Rifles - Forgotten Weapons

British EM-2

April 6, 2011 Ian McCollum 4

The EM-2 was the result of a British research and development program looking for a replacement for the venerable Lee Enfield rifle after WWII. As with just about every other country on the planet, they […]

Czech ZH29

March 11, 2011 Ian McCollum 2

The Czech ZH29 is a meticulously made example of early semiautomatic rifle design. Made in the era before WWII when great care was taken in making arms, the only stamped parts on it are the […]

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 […]

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 […]

Howell Automatic Rifle

January 19, 2011 Ian McCollum 7

So, let us pretend we are 1940s British ordnance officers, and we need more automatic rifles. What are we to do? There is so much war material that needs to be produced, and we have […]

Gerat 06H

January 14, 2011 Ian McCollum 0

If you look at a Gerat 06H and squint really hard, you can almost see and HK91. Ok, only if you have some imagination – but the two are intimately related. The Gerat (“Device”) 06H […]

More Breda PG photos

January 5, 2011 Ian McCollum 0

The Breda PG was one of the first rifles we had in the Vault, but now we’ve found some much better pictures of one. Instead of vintage black-and-white, we now have color! You can find […]

Mauser 1905/06 semiauto rifle

December 24, 2010 Ian McCollum 2

The Mauser brothers are best known for their bolt action rifles and automatic pistols, but Paul Mauser worked on a semiauto military rifle as well. His design was a long-recoil action, and was not ultimately […]

US Bommarito semiauto rifle

December 22, 2010 Ian McCollum 0

The Bommarito was one of the many rifle designs sent to the US Ordnance Department when they announced a search for a capable autoloading rifle for the US Army. It was not one of the […]