United States - Forgotten Weapons

Tomorrow’s Forgotten Weapon: the OICW

November 21, 2012 Ian McCollum 6

We often get email asking if we are going to write about some forgotten weapons that are relatively recent developments, like the OICW for example. We would like to have more coverage of some of […]

A Tour of American Spirit Arms (Video)

November 1, 2012 Ian McCollum 2

Are you interested in firearms manufacturing? If so, you should check out GunLab today, where we’re (finally) posted something new. We went to visit the fine folks at American Spirit Arms, and they let us […]

Manville Gas Gun Video

October 29, 2012 Ian McCollum 10

Charles Manville developed this weapon in the 1930s as a riot control tool, and they were built in 12ga, 25mm, and 37mm. We should point out that the 12ga version was for tear gas rounds […]

Reising M55 SMG Video

October 22, 2012 Ian McCollum 9

The Reising series are some of the forgotten weapons the were formally adopted by the US military and used during WWII without getting much attention today, being overshadowed by the Thompson and M3 Grease Gun. […]

Colt CMG-2 Light Machine Gun Video and Manual

September 28, 2012 Ian McCollum 8

During the 1960s, the Colt company was looking to help market the M-16 rifle to military forces by pairing it with a light machine gun. They were going after the exact same market segment as […]

Book Review: Volcanic Firearms

September 27, 2012 Ian McCollum 1

The Volcanic repeating pistol was the first direct step along the development path of the lever-action rifle that became an icon of the American West. Introduced before the advent of modern brass-cased cartridges, the Volcanic was […]

Photos of 1950s Light Rifle Prototypes

September 14, 2012 Ian McCollum 13

In the aftermath of World War II, there was a significant amount of effort put into deciding what rifles would be used by the post-war Allied armies. The UK and US wanted commonality, but couldn’t […]

Mystery Gun Identified: 1944 Hyde Carbine

August 1, 2012 Ian McCollum 4

We’ve had this particular gun listed as unidentified for quite a long time, and had people suggest pretty much everything you can imagine to explain its origins: Well, thanks to a private collector we visited, […]

TRW Low Maintenance Rifle

July 18, 2012 Ian McCollum 37

As everyone is away, the M16 suffered from maintenance and reliability problems early in its deployment to Vietnam. While working to resolve these issues, the US government wanted to find a replacement weapon that would […]

Book Review: Hatcher’s Notebook, by Julian Hatcher

July 12, 2012 Ian McCollum 7

I was looking through our reference library yesterday, and realized that we hadn’t mentioned at Hatcher’s Notebook before – which is a glaring oversight. Julian S. Hatcher (Captain Hatcher during WWI, and Major General Hatcher […]