United States - Forgotten Weapons

Rheinmetall Model 1928

May 8, 2015 Ian McCollum 10

The Rheinmetall model 1928 (designed by one Karl Heinemann and made in Switzerland) was one of the rifles tested by US Ordnance in trials that eventually settled on the Garand and Pedersen designs (and ultimately […]

Aberdeen Proving Grounds Tests the Madsen in 7mm and 20mm

May 5, 2015 Ian McCollum 5

In October of 1940, the US proving ground at Aberdeen, Maryland conducted testing of both the Madsen light machine gun (in 7mm caliber) and the Madsen anti-tank/anti-aircraft cannon in 20mm. On November 8th it published […]

Winchester-Hotchkiss 1883: History and Initial Impressions

April 29, 2015 Ian McCollum 27

History The Winchester-Hotchkiss rifle was first conceived by Benjamin Hotchkiss in 1875, and by 1877 he had four US patents on the design (numbers 99898, 169641, 184285, and 186566) which he sold to the Winchester […]

Backlog of Video!

April 28, 2015 Ian McCollum 13

While I have been posting daily videos from the recent series of Rock Island Auction material, I have also been publishing the occasional video on InRange TV – and some of those would probably be […]

Blake Bolt Action Rifle at RIA

April 21, 2015 Ian McCollum 26

The Blake was one of many rifle designs submitted to the US Army trials that would ultimately result in the adoption of the Krag-Jorgensen as the US Army’s standard rifle. The main innovation of Blake’s […]

Pinfire LeMat Grapeshot Revolver at RIA

April 20, 2015 Ian McCollum 10

Colonel Jean Alexandre LeMat was a native Frenchman who emigrated to the United States and in 1856 secured a patent for a “grapeshot revolver”, which had both a 9-shot .42 caliber cylinder and a 20-gauge […]

A Semiauto FG-42 up on Gunbroker

April 19, 2015 Ian McCollum 15

Rick from SMG Guns dropped me a line to let me know that he has put one of his 8mm semiauto FG-42 rifles up for sale on Gunbroker. In fact, it’s actually the exact demo […]

Japanese Pedersen Rifle at RIA

April 19, 2015 Ian McCollum 10

After he failed to win US military adoption of his toggle-locked rifle design, John Pedersen went looking for other countries that might be interested in the gun. One of these was Japan, which experimented with […]

Burgess Folding Shotgun at RIA

April 16, 2015 Ian McCollum 15

Andrew Burgess was an extremely prolific gun designer who gets very little recognition today. One of has particularly interesting weapons was a pump-action, folding shotgun. Because Spencer already had a patent on the use of […]

Allen & Wheelock Lipfire Navy Revolver at RIA

April 13, 2015 Ian McCollum 12

Not all companies responded in the same way to the development of cartridge revolvers and the Rollin White patent. Allen & Wheelock, for example, decided to simply ignore the patent and make revolvers for their […]