Russia - Forgotten Weapons

RIA: Polish Ng30 Nagant Revolver

February 11, 2016 Ian McCollum 31

The Model 1895 Nagant revolver is pretty common in the US thanks to large imports of Russian revolvers, but we rarely see Polish Nagants. These were adopted as a sidearms for police organizations under the […]

RIA: Predecessor to the Mosin – the Russian Berdan II

February 10, 2016 Ian McCollum 43

Before adopting the M1891 Mosin-Nagant, the Russian Empire (like most major militaries) used a large-bore single-shot rifle as its standard infantry rifle. In this case, a .42-caliber rifle designed by American General Hiram Berdan (yes, […]

RIA: Russian Winchester 1895 in 7.62x54R

February 2, 2016 Ian McCollum 64

The Winchester 1895 was the last of Winchester’s lever-action rifles, and has an interesting place in a couple different parts of world history. On the one hand, the 1895 in .405 Winchester caliber is known […]

Military Thought (USSR): Some Points on the Status and Development of Small Arms (1965, English translation)

A Soviet Look at Cold War Small Arms Development

December 29, 2015 Ian McCollum 77

I have covered various elements of small arms development during the Cold War more than a few times – usually involving the contentious process that led to the 7.62mm NATO cartridge being adopted, and the […]

StG-45 Horn Prototypes

December 9, 2015 Ian McCollum 137

Herr Horn (I have seen his name given as both N.V. Horn and V.G. Horn; not sure which is correct) was an engineer working in the R&D department of Mauser at the end of WWII, and […]

Vintage Saturday: Seeds of an Idea

November 7, 2015 Ian McCollum 84

Point at Panzer, press button…

The Ubiquitous RPG-7 (Video)

October 12, 2015 Ian McCollum 56

The RPG-7 is pretty far from being a forgotten weapon, but I was not going to pass up an opportunity to take a closer look at a live one. This example is one of the […]

Belgian 1886 Rifle Trials Report (Translated to English)

October 7, 2015 Ian McCollum 38

Our friend Thibaud has spent some time translating a report from the Belgian 1886 rifle trials into English – thank you, Thibaud! He notes that the text has a lot of specifically Belgian terminology and […]

RIA: Stocked FN Model 1903

August 26, 2015 Ian McCollum 18

The FN Model 1903 was a Belgian-made scaled-up version of John Browning’s model 1903 pocket hammerless pistol. The pocket hammerless was made in .32 ACP and .380 calibers for (primarily) the civilian market in the […]

Soviet Experimental DPM-36 LMG Variations

August 11, 2015 Ian McCollum 26

From the Soviet Gun Archives blog, some photos of an experimental DPM-36 light machine gun (an improvement of the DP-28). Unfortunately, SGA does not list any source documents and my copy of Bolotin’s book doesn’t […]