Russia - Forgotten Weapons

Russian Winchester 1895 (Video)

December 30, 2013 Ian McCollum 28

By the 1890s, Winchester had established an extremely successful business in lever-action rifles. John Browning’s designs for the 1886, 1892, and 1894 models had proven very popular, and so Winchester (seeing the potential of the […]

Vintage Saturday: Strange Bedfellows

December 21, 2013 Ian McCollum 22

Soviet troops with M38 Mosin carbines and Breda Model 37 heavy machine guns (presumably captured from the ill-fated Italian ARMIR expedition in 1942/43). Thanks to Leszek for finding the photo at Waralbum.ru!

Book Review: Allied Rifle Contracts in America

November 21, 2013 Ian McCollum 6

One of the characteristics that often leads me to be particularly interested in a given gun is a long and convoluted history. I really enjoy finding firearms that have found their way across the world […]

Book Review: The Bear Went Over the Mountain

October 31, 2013 Ian McCollum 13

I’ve been aware of Lester Grau’s The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan for a long time – I borrowed a copy many years ago – but only recently purchased a […]

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 […]

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 […]

Russian Followup

September 17, 2013 Ian McCollum 26

Two followups for you today, courtesy of readers who ferreted out some addition material for me – thanks guys! First, my vintage photo of the Soviet marine snipers generated a bunch of discussion of the […]

Vintage Saturday: Join the Army, See the World

September 14, 2013 Ian McCollum 27

German soldier carrying a captured DS-39 machine gun and tripod over a pretty bleak steppe.

Vintage Saturday: Heavy Firepower

September 7, 2013 Ian McCollum 17

Vintage Saturday: Marine Snipers

August 31, 2013 Ian McCollum 27

Soviet marines from the Baltic Fleet ashore at Leningrad, armed with PEM 91/30 sniper rifles.