Germany - Forgotten Weapons

Book Review: Captured Arms (Beutewaffen)

December 3, 2017 Ian McCollum 25

“Captured Arms (Beutewaffen)” by Guus de Vries is Volume 9 of the Propaganda Photo Series by SI Publicaties out of the Netherlands. I really like the whole series, as they do a very good job […]

The .32ACP Dreyse Light Carbine

December 2, 2017 Ian McCollum 41

Manufactured by Rheinmetall and designed by Louis Stange, this light .32ACP (7.65mm Browning) carbine is a bit of a mysterious item. Very little written information exists about it, but we know it was sold on […]

Gebert Custom Mauser 71 with all the Bells and Whistles!

November 20, 2017 Ian McCollum 47

Made by Carl Gebert, a master gunsmith in Munich, this custom sporting rifle exhibits all the fancy options available in the 1870s or 1880s! The base action is an 1871 Mauser, which was a single […]

John Martz Custom P38s: Babies, .45s, and .38 Supers

November 15, 2017 Ian McCollum 7

Guns in this video: Baby P38 .38 Super P38 .45ACP P38 John Martz was a WWII US Navy veteran who spent a career in metalworking before turning his gunsmithing hobby into a full time occupation […]

The MG-15: A Flexible Aircraft Machine Gun Pushed into Infantry Service

October 29, 2017 Ian McCollum 29

The MG-15 was the first standard flexible-mounted aircraft machine gun adopted by the Luftwaffe in the 1930s. Both it and the MG-17 are evolved form a Rheinmetall/Solothurn design which would also become the Austrian and […]

Shooting the ZB-26: A Jewel of an Interwar Light Machine Gun

October 27, 2017 Ian McCollum 18

Today we have a chance to do some shooting with a ZB-26, a German-occupation 8mm light machine gun made at Brno in Czechoslovakia. The ZB-26 does not get nearly as much attention as LMGs made […]

ZB26: The Best of the Light Machine Guns

October 26, 2017 Ian McCollum 38

The ZB-26 stands as one of the best magazine-fed light machine guns developed during the 1920s and 30s – it was a very popular gun for small military forces and many countries which did not […]

Evolution of the Sturmgewehr: MP43/1, MP43, MP44, and StG44

October 18, 2017 Ian McCollum 41

MP43/1: https://jamesdjulia.com/item/52359-1-397/ MP44: https://jamesdjulia.com/item/52520-5-397/ StG44: https://jamesdjulia.com/item/52725-1-397/ Today we are going to look at the evolution of the Sturmgewehr – from the MP43/I and MP43 to the MP44 and StG44, what actually changed and why?

Klienen Waffenwerkzeugatz – A German Armorer’s Tool Kit

October 10, 2017 Ian McCollum 11

This is a “Klienen Waffenwerkzeugatz” – a small armorer’s tool kit used by a German Waffenmeister. It is a really neat little set of handy and essential tools for working on small arms, which folds […]

MG-34: The Universal Machine Gun Concept

October 7, 2017 Ian McCollum 59

The MG34 was the first German implementation of the universal machine gun concept – and really the first such fielded by any army. The idea was to have a single weapon which could be used […]