Semiauto Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

North Korean Type 68-1 Export “Asian Contract” Underfolder (Semiauto Build)

May 16, 2026 Ian McCollum 2

North Korea is too poor to finance social credit points, but if they did have them, you’d get loads for wearing our Best Korea propaganda shirt: https://varusteleka.com/en-us/products/forgotten-weapons-best-korea-propaganda-t-shirt North Korea began making a version of the […]

Masterpiece Arms MPA-971: Frankengun of the Assault Weapons Ban

May 15, 2026 Ian McCollum 11

The Masterpiece Arms MPA-971 was designed in 2003, at the tail end of the US Federal Assault Weapons Ban. Among other things, the ban prohibited the manufacture or import of magazines holding more than 10 […]

Navy M1 Garand Conversions to 7.62mm NATO: Mk2 Mod0 & Mk2 Mod1

May 9, 2026 Ian McCollum 17

Available from Morphys here: Mk2 Mod0 – https://auctions.morphyauctions.com/_C__DOCUMENTED_USN_SPRINGFIELD_M1_GARAND_MK_2_MOD_-LOT661040.aspx Mk2 Mod1 – https://auctions.morphyauctions.com/_C__DOCUMENTED_USN_SPRINGFIELD_M1_GARAND_MK_2_MOD_-LOT661041.aspx When the US military adopted 7.62mm NATO, the Army considered converting M1 Garands to the new caliber, and decided it wasn’t worthwhile. For […]

The Real T26 “Tanker” M1 Garand

January 5, 2026 Ian McCollum 11

Check out Headstamp Publishing’s extensive catalog of excellent books: https://www.headstamppublishing.com/home-forgotten The name “tanker” has been applied to shortened M1 Garand rifles for a long time and today we are looking at one of the rifle […]

Beretta M1918: Italy’s 9mm Semiauto 9mm Carbine from WWI

December 31, 2025 Ian McCollum 12

Italy adopted the Villar Perosa in 1915, a gun that is sometimes considered the first submachine gun. Despite being fully automatic and chambered for pistol ammo (9mm Glisenti/Parabellum), it was actually not a submachine gun […]

M1E5 Experimental Paratrooper Garand

December 17, 2025 Ian McCollum 53

In January 1944 men of the 93rd Infantry Division field-modified an M1 to give it a shorter (18″) barrel, and the rifle was sent back to the US and tested by the Infantry Board. The […]

Semiauto SAR-80 “Sterling Assault Rifle” at the Range

November 29, 2025 Ian McCollum 24

The SAR-80 was a design by Frank Waters at Sterling in the UK, but was not actually put into production by Sterling. Instead, it was licensed to Chartered Industries of Singapore in 1977, who eventually […]

Aly & Kaufman AKB-23: Better Than the SA80 / L85

November 19, 2025 Ian McCollum 47

Penguin Brutality t-shirt available from Varusteleka: https://varusteleka.com/en/products/forgotten-weapons-penguin-brutality-t-shirt The Aly & Kaufman AKB-23 is a set of parts that allows one to use a Brownells BRN-180 upper to create an SA80 / L85 lookalike. It’s a […]

AK50: How Hard Could it Be? Brandon Herrera’s 10-Year Project

November 5, 2025 Ian McCollum 48

Scaling the AK up to .50 BMG…how hard could it be? Today we find out, with a detailed looks at all threee iterations of Brandon Herrera’s AK-50 project.

Apache Arms Carbine: A Saga of Compliance and Crappy Manufacture

November 3, 2025 Ian McCollum 20

The Apache Arms carbine was a Thompson SMG lookalike that was made in small numbers in the late 1960s. It was the successor to the Spitfire carbine made by the same people, after the Spitfire […]