Switzerland - Forgotten Weapons

Samuel Pauly Invents the Cartridge in 1812

April 17, 2019 Ian McCollum 45

https://youtu.be/BC7awTeuqRU This Pauly shotgun is lot #1346 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction. Samuel Johannes Pauli was born outside Bern, Switzerland in 1766, and became an engineer of wide interests. Among them were bridge design, passenger-carrying […]

Genhart Horizontal Turret Rifle

March 9, 2019 Ian McCollum 9

Heinrich Genhart was a Swiss designer working in Liege, Belgium in the 1850s making horizontal turret rifles. His design was actually pretty decent, and included recessed chamber mouths and a calming barrel which would lock […]

SIG AK-53: A Truly Weird Forward-Operating Rifle

February 22, 2019 Ian McCollum 71

One of the most mechanically unusual rifles I have had the chance to examine is the SIG AK-53. One of a long line of interested experimental self-loading designs made by SIG between the 1920s and […]

WF Bern C42 & E22: Swiss Stgw90 Trials Rifles

December 24, 2018 Ian McCollum 41

Today at the Kessler auction house in Kreuzlingen Switzerland we are taking a look at the W+F Bern C42 and E22 rifles. These are the guns supplied by Bern to compete for the Swiss military […]

Swiss Tankbuchse 41 Semiauto Antitank Rifle

October 29, 2018 Ian McCollum 30

This TB-41 antitank gun is being sold at Morphys on October 30, 2018. Originally developed for use in light tanks purchased from Czechoslovakia, the Tankbuchse 41 was a 24x139mm semiautomatic rifle designed by Adolph Furrer […]

Solothurn 20mm S18-1000 Wheeled Carriage

October 18, 2018 Ian McCollum 16

This Solothurn with its carriage is being sold by Morphys on October 30, 2018. Before they became obsolete, antitank rifles were a way to bring substantial firepower to small infantry teams – but they were […]

Special Presentation: Semiauto Pistols of the 1800s

September 19, 2018 Ian McCollum 11

Today’s Special Presentation is an overview of all the semiautomatic pistols that were actually put into serial production before the year 1900. We have looked at these individually before, but I think it is worthwhile […]

Swiss Reibel M31 Tank & Fortress Machine Gun

September 10, 2018 Ian McCollum 7

The Reibel Modele M31 was the variation of the French Chatellerault M24/29 light machine gun made for use in vehicles and fortifications. In accordance with that role, it lacked a buttstock or sights (these were […]

Holy Mother of Muzzle Flash, the Rico Special

August 11, 2018 Ian McCollum 17

Rico is a gunsmith at SIG Neuhausen who likes to tinker. He put together this SIG 510 (aka Stgw 57), with a modern collapsing stock, quad rail foreend, Aimpoint red dot, heavy barrel, and massive […]

SIG’s Pump Action 550 Rifle: the 550 VRB

August 1, 2018 Ian McCollum 10

In many countries, manually operated rifles are substantially easier for civilians to own than semiautomatic ones – and this was not lost on firearms manufacturers. In an effort to potentially open a new market, SIG […]