United States - Forgotten Weapons

Norton DP-75: Titanium Plus German Police Pistol

March 1, 2018 Ian McCollum 43

This pistol is something of a mystery – its design comes from the experimental Mauser HsP of the mid 1970s. It uses a short recoil system with a pivoting locking block vaguely like a P38, […]

Custom Transferrable 7mm BAR

February 27, 2018 Ian McCollum 16

Want to play He-Man shooting a BAR from the shoulder? This one has been built for just that purpose. It’s chambered in 7x57mm for reduced recoil, has a 21” barrel to improve handling, a custom […]

Who is Springfield Armory? A Tale of Two Entities

February 20, 2018 Ian McCollum 19

Today we will take a look at the history of Springfield Armory – both the American national arsenal founded in the 1770s and the commercial entity founded in the 1970s.

The Only Gun With Rollin White’s Name

February 12, 2018 Ian McCollum 17

While Rollin White’s patent for the bored-through cylinder was a massively important element in the development of Smith & Wesson as a company, White’s actual firearms design was impractical and never produced. In fact, there […]

How to Identify a Real M1A1 Carbine vs a Fake

February 10, 2018 Ian McCollum 42

Looking for a light and compact weapon to equip its new Airborne units, the US military adopted the M1A1 Carbine in May of 1942. This was mechanically identical to the existing M1 Carbine but with […]

Armalite AR-17: A Shotgun from the World of Tomorrow!

January 27, 2018 Ian McCollum 72

Armalite was a company founded as an offshoot of the Fairchild Aircraft company, and working with aluminum was their specialty. This was a fairly novel material to the arms industry, and they were able to […]

Wildey Survivor .45 WinMag: Perfect for a Backup Gun Match

January 20, 2018 Ian McCollum 18

Thanks to viewer Peter, we have a .45 Winchester Magnum Wildey Survivor to do some video with. I figured the best way to start would be to take it to a Backup Gun match, right? […]

Book Review: Col Chinn’s 5-Volume Opus on Machine Guns

January 14, 2018 Ian McCollum 59

George Chinn’s 5-volume opus machine gun-icus is a massive and extremely valuable reference work on the development of machine guns, as well as aircraft machine guns and aircraft cannon. It also includes and entire volume […]

Dead Air PBS-1 Wolverine AK Suppressor

January 13, 2018 Ian McCollum 23

The Soviet Union produced and issued (on a quite limited basis) a suppressor for the AK platform, designated the PBS-1. It had a rather distinctive shape, and used a combination of baffles and wipes. Unfortunately, […]

Marlin UD-42 from the Dutch Resistance

January 11, 2018 Ian McCollum 21

The UD-42 was originally the design of Carl “Gus” Swebilius, who was at the time (1940) working for the High Standard company. It failed to attract interest form the US military, but was appealing to […]