Russia - Forgotten Weapons

Book Review: AK47 – The Grim Reaper (Second Edition)

January 6, 2019 Ian McCollum 16

The expanded second edition of Frank Iannamico’s “AK47: The Grim Reaper” is a hefty 1100-page tome which tackles the ambition goal of being a single reference for all things Kalashnikov. Ot begins with a section […]

M1916 Fedorov: Russia’s First Assault Rifle?

December 21, 2018 Ian McCollum 77

I have been trying to get my hands on Fedorov M1916 rifle for a while, and I finally had the opportunity at the NFC, part of the British Royal Armouries. The Fedorov was designed in […]

Mosin-Nagant Factory Pressure Test Rifle

November 20, 2018 Ian McCollum 17

This rifle sold for $3,450 at Rock Island on December 1, 2018. How did people determine chamber pressure in the years before computers and fancy electronics? Well, by squishing a calibrated slug of copper. Factories […]

Ukrainian or Russian Partisan Modified MP40

September 17, 2018 Ian McCollum 21

Some collectors hunt for firearms which look perfectly new form the factory, and others prefer arms that show lots of evidence of use and history. Well, this is definitely one of the latter type – […]

St Petersburg Cavalry School Mosin Carbine

July 9, 2018 Ian McCollum 15

This is a rather mysterious – or at least poorly documented – Mosin Nagant carbine variation. Made from an assortment of rifles dated from 1896 through 1920, these carbines were designed to fit Gulkevich folding […]

RP46 Variations: Russian, North Korean, and US Reproduction

July 4, 2018 Ian McCollum 12

FYI, the Russian RP46 parts kit shown in this video is currently selling on GunBroker, with no reserve and a penny start: https://www.gunbroker.com/item/778500561 The RP-46 was the final iteration of the Degtyarev DP27/DPM light machine gun, […]

Origin of a Flare Pistol: Shpagin’s SPSh-44

June 7, 2018 Ian McCollum 2

This flare pistol is coming up for sale at RIA on June 23. After finishing his work on the PPSh-41 submachine gun, Georgiy Semyonovich Shpagin was tasked with creating a simplified flare or signal pistol […]

PTRD 41: The Simple Soviet Antitank Rifle of WWII

May 25, 2018 Ian McCollum 46

The Soviet Union had originally eschewed the use of large numbers of antitank rifles, anticipating that any potential combat use of them would be largely against tanks impervious to AT rifle cartridges. However, when […]

Russian Type 2 AK: Introducing the Milled Receiver

May 23, 2018 Ian McCollum 44

With recognition of the production problems of the original Type 1 AK, an alternative was needed. Russian engineer Valeriy Kharkov led a team of engineers who designed a replacement drop-forged and machined receiver for the […]

Type 1 Russian AK: The Actual AK-47

May 21, 2018 Ian McCollum 75

https://youtu.be/f5UFzsnmIlQ The AK-47 rifle was formally adopted in 1947, as the name implies, and went into production in 1948. In this very first form, it used a stamped receiver with front and rear trunnions riveted […]