Germany - Forgotten Weapons

Bergmann No. 4 / 1896 Pistol

November 13, 2013 Ian McCollum 10

With the Bergmann No.3 proving to be a popular pistol and commercial success, Bergmann and Louis Schmeisser made another attempt to break into the military market. This was done by adapting the No.3 to use […]

Bergmann No. 3 / 1896 Pistol

November 12, 2013 Ian McCollum 16

Of the three calibers available in the 1896 model Bergmann pistol, the 6.5mm No.3 was the most popular. Approximately 4,000 of these guns were produced, and they found a worldwide following. We have examples below […]

Bergmann No. 2 / 1896 Pistol

November 8, 2013 Ian McCollum 25

After several years of work and at least two Swiss military trials, Louis Schmeisser’s design of the Bergmann self-loading pistol was still not quite good enough to become a commercial success. Only a few pistols […]

Bergmann 1894 – No.1 Pistol

November 6, 2013 Ian McCollum 18

As Theodore Bergmann and Louis Schmeisser embarked on the process of perfecting and improving their production pistols, they used a numbering system to identify the different models that were made. There are also model years […]

Vintage Saturday: Checkpoint Tommy

November 2, 2013 Ian McCollum 33

British soldier with a fancy new (unloaded) Sterling submachine gun manning a checkpoint in post-war occupied Germany.

2-Gun Action Challenge Match: SVT40 vs M1 Garand

October 21, 2013 Ian McCollum 23

So, after the hype about setting the FG-42 up against the M1 at a practical action match, I unfortunately have to let you down. We had a bit of a mishap right before the match […]

Borchardt C93 Manual

October 16, 2013 Ian McCollum 12

The C93 Borchardt was the first truly commercially successful self-loading pistol, and it was the basis for the P08 Luger which would become one of the most iconic pistols in history. I had the opportunity […]

Gewehr 43 (Video)

October 14, 2013 Ian McCollum 55

German ordnance began looking for a military selfloading rifle to augment the K98k as early as the 1930s, although the pressures of war initially made that development a second priority. By 1941, though, two competing […]

Warsaw Uprising

October 3, 2013 Ian McCollum 36

I normally have a book review on Thursday, but this week I’m pushing it to Friday. I meant to post this yesterday, but lost track of the date – which, 69 years ago, was the […]

H&K VP-70Z (Video)

September 23, 2013 Ian McCollum 53

I recently had the chance to hit the range with a VP-70Z, the semiauto civilian version of H&K’s 1970 machine pistol. It is notable both for being one of the few production machine pistols around […]