United States - Forgotten Weapons

Earle Harvey’s T25: Replacement for the Garand

February 15, 2013 Ian McCollum 22

During the late years of WWII, the US military worked diligently on a replacement for the M1 Garand rifle, which was designated the T20. This was basically an M1, with the addition of a trigger […]

Book Review: The Great Rifle Controversy

February 14, 2013 Ian McCollum 17

Here’s a question: considering that by 1945 John Garand had developed working prototypes of the T20 rifle (basically an M1 with a select-fire trigger mechanism and a 20-round box magazine), why did it take the […]

Historical What-If

February 12, 2013 Ian McCollum 45

I happened to catch a show on the History Channel the other day about a group of archaeologists doing a forensic reconstruction of Custer’s annihilation at the Little Bighorn. One of the things they determined […]

Hythe Gun Camera

February 8, 2013 Ian McCollum 15

Training aircraft gunners has always been a task requiring some creativity, as it requires a lot more than just a paper target for an infantryman to blast away at. In the very early years of […]

Vintage Saturday: Legislators

January 26, 2013 Ian McCollum 5

Photo from the May 1940 weapons testing at Fort Belvoir. From left to right, Senator Lundeen (MN, Farmer-Labor) with a Johnson rifle, Rep. Snyder (PA, Democrat) with an M1928A1 Thompson, and Senator Thomas (OK, Democrat) […]

Book Review: Johnson Rifles and Machine Guns

January 24, 2013 Ian McCollum 7

Most folks are aware of the M1941 Johnson semiauto rifle, which competed valiantly but unsuccessfully withthe M1 Garand for the position of standard US service rifle during WWII. What most people aren’t as familiar with […]

Gatling Gun Feeding Mechanisms

January 23, 2013 Ian McCollum 25

The Gatling Gun is interested for many reasons, and one of them is the variety of feeding mechanisms that were developed and used with it. Most firearms are designed around a single specific feeding mechanism, […]

Shooting an 1877 Bulldog Gatling

January 21, 2013 Ian McCollum 18

Thanks to a friendly collector, we had the chance to take out one of the new, gorgeous reproduction 1877 Gatling guns being sold by Colt. It’s a near-exact replica, with the added feature of being […]

Vintage Saturday: Willie and Joe

January 19, 2013 Ian McCollum 24

US Marines somewhere in the Pacific with a captured Japanese Type 92 machine gun.

FG42 Reproduction (Video)

January 14, 2013 Ian McCollum 41

There has been talk for a while of people making functional reproductions of the German FG-42 paratroop rifle for a long time…and it wasn’t just idle talk. We have gotten our hands on a sample […]