Prototype
Grant Hammond .32ACP Prototype at RIA
Grant Hammond is best known (to the extent he is known at all) for a .45 caliber pistol submitted to US military trials in 1917 and 1918. This pistol is a proof of concept prototype […]
Prototype
Prototype
Prototype Pieper .45ACP Pistol at James D Julia
Nicholas Pieper designed a blowback pocket pistol which was manufactured under license by Steyr in 1908. It was a reasonably successful pistol, and can be found today in .25ACP and .32ACP calibers. This particular one […]
Prototype
Walther Volkspistole at James D Julia
As the Second World War started to really take a toll on German industrial production, several companies started to work on alternatives to the P38 handgun in an effort to reduce production cost and time. […]
Prototype
Nickl Prototype M1916/22 Pistol at James D Julia
Josef Nickl was one of the chief R&D designers at Mauser after the Federle brothers, and one of his pet projects was a rotating barrel military pistol developed from the Steyr-Hahn M1912 pistol. He built […]
Prototype
Experimental “Joint Safety” C96 Mauser at James D Julia
This particular 1902-made example of the C96 Mauser incorporates several experimental features of the design that would never go into mass production. It was an effort to make a version of the C96 that would […]
Prototype
Mauser 1912/14 Experimental .45ACP Pistol at James D Julia
Before World War One, the Mauser company tried to make a follow-up automatic pistol to replace its famous C96 “Broomhandle” design with something more modern. The result was a very successful pocket pistol in .25ACP […]
Prototype
BSA Prototype .45ACP Pistol at James D Julia
BSA (Birmingham Small Arms) was the largest private arms maker in the UK during World War One, and when the war ended it of course saw its huge military contracts evaporate. One of BSA’s efforts […]
Prototype
Walther MP-PP Prototype at James D Julia
During the late 1920s, it looked like the German Army was going to replace the P08 Luger with a less expensive sidearm, and several major German companies developed prototype guns to meet this anticipated need. […]
Prototype
Bommarito Rifle
The Bommarito was one of the prototype self-loading rifles presented to the US Ordnance Department during the early 1900s. It was chambered for the standard .30-06 cartridge, fed from 20-round detachable box magazines, and was […]
Prototype
John Wayne’s .22 Rifle (designed by Jim Sullivan)
One of the many projects that AR-15 designer Jim Sullivan was involved in through his long career was a project to found the Wayne Repeating Arms Company (or WRA Co., not to be inadvertently confused […]