Germany - Forgotten Weapons

RIA: H&K SL8, The Civilian G36 (Video)

September 7, 2016 Ian McCollum 37

The SL-8 was Heckler & Koch’s civilianized version of the G36 military rifle. There was, unsurprisingly, a major interest in semiautomatic civilian copies of the G36, but H&K was in a difficult position to meet […]

RIA: Luger 1902 Carbine (Video)

September 2, 2016 Ian McCollum 26

With the advent of successful self-loading pistols, one of the additional markets that many companies tried to appeal to was the compact carbine. Self-loading rifles in proper rifle cartridges would not be developed as quickly […]

RIA: Walther Model 6 (Video)

September 1, 2016 Ian McCollum 53

Wather introduced its first pistol in 1908, creatively named the Model 1. With the outbreak of World War One, the company was offering the Model 4 pistol for military use. This was a .32 ACP […]

RIA: Mauser 1913 Selbstladegewehr Sporter (Video)

August 30, 2016 Ian McCollum 50

Paul Mauser spent nearly 20 years attempting to perfect a self-loading rifle for military service. He came closest with this, his 1913 patent model, which was used by German balloon and aircraft fliers as the […]

RIA: Mauser Model 1878 “Zig-Zag” Revolvers (Video)

August 25, 2016 Ian McCollum 44

After making their big break with the adoption of the Model 1871 Mauser rifle by the newly unified German government, the Mauser brothers, took a shot at getting the handgun contract for the military as […]

RIA: Prototype Mauser HSv Pistols (Video)

August 24, 2016 Ian McCollum 35

When the German military finally could no longer tolerate the expense of the P.08 Luger in the late 1930s, they held a trial of possible replacements. The three main entrants were BSW with a gas-operated […]

RIA: Prototype Gustloff 206 Rifle

August 17, 2016 Ian McCollum 49

German arms development during World War II was quite the chaotic mess, in many ways. While it is not uncommon for different service branches to have independent procurement systems, in fascist-era Germany this was coupled […]

RIA: Real vs “Fake” Wheellocks – What is “Fake”, Anyway?

August 16, 2016 Ian McCollum 27

When someone makes a “fake” historical gun, they can do so with the intent to deceive or be up-front with the gun’s new manufacture. Those acknowledged reproductions are a great option to have – guns […]

RIA: Himmler Presentation Sauer 38H for Snipers

August 12, 2016 Ian McCollum 62

Note: I debated whether or not to use the Nazi flag in the thumbnail image, and opted to put it in there because it was in fact the German flag when this pistol was made. […]

Mauser M1915 Selbstlader Infantry Rifle (Video)

August 4, 2016 Ian McCollum 44

The Mauser Selbstlader M1915 was the result of many years of work by the Mauser brothers to develop a semiautomatic rifle suitable for military use. They tried many different types of operating systems, and this […]