Ian McCollum - Forgotten Weapons

French Experimental 1910 autoloader

February 9, 2011 Ian McCollum 0

We don’t have much information about this rifle, but we do know that is was a prototype direct gas impingement rifle in 6mm, built at the Puteaux Arsenal. It had an overall length of 50″, […]

French A6 Meunier M1916

February 7, 2011 Ian McCollum 5

The French military is the butt of quite a lot of jokes…I’m sure we’ve all heard the one about the great deal on French surplus – never fired and only dropped once! Well, when it […]

Fedorov manual

February 4, 2011 Ian McCollum 1

Ok, just one more Fedorov post before we turn to other things. Thanks to the generosity of Max Popenker, we have a copy of a 1928 original Fedorov manual for you. It’s in Russian, of […]

Fedorov magazine

February 2, 2011 Ian McCollum 1

Before we leave the Fedorov, I would like to take a moment to address a common misconception – the Fedorov did not use MG13 magazines. The two designs certainly are very similar, but they are […]

The Fedorov was the first practical assault rifle, predating the German Sturmgewehr by thirty years. It was a select-fire rifle with a 25-round magazine of 6.5x50mm cartridges. The caliber was chosen for its light recoil […]

Winchester .224 E2 manual

January 28, 2011 Ian McCollum 6

Today, we have for you an original manual for the Winchester Light Rifle in .224 Winchester E2. This was a rifle in competition with the early AR-15 to replace the M-14 in US military service. […]

Johnston D-1918 machine gun

January 26, 2011 Ian McCollum 3

I don’t know much about this beyond the name. We have four photographs from the US Ordnance Department dated from 1937 identifying this as a Johnston (not Johnson – note the “t”) Model D-1918 machine […]

DTM Manual

January 24, 2011 Ian McCollum 0

Continuing in our series of Soviet weapons manuals, today we have added a 1962 DTM manual to the Original Manuals page of the Vault. The DTM was the tank variant of the modernized Degtyarev (DP) […]

Family photo!

January 22, 2011 Ian McCollum 10

So, who can tell me what all of these weapons are? And what they have in common? Continue on for details…

Howa Type 89

January 21, 2011 Ian McCollum 3

Not all interesting and obscure guns are a century old – there are plenty of guns in common use today that are not well known. One such gun is the Howa Type 89. It is […]