Germany - Forgotten Weapons

RIA: German Gewehr 41(M)

August 18, 2015 Ian McCollum 40

When the German military started looking for a self-loading rifle in the late 1930s, they had a pretty strict set of requirements. Most significantly, the rifles could not have gas ports or recoiling barrels, could […]

Heavy Machine Guns of the Western Front, WWI

August 14, 2015 Ian McCollum 60

I have been really enjoying The Great War series on YouTube (a rolling weekly account of what happened in WWI this week 100 years ago), so I figured I ought to take advantage of an opportunity […]

Vintage Saturday: Armor Terror

August 8, 2015 Ian McCollum 42

Technically speaking, Raketenpanzerbüchse 54, inspired by the US Bazooka.

Slow Motion: .32ACP Baby Luger Malfunctions

August 6, 2015 Ian McCollum 31

Mike Krause of San Mateo, California makes some gorgeous reproduction Luger pistols, including copies of the extremely rare .32ACP “baby” Lugers. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much luck with this particular one on the range. Still, […]

Francotte .22LR Borchardt Lookalike (Video)

August 3, 2015 Ian McCollum 14

It’s fairly common today to see .22 caliber versions of larger firearms, marketed to folks who don’t want to spend as much for either the gun or its ammunition. For example, the ATI Sturmgewehrs, the […]

Slow Motion: Luger Snail Drum

July 30, 2015 Ian McCollum 25

The 32-round snail drum (or as it was properly known, the trommelmagazin 08) was developed in 1916 to give increased firepower to units armed with the LangePistole 08, or artillery Luger. These pistols were also […]

2-Gun Action Challenge Match: SMLE vs Kar 98AZ (Video)

July 29, 2015 Ian McCollum 45

In this month’s 2-Gun Action Challenge Match, we decided to both run World War I rifles – Karl with a 1914/1920 Kar 98AZ and I had a 1918 no1 MkIII* SMLE. In the previous enfield/Mauser matchup the […]

Slow Motion Video from the Pattern Room

July 28, 2015 Ian McCollum 25

As someone who is very interested in the practical handling of old firearms, the idea of gun museums leaves me a bit conflicted. On the one hand, I am absolutely in favor of guns being […]

HMG’s US-Made Sturmgewehr

July 14, 2015 Ian McCollum 43

In all the time I have been able to look at MP-43/MP-44/StG-44 rifles, one of the comments that comes up over and over is the desire for someone to make a semiauto reproduction of the gun […]

Walther MPL (Video)

July 13, 2015 Ian McCollum 38

The Walther MP was an all-stamped submachine gun developed in the late 1950s, and available in long (MPL) and short (MPK) versions. It is an open-bolt, blowback design, but uses a somewhat innovative bolt in […]