United States - Forgotten Weapons

Bobbie Ford’s Romantic Derringer (NSFW – Happy Valentine’s Day!)

February 14, 2019 Ian McCollum 14

This surprising derringer was commissioned in the 1970s by Walther Buhl Ford III for his wife Bobbie Ford, and hand crafted by Alvin White, Colt’s renowned master engraver. Bobbie Ford was a collector of Western […]

Boberg XR9S & XR45S: The Bullpup Pistols

February 12, 2019 Ian McCollum 123

Rock Island is selling these two Boberg pistols as part of a Lot 1089 in their upcoming Regional auction on February 14th, 2019. Arne Boberg founded Boberg Arms in 2009 and released his first pistol […]

Colt CK901: An AR in 7.62x39mm for the Yemeni Military

February 6, 2019 Ian McCollum 16

Colt developed this rifle, the CK-901, for the Yemeni military in 2014 – which appears to be the only buyer they have found for it since. The rifle is basically an AR-15 chambered for 7.62x39mm, […]

Book Review: US Aerial Armament in World War II

January 20, 2019 Ian McCollum 18

Aircraft armament is an area of firearms study that is vastly under appreciated by most people, largely because it’s difficult to study aircraft guns without the aircraft themselves (and those take up a lot of […]

Semiauto M2 Hyde Reproduction: The Interim US WW2 Subgun

January 9, 2019 Ian McCollum 37

George Hyde designed the gun that would eventually be adopted as the M2 submachine gun in the late 1930s, and it was first tested at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in October of 1939. At that time, […]

Evolution of the Dutch-Made AR10

January 5, 2019 Ian McCollum 25

The AR-10 rifle was developed in the United States (Hollywood California, specifically) by Eugene Stoner, but the Armalite company did not have a suitable large scale manufacturing facility to produce the number of guns they […]

Winchester 1964 SPIW: Flechettes and a Blow-Forward Grenade Launcher

December 19, 2018 Ian McCollum 76

Today we are looking at the Winchester company’s entry into the 1964 SPIW (Special Purpose Infantry Weapon) trials. The SPIW program was an attempt to increase small arms lethality by increasing hit probability with ideas […]

Book Review – Smith & Wesson Model 76 SMG by Frank Iannamico

December 16, 2018 Ian McCollum 16

Available from Amazon or direct from the publisher. Frank Iannamico’s new book on the Smith & Wesson Model 76 submachine gun is in fact a book about much more than just the Model 76. It begins […]

Shooting the Full Auto XM-8 Carbine

December 15, 2018 Ian McCollum 53

Thanks to H&K and to Trijicon for range access, we are out today shooting an original and authentic XM-8 carbine! The XM-8 family are relatively bulky guns; moreso than one would expect from seeing photos […]

Almost Adopted: The H&K XM8 Family

December 14, 2018 Ian McCollum 46

Today we are in H&K’s Grey Room in Virginia, taking a look at the XM-8 program. The rifle evolved form the kinetic energy carbine portion of the doomed XM29/OICW program, and eventually became the G36 […]