United Kingdom - Forgotten Weapons

Farquhar Hill: Britain’s WW1 Semiauto Rifle (Video)

February 20, 2017 Ian McCollum 16

The Farquhar-Hill was a semiauto rifle developed in Britain prior to World War 1. It was the idea of Birmingham gunsmith Arthur Hill, and financed by Aberdeen industrialist Mowbray Farquhar. The design began as a […]

Ishapore SMLE MkI** India Pattern (Video)

February 6, 2017 Ian McCollum 9

While many people are familiar with the Ishapore 2A1 rifles chambered in 7.62mm NATO (largely thanks to their importation and sale in the US in large numbers), production of Indian Enfield rifles actually dates back […]

Swift Model B: For Training and Pranks (Video)

February 5, 2017 Ian McCollum 17

As World War 2 exploded in Europe, rifle training suddenly because a very important topic in Great Britain. Typical solutions are small bore rimfire training variants of service rifles, but the British also wanted an […]

SMLE Rifle Grenade Launcher (Video)

February 2, 2017 Ian McCollum 16

While rifle-launched grenades date back hundreds of years, they first came into widespread use during World War One, on all sides of the conflict. The first years of the war saw the use of rod […]

Bonus: Sight Protectors! (Video)

January 28, 2017 Ian McCollum 10

The Lee-Speed rifle we looked at yesterday came with a set of really neat sight protectors, which I think are worth a separate video on their own. Quite a lot of work went into these, […]

Lee-Speed Military Model (Video)

January 27, 2017 Ian McCollum 8

In 1892, just a few years after the British military adopted the Lee-Metford rifle, the BSA and LSA factories began offering several configurations on the civilian/commercial market. They would produce them all the way into […]

Afghan Martini Carbines: The Kabul Arsenal (Video)

January 25, 2017 Ian McCollum 3

In the late 1880 or early 1890s, a British engineer and adventurer settled himself in Kabul, Afghanistan and at the request of Emir Abdul Rahman organized and build a rifle factory for the Afghan government. […]

RIC (Royal Irish Constabulary) Enfield Carbine

January 23, 2017 Ian McCollum 7

Enfield carbines are marvelous little guns, in my opinion, and just ooze history. This particular one is a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) carbine, 10,000 of which were converted from obsolete British military Lee Enfield and […]

Vintage Saturday: Anti-Aircraft Lewis

January 7, 2017 Ian McCollum 8

The wheel is for fast and easy traverse. The Lewis gun adapter allows it to be mounted on a Vickers tripod, and it’s mounted backwards to allow flexible elevation (you could do that with the […]

Enfield L85A1 (Video)

December 29, 2016 Ian McCollum 70

The L85A1 (part of the SA80 small arms family) was adopted by the British military in 1985 as a new generation of small arms to replace the L1A1 FAL (one quick note, where “A1” indicates […]