May, 2018 - Forgotten Weapons

The Very Neat Peruvian Navy 1891 Mauser Carbine

May 31, 2018 Ian McCollum 14

This carbine is coming up for sale here. Peru acquired a large stock of Model 1891 Mausers from Argentina in 1901, and the carbine we are looking at today is a conversion form one of […]

Ordnance Research SSP-91, aka the Lone Eagle

May 30, 2018 Ian McCollum 30

This pistol is coming up for sale here. Designed by John Foote (of MAC/Cobray fame), the SSP-91 is a single shot rifle-caliber pistol intended for silhouette competition shooting and handgun hunting. It was introduced by […]

Astra 300 – A Pocket Pistol Bought Mostly By Germany

May 29, 2018 Ian McCollum 24

The pistol in this video is coming up for auction here. The Astra 300 was introduced in 1923, copying the layout, mechanics, and handling of the Astra 400 military pistol in a much more convenient […]

Romania Doesn’t Make the Dragunov: The PSL

May 28, 2018 Ian McCollum 23

This rifle is available at Rock Island’s next auction here. When Romania vocally objected to the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, it lost some of its opportunities for technology transfer form the Soviet Union. […]

Germany’s First Smokeless Carbines: the Kar 88 and Gewehr 91

May 27, 2018 Ian McCollum 5

The Kar88 in this video is coming up for auction here, and the Gewehr 91 here. With the development of the smokeless Gewehr 88 “Commission Rifle”, the German Army finally made a serious effort to […]

Gevarm A6: An Open Bolt Semiauto .22 Sporting Rifle

May 26, 2018 Ian McCollum 57

Gevarm, a gunmaking offshoot of the Gevelot cartridge company, produced a line of open-bolt semiautomatic rimfire sporting rifles from the early 1960s until 1995. This is an A6 model, the base type. It is chambered […]

PTRD 41: The Simple Soviet Antitank Rifle of WWII

May 25, 2018 Ian McCollum 46

The Soviet Union had originally eschewed the use of large numbers of antitank rifles, anticipating that any potential combat use of them would be largely against tanks impervious to AT rifle cartridges. However, when […]

Interview: Mathieu Willemsen, Curator of the Dutch National Military Museum

May 24, 2018 Ian McCollum 8

Today we have a brief conversation with Mathieu Willemsen, Curator of the Dutch National Military Museum. This was shorter than I would have preferred, because it came right at the end of a long day […]

Russian Type 2 AK: Introducing the Milled Receiver

May 23, 2018 Ian McCollum 44

With recognition of the production problems of the original Type 1 AK, an alternative was needed. Russian engineer Valeriy Kharkov led a team of engineers who designed a replacement drop-forged and machined receiver for the […]

Ribeyrolles 1918 – France’s First Assault Rifle or a Failed Prototype?

May 22, 2018 Ian McCollum 12

Paul Ribeyrolles was the manager of the Gladiator bicycle factory, and by 1918 he had significant experience in small arms design, having been a core member of the team that designed and built the 1915 […]