United States - Forgotten Weapons

Hopkins & Allen XL Navy Rimfire .38 Service Revolver

August 18, 2020 Ian McCollum 14

Lot 3204 in the September 2020 RIA Premier auction. At the top end of Hopkins & Allen’s revolver line were the XL Navy, XL Police, and XL-8 Army. We covered the Army in a separate […]

Neither Fish nor Fowl: the Colt 1903 Pocket Hammer

August 17, 2020 Ian McCollum 21

Lots 102 (round hammer) and 1416 (spur hammer) in the September 2020 RIA Premier auction. The 1903 Pocket Hammer was an effort by Colt to adapt the Model 1902 pistol for better civilian sales. They […]

CETME-L Comparison: HMG and MarColMar

August 12, 2020 Ian McCollum 6

Today, a comparison between a semiauto CETME-L rifle from MarColMar Firearms and one from HMG (albeit an example I built myself).

Prototype Colt-Vektor: A 1911 on the Outside and a Beretta on the Inside

August 10, 2020 Ian McCollum 31

In the late 1990s Colt was looking for pistols it could license for sale in the United States, in the wake of the failures of both eh Double Eagle and All-American 2000. They approached CZ, […]

Century-Old Challenge Coin: The American Legion’s 1927 Paris Convention

August 6, 2020 Ian McCollum 9

The American Legion was founded in 1919 as a veterans service organization for soldiers who served in World War One, and they chose the 10th anniversary of America’s entrance into the war to make a […]

First shots: New Reproduction FG-42 1st Model from SMG Guns

August 4, 2020 Ian McCollum 24

Many years ago, SMG Guns introduced a reproduction FG-42 rifle, a semiauto version of the 2nd model as made by Germany during World War Two. After several more years of development, they have now shipped […]

Longslide 10mm Javelina 1911: Plate Rack Obliterator (When it Works)!

August 3, 2020 Ian McCollum 12

In 1977, Arcadia Machine & Tool introduced the Hardballer, the first commercial stainless steel 1911. Stainless steel was a hot commodity, although there were some initial teething issues with slide/frame galling. Eventually, AMT introduced a […]

Saga of the AR15 Forward Assist: A Solution Searching for a Problem

July 30, 2020 Ian McCollum 51

In 1963, the US Army set out to purchase 85,000 AR-15 rifles as a one-time procurement to hold the infantry through until final adoption of the expected Project SPIW rifle. Where the previous Air Force […]

Audley Safety Holster and an OSS Colt 1903

July 28, 2020 Ian McCollum 5

F.H. Audley was a saddler who ran a business in New York City starting in the 1870s. As his business in horse tackle declined with the spread of automobiles, he found himself looking for other […]

Taser X12 XREP: A Taser in a Shotgun Shell

July 27, 2020 Ian McCollum 12

In 2008, Taser release the X12, a Mossberg 500 shotgun modified to use a miniaturized Taser cartridge called the XREP (eXtended Range Electronic Projectile). The idea was to create a Taser system that could be […]