Germany - Forgotten Weapons

Bergmann No.2 pistol in 5mm Bergmann, with folding trigger

Bergmann No. 2 / 1896

January 6, 2017 Ian McCollum 20

The No.2 was Bergmann’s first offering of a civilian pocket pistol, introduced in 1896 alongside the larger-framed No.3 and No.4 pistols. It was chambered for a truly anemic 5mm cartridge, using a simple blowback system […]

Bergmann No. 1 / 1894 (Video)

January 4, 2017 Ian McCollum 28

The initial patent for what would become the Bergmann pistols was actually a delayed blowback mechanism, and it was quickly revised to simple blowback by Louis Schmeisser. The first actual production pistols, designated the No.1, […]

Bergmann Introduction (Video)

January 3, 2017 Ian McCollum 8

Theodore Bergmann, despite having his name on a lot of different guns, was not actually a gun designer. Bergmann was a financier and industrialist, in many ways like Eli Whitney in the US decades earlier. […]

German MG08 machine guns on the line early in WWI

Vintage Saturday: Early WWI Machine Gun Emplacement

December 24, 2016 Ian McCollum 23

I don’t have a date or location for this photo, but it is clearly quite early in the Great War. Note the nice pickelhaube covers and the big shields on the MG08s. Those shields would […]

Shooting the 1883 Reichsrevolver (Video)

December 16, 2016 Ian McCollum 44

The 1883 Reichsrevolver is not the weapon most people would expect to see in German service – it was a decidely obsolete weapon from the moment of its adoption. The initial 1879 model was actually […]

German soldiers with captured American arms

Vintage Saturday: More Spoils

December 10, 2016 Ian McCollum 62

German soldiers with captured American small arms, circa 1944. The other guy’s stuff is always better than yours, right? Well, I would rather have an M1 than a K98k, but the Thompsons? No thanks. Interesting […]

Uruguay’s Forgotten Mauser: the Dovitiis

December 6, 2016 Ian McCollum 11

Uruguay’s Model 1871/94 Mauser conversions – known usually as either Daudetau or Dovitiis Mausers – are a really interesting story of arms history. It begins with Antonio Dovitiis, and Italian tailor and merchant of military […]

Colt “Brevete” Copy Overview: Legal, Illegal, and Post-Legal (Video)

November 27, 2016 Ian McCollum 24

When you think about early revolver patent infringement, the name that probably comes to mind is Rollin White. But Sam Colt had more than his share of infringement to deal with as well! Colt’s most […]

Mauser C77 Single-Shot Pistol (Video)

November 19, 2016 Ian McCollum 63

The Mauser brothers’ first attempt at a commercial or military handgun was this, the C77 (Construktion 1877) model of single shot pistol. Why a single-shot sidearm in 1877, well into the age of centerfire military […]

Bergmann Simplex Pocket Pistols (Video)

November 13, 2016 Ian McCollum 22

The Bergmann 1896 Number 2 pistol was a relatively successful compact pocket gun for its day, but quickly became obsolete as semiautomatic handguns developed and improved. Bergman and his chief engineer Schmeisser spent the late […]