United States - Forgotten Weapons

Joslyn M1862 and M1864 Carbines at RIA

June 16, 2015 Ian McCollum 39

While US infantry forces during the Civil War had only limited access to the newest rifle technology, cavalry units adopted a wide variety of new carbines in significant numbers. Among these were a design by […]

Japanese Type 18 Murata at RIA

June 14, 2015 Ian McCollum 19

The Murata was Japan’s first domestic manufactured military rifle. In its first iteration, it was an 11mm, single shot, black powder weapon and was adopted in 1880 (the Type 13). Before long, some problems in […]

Slocum Rimfire Revolver at RIA

June 13, 2015 Ian McCollum 36

The Slocum revolver, designed by Frank Slocum and manufactured by the Brooklyn Arms Company, was one of the more successful workarounds for Rollin White’s patent on the bored-through cylinder. The most significant advantage of Slocum’s […]

Standard Arms Model M at RIA

June 9, 2015 Ian McCollum 11

At the turn of the 20th Century, prior to World War I, there were actually three semiauto sporting rifles on the market in the US. The two commonly known ones are the Winchester Model 5/7/10 […]

M1 Enforcer Carbine Pistols at RIA

June 5, 2015 Ian McCollum 41

There are rarely any truly original ideas in the gun world, and today’s “pistol” ARs and AKs are not among them. Back in the 60s and 70s, companies were marketing the “Enforcer” M1, a pistol […]

Colt 1855 10-Gauge Revolving Shotgun at RIA

June 4, 2015 Ian McCollum 15

In 1855, Colt introduced a new revolver unlike the others in their lineup – it was a side-hammer design with the cylinder stops built into the axis pin instead of the cylinder. They then proceeded […]

Andrew Burgess’ Blow-Forward Pistols

May 29, 2015 Ian McCollum 24

You may recognize Andrew Burgess from guns like the Burgess folding shotgun and the 1883 Colt-Burgess lever action rifle…but you probably don’t know him for his semiauto handgun designs. Until recently, I had not even […]

Slow Motion: Remington Model 8

May 28, 2015 Ian McCollum 15

This week’s slow motion footage is a Remington Model 8, in .300 Savage (when the .300 was offered in the Model 81, Remington offered a service rebarreling existing Model 8 rifles for the spiffy new […]

A Brief Tour of the Rock Island Auction Company

May 15, 2015 Ian McCollum 13

I have been spending this past week at the Rock Island Auction Company, making a series of videos on guns that will be in their upcoming regional auction (they will start running on the site […]

History of the Designated Marksman’s Rifle (Video)

May 13, 2015 Ian McCollum 11

Today Karl and I are looking at the history and evolution of the DMR concept. This is the idea of a squad force-multiplier in the form of a rifle with greater precision capability than the […]