Germany - Forgotten Weapons

James D. Julia: WWI German Gewehr 98 Sniper

March 1, 2016 Ian McCollum 15

Germany was one of the first nations to really get into the sniping business during World War I, and this is an example of their sniper rifle of the period. The base rifle is a […]

WWI Trench Hand Weapons

February 24, 2016 Ian McCollum 98

Karl and I recently did some work with a wide selection of hand weapons from WWI (some original, some reproductions) for a video in collaboration with the excellent YouTube channel The Great War. Have a […]

RIA: G33/40 Gebirgstruppen Carbine

February 16, 2016 Ian McCollum 25

The G33/40 carbine was made by the excellent Czech factory at Brno under German occupation (between 1940 and 1942). It was essentially a copy of the Czech vz.33 carbine, and was specifically issued to the […]

RIA: Radom’s Vis 35: Poland’s Excellent Automatic Pistol

February 9, 2016 Ian McCollum 23

In the 1920s Poland began looking for a new standard military pistol, and tested a variety of compact .380s. The representative from FN brought along an early iteration of the High Power (along with their […]

RIA: Gewehr 29/40 Mauser

February 8, 2016 Ian McCollum 20

Over the next couple weeks we will be looking at several Polish firearms, and the first one is today: the G29/40. When German forces overran the arms factory in Radom, Poland, they captured in nearly […]

RIA: MP3008 Sten Copy

February 4, 2016 Ian McCollum 71

The MP 3008, aka Gerät Neumünster, was one of two German efforts to copy the British Sten gun. The first was the Gerät Potsdam (“gerät” meaning device or project; basically project code name), which was […]

RIA: Imperial Gewehr 71 (Video)

January 30, 2016 Ian McCollum 33

The Gewehr 1871 was the first rifle adopted by the newly-formed German state after its unification at the end of the Franco-Prussian War. It replaced the decades-old Dreyse needle rifles, and fired an 11x60mm black […]

A Note from Rick Smith of SMG Guns

January 17, 2016 Ian McCollum 8

Just wanted to pass along a cool photo and note I got from Rick Smith (the guy making reproduction FG-42 rifles) this morning: Hi All, Can’t say how this came about past it was almost […]

Mondragon 1908 Semiauto Rifles – 4 Different Examples (Video)

January 7, 2016 Ian McCollum 17

Best known as the first semiautomatic service rifle adopted by a mainstream military force, the 1908 Mondragon was designed by Mexican native Manuel Mondragon, manufactured by SIG in Switzerland, and adopted by the Mexican Army […]

Schlegelmilch Automatic Pistol

January 6, 2016 Ian McCollum 25

Aside from being one of the more unfortunately-named early repeating pistols, the Schlegelmilch is also one of the earliest and more unusual mechanically. It also the only example I am familiar with of a pistol […]