United Kingdom - Forgotten Weapons

Best of American and Europe: the Webley No5 Express New Army

December 6, 2024 Ian McCollum 14

Webley introduced their No5 Express New Army model revolver in 1878. This was essentially a ruggedized and scaled up variation on the No5 RIC revolvers that was very popular with police forces. The RIC was […]

Enfield MkII: Better Than the MkI, I Guess

November 1, 2024 Ian McCollum 3

The Enfield MkI had only been in service for two years when the MkII was adopted in March 1882 to resolve some of its problems (and reduce its cost). At the same time, a new […]

Welrod .32 at the Range: British SOE’s Silent Assassin’s Pistol

August 17, 2024 Ian McCollum 25

I had the chance to take a .32ACP Welrod MkII out to the range for a bit of shooting. These use a combination of baffles and rubber wipes, and the suppressor’s effectiveness quickly drops from […]

The Experimental SOE Welrod MkI Prototype

August 12, 2024 Ian McCollum 17

The Welrod was a program to develop a silent assassination pistol for British SOE (Special Operations Executive) late in 1942. It needed to be chambered in the .32 ACP cartridge, be effective to a range […]

Enjoying Black Powder Episode 3: The Martini-Henry MkIV

July 27, 2024 Ian McCollum 0

The full version with hand loading information is available here: https://forgottenweapons.vhx.tv/videos/martini-app-cut Sorry about the wind noise! We did our best to deal with it in post-production. Black powder military rifles of the 1860s-1880s are a […]

Belton Repeating Flintlock: A Semiautomatic Rifle in 1785

July 1, 2024 Ian McCollum 16

In 1785, Joseph Belton (an American inventor) and William Jover (an English gunmaker) sold 560 repeating flintlock rifles to the British East India Company. The guns were a very remarkable design which used a detachable […]

Sten Mk5: The Cadillac of the Sten Family

June 17, 2024 Ian McCollum 24

The Sten Mk5 (sometimes written Sten MkV) was really the Cadillac of the Sten series. It was designed in 1943, and featured a full wooden buttstock patterned after the No4 Enfield rifle, as well as […]

Shooting Shaved Webley Revolvers (w/ Steinel Ammo)

June 8, 2024 Ian McCollum 14

Steinel Ammunition has started making a rather niche new product, but one that I think is quite convenient: .45 ACP downloaded to .455 Webley pressure. This is for use in Webley revolvers that were shaved […]

Sten MkIII: A Children’s Toy Company Makes SMGs

June 5, 2024 Ian McCollum 12

Lines Brothers was a company in the UK that made sheet metal childrens’ toys prior to the war. When production of the Sten guns began, Lines Bros was a parts subcontractor. Their engineers analyzed the […]

Sten MkII: Just When You Thought It Couldn’t Get Simpler

May 29, 2024 Ian McCollum 28

The Sten MkI had barely been approved for production when the Sten MkII was born. Initially requested to produce a version of the gun suitable for paratroopers, in March 1941 Harold Turpin redesigned the front […]