United States - Forgotten Weapons

The Thumb Trigger Concept Anew: Iron Horse’s TOR

December 22, 2021 Ian McCollum 30

The idea of a thumb trigger in place of a traditional index finger trigger has come up a number of times in firearms history (the Pieri carbines tested in France and Italy, the Winchester Thumb […]

The Sure Defender: An O.G. Knuckleduster Knife Gun

December 8, 2021 Ian McCollum 12

One of the early combination self-defense guns was the “Sure Defender”, with a combination of brass knuckles, a small and finicky wavy-bladed dagger, and a single shot percussion pistol barrel. The rather complex process for […]

Winchester Reference Collection: Uruguayan M1908 Short Rifle

November 22, 2021 Ian McCollum 9

Uruguay first adopted a Mauser rifle in the 1880s, with the single-shot Mauser model 1871. After an abortive attempt to update those rifles to a small bore smokeless powder cartridge (the Dovitiis conversion), they opted […]

Throwback Thursday: A .22 Rifle for John Wayne

November 18, 2021 Ian McCollum 18

Today I’m reposting part of an interview I did with L James “Jim” Sullivan back in 2014. Aside from being one of the two men who did the conversion of the AR-10 into the AR-15, […]

Dodge Patent Prototype Rolling Block Rifle

November 11, 2021 Ian McCollum 28

William Dodge and his brother were inventors in Washington DC who in the 1870s patented a bunch of different improvements to the Remington Rolling Block, among other guns. This particular one I cannot identify with […]

Spitfire: The Semiauto That Became a Machine Gun

November 9, 2021 Ian McCollum 13

The Spitfire is a firearm with an interesting importance in legal history. Originally designed and marketed as an open-bolt semiautomatic-only carbine, it was determined to be a machine gun under the law in 1968, and […]

Unique Rotating Single-Shot Percussion Rifle

November 8, 2021 Ian McCollum 29

This is a very unusual single-shot muzzleloading rifle. It is devoid of markings that might identify it, but appears (to my eye, anyway) to have been built from what was originally intended to be a […]

ZX-7 American Sterling at the Range

October 30, 2021 Ian McCollum 27

Today we are taking the ZX-7 (essentially a Sterling SMG in .45 ACP) out to the range. It runs rather faster than I initially expected, but isn’t too hard to handle…

PAWS ZX-7: An American Sterling in .45 ACP

October 29, 2021 Ian McCollum 30

An American entrepreneur named Bob Imel found the Sterling SMG particularly interesting, and wanted to import them into the United States. He reached out to Sterling in 1967, but was unable to work out a […]

Weirdly Late “Buck-N-Ball” – Standard Arms 50 Caliber “Camp” Gun

October 25, 2021 Ian McCollum 16

Standard Arms was an early (circa 1909) manufacturer of self-loading hunting rifles in the US. The made the Model G, a rifle which could function either as a self-loader or a pump action manual repeater. […]