Germany - Forgotten Weapons

Israeli SP66: A Modern Mauser Sniper

April 14, 2019 Ian McCollum 16

This rifle is lot #2172 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction. Around 1980, Israeli purchased a batch of modern Mauser SP66 precision rifles to supplement or replace their stocks of M14 and Mauser K98k sniper rifles. […]

Heym SR30: Straight Pull Ball-Bearing Lock?

April 8, 2019 Ian McCollum 39

This rifle is lot #2168 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction. The Heym SR30 is a modern hunting rifle produced in Thuringia, Germany using a rather clever and interesting locking system. It is a straight-pull rifle […]

The Last Dreyse Needlefire: 1874 Border Guard

March 31, 2019 Ian McCollum 8

This rifle is lot #1414 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction. The Dreyse needle fire rifle was invented by Niclaus von Dreyse in 1836, adopted by Prussia in 1841, and would serve as their standard military […]

Shooting the H&K MP7

March 30, 2019 Ian McCollum 37

Thanks to H&K and Trijicon, I have a chance to do some shooting with an MP7A1 PWD today. The MP7 is unusual for a gun of its size and configuration in having a fully locked […]

Schlegemilch 1896: Closest Competition to the Mauser 98

March 18, 2019 Ian McCollum 37

Louis Schlegemilch had been one of the contributors to the Gewehr 1888 and when the German military decided to replace it, Schlegemilch was there with a design he hoped would win. His model 1896 rifle […]

ManuFrance Commercial Luger

March 17, 2019 Ian McCollum 9

Between 1909 and 1915, the huge French mail-order firm of Manufacture Francais d’Armes et Cycles de St Etienne (later called Manufrance) sold Luger pistols (as well as many other types of firearms). They were enough […]

Knoch Needlefire Pistol

March 15, 2019 Ian McCollum 5

This is a handmade, single shot needle fire pistol (zündnadelpistole) made by a German gunsmith named A. Knoch in Munich in 1850. I have been unable to find any documentation about the man, but the […]

Walther Model 3: A Tiny Early .32

March 14, 2019 Ian McCollum 17

Walther was founded as a rifle making company in the 1880s, and expanded into the flourishing market for semiautomatic pocket pistols around 1910. The Model 3 was the company’s first .32 ACP caliber pistol, and […]

Spanish 1892: Last of the Single Stack Magazine Mausers

March 11, 2019 Ian McCollum 11

The Mauser 98 may have been the best bolt action design of all time, but it did not spring forth from Paul Mauser’s head fully formed. The Mauser took nearly 10 years of development and […]

Project Lightening Episode 07: Conclusions

March 7, 2019 Ian McCollum 12

Project Lightening is a collaborative series with Othais and Mae of C&Rsenal in which we test all seven light machine guns and automatic rifles of World War One and put them through a series of […]