United Kingdom - Forgotten Weapons

Lancaster Four-Barrel Shotgun With Double-Action Trigger

March 18, 2018 Ian McCollum 10

Charles Lancaster started his unmaking business in London in 1826, and it would survive more than one hundred years, being run after Charles’ death by his sons and then by an apprentice who bought out […]

Parallel-Bore Side by Side Shotgun – Look Ma, No Rib!

March 6, 2018 Ian McCollum 17

Virtually all side by side shotguns are not actually made with the barrels parallel – they are made pointing just slightly together, so that the shot patterns will converge and meet up at a particular […]

Nock’s Volley Gun: Clearing the Decks in the 1700s

March 3, 2018 Ian McCollum 27

The Nock Volley Gun was actually invented by an Englishman named James Wilson in 1789, and presented to the British military as a potential infantry weapons. This was declined as impractical, but the Royal Navy […]

Lee Metford MkI*: Britain’s First Repeating Rifle (Almost)

February 26, 2018 Ian McCollum 22

The first repeating rifle adopted by the British military was the Lee-Metford MkI, or as it was later redesigned, the Magazine Rifle MkI. This design combined the cock on closing action and detachable box magazine […]

Captain Fraser’s Webley-Fosbery: WWI in Microcosm

December 23, 2017 Ian McCollum 20

Captain Percy Fraser, DSO was born on January 22, 1879 and died in Ypres on the night of February 23, 1915 while attempting to aid men wounded outside their trench. His unit of the Queen’s […]

Thorneycroft: A Victorian Bullpup Rifle with Volley Sights

December 6, 2017 Ian McCollum 19

The Thorneycroft was the first military bullpup rifle, developed in the United Kingdom in response to combat experiences in the second Boer War showing the British infantry rifles to be overly long and cumbersome. Scotsman […]

PIAT: Britain’s Answer to the Anti-Tank Rifle Problem

November 25, 2017 Ian McCollum 81

The British began World War Two with the Boys antitank rifle, but like all antitank rifles it rather quickly became obsolete. The replacement for it was adopted in 1942 as the PIAT – Projector, Infantry, […]

Wilson’s Lorenzoni Repeating Flintlock Musket

November 23, 2017 Ian McCollum 17

The Wilson family was a gunmaking dynasty in London that began in 1730 when Richard Wilson was accepted as a Master Gunmaker by the Gunmakers’ Company. Wilson’s eldest son William Wilson would receive the same […]

The Greene Carbine: Too Tricky for the Cavalry

November 8, 2017 Ian McCollum 18

James Greene patented this unusual breechloading carbine design in 1854, and arranged to have it manufactured by the Massachusetts Arms Company of Chicopee Falls. He managed to sell 300 of them to the US military, […]

Correction: Whitworth Accuracy and Figure of Merit vs MOA

November 2, 2017 Ian McCollum 23

In my recent video on the Whitworth rifle, I made a rather embarrassing mistake, interpreting “figure of merit” accuracy measurements as complete group sizes. This was incorrect, and caused me to seriously overestimate the accuracy […]