United States - Forgotten Weapons

Rogers & Spencer .44 Army: Possibly the Best Civil War Revolver

October 26, 2022 Ian McCollum 15

Amos Rogers and Julius Spencer ran a company making mostly farm equipment in the 1840s and 1850s. In 1859, they took on a firearms manufacturing contract (as mechanical fabrication companies often do) to make Pettengill […]

USMC Johnson LMG at the Range

October 25, 2022 Ian McCollum 11

The Johnson LMG was adopted by the US Marine Corps for specialist units like Paramarines and Raiders, and saw use in some of the fiercest island campaign of the Pacific (in addition to use in […]

Forgotten Web Gear: Johnson LMG Magazine Backpack

October 24, 2022 Ian McCollum 8

While the Johnson LMG was issued in limited quantities throughout World War Two, notably to Marine Raiders, Paramarines, and the 1st Special Service Force, the US never issued web gear made for its uniquely-sized magazines. […]

Colt Model 621: An Attempt at an AR-Style Export SAW

October 20, 2022 Ian McCollum 50

During the 1970s and 1980s, Colt wanted to sell not just standard M16 rifle and CAR-15 carbines to foreign military customers, but also wanted to supply support weapons. They put together the Model 621, aka […]

Older Gun With Newer Ammo: A Centerfire Winchester 1866

October 19, 2022 Ian McCollum 11

The Winchester 1866 was chambered for the .44 Henry rimfire cartridge, like the Henry rifle before it. Before too long, however, centerfire ammunition began to take over as the best and most common type of […]

Evolving the Cheek Pistol Concept: Calico M950

October 15, 2022 Ian McCollum 35

I have found the “cheek pistol” concept form Rhett Neumayer at Demonstrated Concepts to be pretty interesting. When I was thinking about what pistol designs might be suitable for this sort of use, the Calico […]

Grendel SRT: KelTec SU-16 Meets Sako Hunting Rifle

October 10, 2022 Ian McCollum 13

Correction: The SRT used the Sako AII action, an updated L579 (not the L357) action. George Kellgren is the brains behind KelTec and all their unorthodox designs. But before he formed KelTec, he created Grendel […]

Ask Ian: What Rifles Were the M2-M13?

September 27, 2022 Ian McCollum 20

From Dennis on Patreon: “What rifles were between the M1 Garand and the M14? I went through Basic with an M14 and I know the M15 was supposed to be a BAR replacement. Google doesn’t […]

Ask Ian: Analyzing the Savage Rotating Barrel (at 7500 frames/sec)

August 23, 2022 Ian McCollum 24

A question I have been asked by several different people in several Q&A threads is: “Does the Savage rotating-barrel system actually do anything?” In his 1905 patent, Elbert Searle specifically claims that his design creates […]

Roller-Delay Showdown: Angstadt MDP-9 vs H&K SP-5

August 20, 2022 Ian McCollum 4

Today we are out at the range to compare the Angstadt Arms MDP-9 to the classic H&K SP-5. We will do a bunch of runs on a course of fire that incudes precision targets, spinners […]