Today, we have the Jim Boland-designed Mitchell Arms Alpha widebody pistol. If certain price-guides can be believed, this was cataloged from 1995 to 1997. However, any escaped from the factory for retail sales it would be news to me. The Alpha had a weird set of design features. It could be user configured as eitherContinue reading “Mitchell Arms Alpha – The Ill-Fated Jim Boland Factory Widebody”
Author Archives: D.E. Watters
Small Arms Historian
Coming Soon? – Smith & Wesson .22 Magnum Semi-Auto Pistol
I just found this recently published patent application from Smith & Wesson. It shows a polymer-frame, hammer-fired, rimfire pistol with a floating barrel insert. Picture an elongated version of the Carbine Williams floating chamber used in the Colt Service Ace. Better yet, just look at the following drawings:
Mickey Fowler’s Custom Pistol from Hoag, Plaxco, and Boland
Mickey Fowler gives Ichiro Nagata a look at the custom pistol he used to place second at the first Steel Challenge in 1981, and fourth at the 1982 match.
1920s Vintage Repeating Double Barrel Shotgun
I’ve been intrigued by this design ever since I saw it on the cover of a 1977 issue of American Rifleman. In the 1920s, French inventor Charles Auguste Théodore Levé began patenting designs for magazine-fed variants of the Darne sliding breech side-by-side. One even held four shells in reserve, two for each barrel. Belgian gunmakerContinue reading “1920s Vintage Repeating Double Barrel Shotgun”
Marine Lance Corporal Dalton Gunderson checking the area for Viet Cong snipers during Operation Virginia in 1966
I see this photo constantly misattributed as showing Carlos Hathcock. So here is the National Archives’ card for the photo:
When Marketing Departments Attack…1988
Back in the day, Smith & Wesson went toe to toe with Ruger in full-page magazine attack ads without having to call out their legal departments. Compare and contrast with the current lawfare going on between Springfield Inc. and EAA over their competing ads for their Hi-Power clones.
Coming Soon? – The 8mm Super Carry
Someone at Vista Outdoors must have been huffing Hoppes No. 9 and binge-watching Forgotten Weapons videos:
“Let’s revive the 7.65mm French Longue as a modern high-performance, self-defense cartridge!”
New FN Herstal Pistol in the Works?
In one of my latest spelunking trips for patents, I noticed this “chonky boi” from FN Herstal.
Springfield Armory’s Forgotten AR-15: The XM15
Despite what several gunwriters have claimed, the Springfield Armory Saint is not their first AR-15 rifle. Their first was the XM15, introduced circa 1982-83. However, Springfield has very good reasons to try to sweep the XM15 under the rug.
Scattered Shots 