United States - Forgotten Weapons

French Remington Rolling Block in 8mm Lebel (Video)

January 18, 2016 Ian McCollum 27

The Remington Rolling Block, introduced in 1866, was one of the most prolific single shot military rifles in the world. The combination of aggressive marketing, low cost, and an excellent design led to Remington selling […]

A Note from Rick Smith of SMG Guns

January 17, 2016 Ian McCollum 8

Just wanted to pass along a cool photo and note I got from Rick Smith (the guy making reproduction FG-42 rifles) this morning: Hi All, Can’t say how this came about past it was almost […]

Union carpenter Joe Olson assists the coal miners during the UMW labor strike against CF&I, in Ludlow, Colorado.

Vintage Saturday: Average Joe

January 16, 2016 Ian McCollum 39

Interestingly, Joe here appears to be armed with a sporting version of the Gewehr 88 – which means those cartridges in his belt will do little good without some en bloc clips. Good thing he’s also […]

Grant Hammond .45ACP Trials Pistol

January 14, 2016 Ian McCollum 33

The Grant Hammond .45 pistol is a gun which was too late to take part in the major 1907 US military pistol trials, and which was instead presented proactively to the military in hopes of […]

How to Get More Rifles Fast: France, WWI

January 12, 2016 Ian McCollum 24

One of the universal misconceptions about World War One on the parts of its combatants was how long it was expected to last. When war broke out, the prevailing assumption on all sides was that […]

SEAL Team 8 member with his M14 during Desert Storm

Vintage Saturday: Shipboard Operations

January 9, 2016 Ian McCollum 42

Note the optic (can’t tell what type), the 1907 pattern shooting sling, and the hand-made vertical front grip.

Perspectives on French Rifle Sight Design

January 5, 2016 Ian McCollum 28

Holy moley, is that the most dense and snooty post title ever? I think it might be. However, I think it’s a much more interesting subject than most folks might anticipate, and it’s something that […]

Ballistic Nylon as Armor (Video)

January 4, 2016 Ian McCollum 31

You have probably heard of “ballistic” nylon, but everyone knows that soft armor is made of Kevlar, right? Well, it is today (and other similar fibers). But a few decades back, before Kevlar had been […]

Maxim "Prototype" at the Royal Armouries in Leeds. Note the absence of the rate-of-fire control arm in this version...

The First Maxim Machine Gun

December 30, 2015 Ian McCollum 31

I am going to start an intermittent series of posts on the various different types of Maxim machine guns over the next few months – there are a whole slew of them, and I have […]

Military Thought (USSR): Some Points on the Status and Development of Small Arms (1965, English translation)

A Soviet Look at Cold War Small Arms Development

December 29, 2015 Ian McCollum 77

I have covered various elements of small arms development during the Cold War more than a few times – usually involving the contentious process that led to the 7.62mm NATO cartridge being adopted, and the […]