, thus […]