Select-fire Rifles
X8E1 & X8E2 SLR Manual
Before the British adopted the FAL as the L1A1 rifle, batches of several different variants were made for extended troop trials. The first two were the X8E1 and X8E2 – the X8E1 used standard FAL […]
Articles by Ian McCollum
Book review
Book Review: The Dutch Mannlicher M.95
In the 1880s, the Dutch decided that their single-shot Beaumont rifles were obsolete and needed replacement. They started a program to modify them with 4-round magazines, and simultaneously set about finding a more modern rifle […]
Semiauto Rifles
Sjogren Shotgun Photos
Thanks to reader David, we have several photos of a Sjogren 12ga shotgun. The Sjogren was a very early Swedish semiauto design using a recoil action with a fixed barrel. Most recoil orated firearms function […]
Uncategorized
Cutaway Oerlikon Cannon
So a funny thing happened on the way back from the Naval training faciliity… We were at a museum in Europe looking around with a guide, and noticed a nice Oerlikon cannon on a naval […]
Uncategorized
Cutaway AK kits available at Apex
I have been a bit remiss, and didn’t notice the cutaway Polish AK kits that Apex Gun Parts has had for a while. Well, they went on sale today, and I just took the opportunity […]
Uncategorized
Treeby “Chain Gun”
We’re going to jump back a hundred years, and take a look at a design from 1854 today – although it was a design well ahead of its time. The Treeby chain gun was a […]
Vintage photo
Select-fire Rifles
EM1 Photos and Manual
The EM1 was an experimental British rifle developed in the late 1940s, and was definitely the high-tech wonder rifle of its day. It was a bullpup-style design before that was a trend, and used a […]
Book review
Book Review: The Gatling Gun by Wahl and Toppel
I contracted a nasty cold this past weekend, and as a result my voice sounds like I’ve spent a lifetime drinking moonshine and smoking unfiltered Luckys – so today’s book review will be written rather […]
Semiauto Rifles
Pelo Rifle
Captain Carl Pelo (retired) of the Finnish Army was involved in arms design for twenty or thirty years (including a stint as technical manager of the Sako factory in the 1930s), and produced several prototype […]