United States - Forgotten Weapons

Howard’s Thunderbolt: A Remarkably Compact Carbine

April 16, 2021 Ian McCollum 1

Designed by brothers Charles and Sebre Howard and first patented in 1862, this is a single shot lever action produced by the Whitneyville Armory between 1866 and 1870. It is a really neat compact design […]

Colt’s Model 1915 Vickers Gun in .30-06

April 12, 2021 Ian McCollum 15

After extended testing in 1913 and 1914, the US formally adopted the Vickers gun as the Model 1915. A contract was placed for licensed production of 125 guns by Colt, who had also taken contracts […]

Savage M1918 Aircraft Lewis at the Range (With Rare Tripod Mount!)

April 10, 2021 Ian McCollum 35

Yesterday we looked at the Savage M1918 aircraft version of the Lewis gun, used by American aviators during World War One. Today, we are taking it out to the range along with a very scarce […]

Savage M1918 Aircraft Lewis Gun

April 9, 2021 Ian McCollum 30

As an open-bolt machine gun, the Lewis was not well suited to synchronization on WW1 aircraft – but it was an ideal gun for flexible mounting. To suit this use, a series of aircraft-specific Lewis variations were […]

Springfield Model 1795 Musket: America’s First Military Production

April 8, 2021 Ian McCollum 10

The first US-production military arm was the “US musket, Charleville pattern” – known today as the Model 1795 Springfield Musket. Copied from the French 1766 model Charleville which made up the bulk of existing US […]

Movie Conversions: The Flintlock Trapdoor Springfield

March 29, 2021 Ian McCollum 20

The movie industry has always had special requirements for firearms. Flintlocks, for example, can be rather finicky guns for folks to use without practice and care, and that does not work will in a filming […]

The First Trapdoor Springfield Carbine, Model 1870

March 24, 2021 Ian McCollum 13

The first production of a carbine model of the Trapdoor Springfield was the Model 1870 (excluding 4 prototypes produced in 1868). There was a focus infantry rifles in theTrapdoor program, and just 362 of these […]

Colt’s Prototype Scaled-Down Model 1910 in .38/9.8mm

March 19, 2021 Ian McCollum 45

With the impending success of Colt’s program to develop new .45 caliber pistol for the US military (the 1911), the company began to look for ways to exploit the work that had gone into it. […]

Scattergun Science! Testing Diverter and Duckbill Chokes

February 27, 2021 Ian McCollum 13

Matt Haught joins me one more time to try out some practical testing of the Diverter and Duckbill shotgun chokes. We are using a 2-liter bottles of seltzer water on strings at 10 yards, and […]

Duckbill Done Right? Testing the A&W Diverter Shotgun Barrel (w/ Matt Haught)

February 20, 2021 Ian McCollum 11

The A&W Diverter was designed by Clifford Ashbrook and Wilson Wing to change a shotgun’s circular pattern into a horizontal linear one. They applied for a patent in 1967, and it was granted in 1970 […]