Video
WWI Trench Hand Weapons
Karl and I recently did some work with a wide selection of hand weapons from WWI (some original, some reproductions) for a video in collaboration with the excellent YouTube channel The Great War. Have a […]
United States
Lever Action Rifles
RIA: Marlin 1897 Bicycle Rifle
Marlin’s 1892 lever action rifle in .22 rimfire caliber proved to be a very popular firearm, and so the company released an improved version in 1897, offered only as a rimfire takedown model. The 1897 […]
Shotgun
RIA: Colt Shotguns of the Old West (1878 & 1883)
When someone says “Old West Colt”, the first thought is usually not double barreled shotguns. However, Colt made two quite high-end side-by-side shotguns during this period, and they played a role in the remarkable Colt/Winchester […]
Semiauto pistol
RIA: Warwinck Copy of the Savage Automatic Pistol
The Eibar region of Spain is known as the center of a lot of pistol production from WWI through the Spanish Civil War, typically pistols called Ruby clones. Well, the various small gunmakers there were […]
Lever Action Rifles
RIA: Whitney-Scharf Lever-Action Rifle
The Whitney-Scharf was the final rifle manufactured by the Whitney company before it was bought out and closed down by Winchester in 1888. Only about 2,000 of these rifles were made before that time.
Lever Action Rifles
RIA: Whitney-Kennedy Lever Action Rifles
Eli Whitney Jr., son of the inventor of the famous “cotton gin”, ran the Whitneyville Armory for many years, producing a wide variety of firearms until nearly the end of the 1800s. Among other gun […]
Conversion
RIA: Colt Richards Conversion 1860 Army
Colt, like all the other manufacturers in the US, was prevented from making cartridge revolvers by the Rollin white patent, which finally expired in 1869. This left them limited to their percussion revolvers, the 1849, […]
Bolt Action Rifles
RIA: Predecessor to the Mosin – the Russian Berdan II
Before adopting the M1891 Mosin-Nagant, the Russian Empire (like most major militaries) used a large-bore single-shot rifle as its standard infantry rifle. In this case, a .42-caliber rifle designed by American General Hiram Berdan (yes, […]
Percussion
RIA: Porter Turret Rifle
The Porter was one of the few turret rifles ever put into serial production. Turret rifles are similar in principle to revolvers, but they is a cylinder with radial chambers (like the spokes of a […]
Lever Action Rifles
RIA: An Introduction to Early Lever-Action Rifles
We’ve all seen lever action rifles galore in movies about the old west, and most of us have handled and shot a bunch of them as well. But do you know where they came from? […]