United States - Forgotten Weapons

Explaining the AR Safety Lever Design (Video)

December 26, 2016 Ian McCollum 49

The AR safety lever design stems from the American emphasis on carefully aimed semiauto fire, right? It flips naturally to semiauto, while the AK moves naturally to full-auto. Well, that’s not why. It’s actually a […]

Slow Motion: M134 Minigun (Video)

December 23, 2016 Ian McCollum 10

Following up to yesterday’s look at the history and (partial) disassembly of a GE M134 Minigun, today we will check it out in slow motion. I filmed these high-speed shots, but there was so much […]

M134 Minigun: The Modern Gatling Gun (Video)

December 22, 2016 Ian McCollum 34

The General Electric M134 “Minigun” is essentially an electrically-powered Gatling gun – the conceptual operation of the gun is identical to Dr. Gatling’s original creation. What has changed, however, is the chambering (it’s in 7.62 […]

Crossfire MkI: A Creature from the AWB Lagoon (Video)

December 21, 2016 Ian McCollum 44

The Crossfire MkI is a combination rifle and shotgun, with the two barrels sharing a single pump action mechanism. The shotgun is a 12ga bore, with a 4-round tubular magazine located on top of the […]

Vintage Saturday: Goumier

December 17, 2016 Ian McCollum 52

Moroccan troops, known as les Goumiers Marocains were part of the French auxiliaries in the Army of Africa. As with all post-surrender French forces in WWII, they were armed and equipped with other Allied equipment; […]

Two Strange Project SPIW Magazines (Video)

December 15, 2016 Ian McCollum 38

Today we are taking a look at two unusual magazines from unusual firearms. These are a 60-round double-column mag from a Springfield 1964 SPIW bullpup and a 50-round box magazine from an AAI XM-19 serial […]

Winchester Experimental Mag-Fed Garands (Video)

December 12, 2016 Ian McCollum 38

Even during World War Two, it was clear that the United States was interested in improving on the M1 Garand rifle. A company that could develop and update to the Garand to make it selective-fire […]

German soldiers with captured American arms

Vintage Saturday: More Spoils

December 10, 2016 Ian McCollum 62

German soldiers with captured American small arms, circa 1944. The other guy’s stuff is always better than yours, right? Well, I would rather have an M1 than a K98k, but the Thompsons? No thanks. Interesting […]

Lewis Gas Operated Pistol (Video)

December 9, 2016 Ian McCollum 26

Isaac Newton Lewis is best known as the designer of the Lewis light machine gun, of course – but that was not his only work in the firearms field. In 1919, he patented a semiauto […]

Nomar M1911 Magazine-Stock (Video)

December 7, 2016 Ian McCollum 23

In 1936, Lewis Nolan Nomar patented this device, which is basically a large 40-round magazine for the 1911 pistol. He envisioned a military use for the device in trench raiding, giving men a compact weapon […]