History WebVideo / ForgottenWeapons

** As the reputation of ''Forgotten Weapons'' grew, Ian began to get invited to various private collectors, museums, and auction houses to feature their weapons in his videos. For example, owners of a gun store in Rome were rather suspicious of a strange foreigner's requests to browse their stock until a young Italian fan of the show, who just happened to be there, recognized Ian and vouched for his reputation.
*** This got to the point where Ian, a huge [[UsefulNotes/{{France}} Francophile]], was given access to the armory of the ''Gendarmarie''[[note]] the French national police force[[/note]] by ''the French Government themselves.''

*** Played straight with the American version of the Chauchat, which was a poorly done redesign of the weapon to make it fire .30-06. It's completely responsible for the original's bad reputation, even though both were manufactured mostly by the same ''bicycle company'', Gladiator.

* AprilFools: Ian will occasionally try to screw with his audience on April 1st, [[TrollingCreator sometimes going through great lengths to sell the gag]].
** In 2023, Ian participated in a collaborative prank of his audience along with Old Nordic Literature scholar, Jackson Crawford by doing a completely deadpan documentary talking about a supposed manuscript that claimed an Icelandic Norse inventor named Fredrik Four Fingers came up with gunpowder independently from the Chinese, and accidentally blew his finger off in the process. This caught a large number of viewers by surprise, some of whom only realized they were being pranked halfway through the video.

* AprilFools: Ian will occasionally try to screw with his audience on april 1st, [[TrollingCreator sometimes going through great lengths to sell the gag]].
** In 2023, Ian participated in a collaborative prank of his audience along with Old Nordic Literarure scholar, Jackson Crawford by doing a completely deadpan documentary talking about a supposed manuscript that claimed an Icelandic Norse inventor named Fredrik Four Fingers came up with gunpowder independently from the Chinese, and accidentally blew his finger off in the process. This caught a large number of viewers by surprise, some of whom only realized they were being pranked halfway through the video.
** In 2019, the april 1st episode covered the very detailed and storied service history of the Municion L.M.P. 1889... which was a rock with a handle on it for bludgeoning people.

** After an episode where he looked at a defictionalized M90 shotgun from ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', he [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDyH03Whemw came back a few months later]] to answer the question of why no real-life shotguns have been designed with the magazine tube on top. His response is that it doesn't convey any real benefits that outweigh those of traditionally-designed shotguns with the barrel on top: the vast, vast majority of uses for tube-fed shotguns don't have any real need for faster reloads, whether in sport shooting (which allows for reloads between stages rather than in the midst of them) and home defense (where one typically only needs one shot to take out an intruder), and instinctive shootung is much easier when the bead sight is at the muzzle end of the barrel rather than halfway along it at the end of the mag tube; conversely, for uses where a shotgun ''does'' need to be reloaded quickly, like a combat shotgun, ones fed by detachable box magazines offer faster reload than any tube could ever offer regardless of its orientation to the barrel. On the other hand, Ian admits that the American gun market has reached a point where it's not entirely driven by need, so someone ''could'' design a shotgun with the tube magazine on top of the barrel and still sell decently well purely on the RuleOfCool.

** After an episode where he looked at a defictionalized M90 shotgun from ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', he [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDyH03Whemw came back a few months later]] to answer the question of why no real-life shotguns have been designed with the magazine tube on top. His response is that it doesn't convey any real benefits that outweigh those of traditionally-designed shotguns with the barrel on top: there's not much need for quick reloads in the vast, vast majority of use for tube-fed shotguns in sport shooting (which offers opportunities to reload between stages) and to a lesser degree home defense (where you only typically need one shot to deal with an intruder), and having the bead sight at the muzzle end of the barrel is much more useful for instinctive shooting than having it at the front end of the magazine tube halfway along the barrel; conversely, for uses where a shotgun ''does'' need to be reloaded quickly, ones fed by detachable box magazines offer a faster reload than any tube could ever offer regardless of its orientation to the barrel. On the other hand, Ian admits that the American gun market has reached a point where it's not entirely driven by need, so someone ''could'' design a shotgun with the tube magazine on top of the barrel and still sell decently well purely on the RuleOfCool.

** Any video about a "smart gun", one which integrates electronics in some way to prevent unauthorized use, almost inevitably falls to the same set of issues regarding the reliability of these electronics (which is usually poor) and the ability to circumvent them and use the gun unauthorized (which is usually stupidly easy). The title of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cRm9BMxl90 the video on the Biofire]] even says it may very well be the first worthwhile one in existence, and its state-of-the-art, ''working'' electronics comes at the cost of having to manufacture a new design of gun to include them rather than build the electronics around an existing weapon, which comes with its own teething problems - the early model Ian gets to fire jams two times in as many magazines.

** The [=EtronX=], introduced in 2000, is a Remington 700 rifle with the trigger and firing mechanisms replaced by electronic versions. The firing pin is replaced by an insulated electrode, the trigger operates an electronic switch instead of a mechanical sear, and a 9V battery in the buttstock feeding a capacitor provides the energy to ignite the special ammunition primer, a resistor that generates heat to ignite the powder in the cartridge. The way it works is pretty cool, and it has some unusual properties such as allowing you to adjust the trigger pull, or take advantage of the fact that the action isn't under any spring pressure. The electronic mechanism also practically eliminates lock time, which is the delay between trigger pull and cartridge ignition. However it cost about twice as much as a regular Remington 700, and while lock time (which for the average firearm made since 1865 is measured in ''microseconds'') might matter to someone like a [[ImprobableAimingSkills bench-rest shooter]] who has really specific needs, it just isn't significant to the sporting rifle market. Gun buyers were also jittery about the future availability of the special ammunition, and have always tended to distrust any use of electronics in firearms beyond extremely simple accessories that can just as well be done without (e.g., short-range, unmagnified red dot sights) out of fears over reliability. The necessity of not losing the tiny key which allows you to operate it can also be a concern. There's also the fact that ''other'' than the electronic firing system, the [=EtronX=] is just like an ordinary Remington 700. Meaning that while worries about reliability turned typical gun buyers away, the conventional bolt-action setup meant it didn't particularly appeal to high-tech enthusiasts either.[[note]]That said, Remington might not have had much choice; a semi-automatic with electronic firing would be considered a machine gun under US law, since all it would take to convert it to full-auto would be hacking the software to disable the trigger disconnect function.[[/note]] Ian praises Remington for trying, and predicts that electronic ignition is the direction firearms will go in once there's enough commitment from manufacturers and the public, but the [=EtronX=] was too ahead of its time when it came out. It sold poorly, and was removed from the Remington catalog in 2003.

** The Phillips & Rodgers M47 Medusa is a revolver that can chamber basically any cartridge with an overall length and bullet diameter equal to or smaller than that of a .357 Magnum. A revolver doesn't have the headspace requirements of a semiautomatic handgun, so the challenge is just getting the cartridges to sit properly in the cylinder for firing and extraction. The extractor mechanism has long, flexible fingers that snap into the extractor grooves on rimless cartridges, and that can be depressed down and away from the cases of rimmed cartridges. The idea--supposedly--is that in case of a nuclear apocalypse scenario you can keep your gun fed even if all you have is a "[[BindleStick hobo sack]]" of random scavenged ammo. It's an innovative and well-manufactured gun, and the accuracy with different types of ammo isn't that bad, but the problem is that the concept just isn't very realistic and there wasn't enough of a market for it. Even though it can shoot cartridges with a bullet diameter smaller than the bore, you'd have to be pretty desperate to use them since the bullet won't engage the rifling, meaning inconsistent accuracy since there's no spin being imparted and a low muzzle velocity since there's so much free space for the muzzle flash to escape through without having to push the bullet out of the way - even his first test of an all-9x19mm load saw one bullet hit close to center before the next three keyholed at the very edges of the target and the last two missed entirely, because of the amount of space the bullets had to travel before they actually engaged the rifling - and the extractor fingers that let it fire smaller bullets are rather fragile, enough so that Ian refused to put any amount of stress on the ejector rod, which is a big no-no for a survival situation where you'd expect to be reliant on whatever random ammo of several calibers you can scavenge. You can use 9x19mm, .380 ACP, .38 Special, .38 S&W, and .357 Magnum for best results, but the gun isn't cheap, and the only people likely to buy it are CrazyPrepared apocalypse planners who almost certainly have at least one firearm (if not several) in each of those calibers already. For them it'd make more sense to prepare for doomsday by just hoarding ammunition made specifically for whatever guns they have, rather than blowing money on a universal ammo gun that they will probably never need. The Medusa had that "money-where-your-mouth-is" problem of people thinking it sounded cool but not being ready to open their wallets, and the company only sold something like 500 of them before going out of business.

[[caption-width-right:300:Ian, with a [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness C93 Borchardt pistol]].]]

* CoolGuns: Surprisingly some of the "coolest" weapons featured on the show (in Ian's opinion anyway) have almost been completely forgotten by history. Merwin Hulbert revolvers and the Burgess folding shotgun are just two of many examples.

** The [=EtronX=], introduced in 2000, is a Remington 700 rifle with the trigger and firing mechanisms replaced by electronic versions. The firing pin is replaced by an insulated electrode, the trigger operates an electronic switch instead of a mechanical sear, and a 9V battery in the buttstock feeding a capacitor provides the energy to ignite the special ammunition primer, a resistor that generates heat to ignite the powder in the cartridge. The way it works is pretty cool, and it has some unusual properties such as allowing you to adjust the trigger pull, or take advantage of the fact that the action isn't under any spring pressure. The electronic mechanism also practically eliminates lock time, which is the delay between trigger pull and cartridge ignition. However it cost about twice as much as a regular Remington 700, and while lock time (which for the average firearm made since 1865 is measured in ''microseconds'') might matter to someone like a [[ImprobableAimingSkills bench-rest shooter]] who has really specific needs, it just isn't significant to the sporting rifle market. Gun buyers were also jittery about the future availability of the special ammunition, and have always tended to distrust any use of electronics in firearms beyond extremely simple accessories that can just as well be done without (e.g. short-range, unmagnified red dot sights) out of fears over reliability. The necessity of not losing the tiny key which allows you to operate it can also be a concern. There's also the fact that ''other'' than the electronic firing system, the [=EtronX=] is just like an ordinary Remington 700. Meaning that while worries about reliability turned typical gun buyers away, the conventional bolt-action setup meant it didn't particularly appeal to high-tech enthusiasts either.[[note]]That said, Remington might not have had much choice; a semi-automatic with electronic firing would be considered a machine gun under US law, since all it would take to convert it to full-auto would be hacking the software to disable the trigger disconnect function.[[/note]] Ian praises Remington for trying, and predicts that electronic ignition is the direction firearms will go in once there's enough commitment from manufacturers and the public, but the [=EtronX=] was too ahead of its time when it came out. It sold poorly, and was removed from the Remington catalog in 2003.

** Behold: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nQzFGe1yMk the worst AK]] Ian has ever seen. An AKS-74U Krinkov that appears to have been cobbled together from a parts kit and various bits handmade by someone with a Dremel and no clue what they were doing. The gas block assembly flying downrange the first time someone tried firing it is merely the ''start'' of the gun's problems - in fact, Ian is probably extremely lucky that that's ''all'' that fell off. It is such a terrible example of gunsmithing that Ian sounds legitimately ''angry'' that someone would do this to a perfectly good gun design. This weapon was later brought to the attention of fellow Youtuber and AK specialist Brandon Herrera, who eventually got around to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t9VbPwN-IM restoring the weapon into serviceable order]].

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: Ian will occasionally compete in competitions such as Finnish Brutality using his own personal modern guns tricked out for the purpose, as opposed to running in Back-Up Gun matches using a pistol examined in a video.

-->'''Karl:''' Don't worry, there's no one behind the camera.\\

** Ian's long-running quest to find 7.65 French Long for his ''extremely'' rare [=MAS-38=] submachine gun has been referenced several times by other Youtubers, notably when Nicholas Moran (aka [=TheChieftain=]) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0JsiMA3Oss interviewed him]].
* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Ian sometimes shows us "Chinese mystery pistols," which are pistols made by small workshops during the Warlord period, usually copies of European and American pistols. They were made by and for people who knew that official guns bore text in the Latin alphabet, but who knew European languages about as well as most Westerners know Chinese. The results range from near-misses (e.g. [[https://youtu.be/TPu0fQhnY48?t=83 using all the correct letters]] on a Mauser C96 copy, but engraving some of them backwards or upside-down to read "WAUƧER" instead) to complete gibberish (e.g. [[https://youtu.be/4HNaB7l2GQk?t=417 this valiant attempt]] at the Fabrique Nationale logo on an FN M1900 copy).

---> '''Karl''': And let me add to that, in the modern day of 2017, y'know, okay that's a cool skillset, and if you were someone that was going to be an exhibition shooter and wanted to replicate such a thing, have at it. But you are practicing an obsolete and worthless skill. That's what it boils down to, because if you're looking at this in terms of a--from a combative nature, what you just did with that Enfield you could have already defeated with a Mini-14, an AK-74, AK-47, a friggin' SKS.

-->[[https://www.forgottenweapons.com/an-interesting-possibility-the-fg-42-in-8x33mm-kurz/#comment-3558737 "Geezer"]]: L85 is just, well, really not good. It’s not, in A2/3 form actually bad, because at least the thing works, and it is very accurate for a service rifle, but the AR-15 platform is just so much better – in handling and mag changes. Poor on some kinds of stoppage because of the rear-mounted charging handle, but you can teach that.\\\
There is a reason the AR-15 platform has been in service longer (just) than I have been alive. It’s that it’s good.

--> '''Ian:''' I didn't hit nothing, I hit everything! Probably not the target though.

** [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] with the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_3AoDf7CeE Owen Gun]]. While the core of it was created by Evelyn Owen in his garage, it was primarily Vincent Wardell and Freddie Kunzler who refined the design for use in the military.

--> '''Ian:''' What could possibly go wrong firing a rifle grenade in an indoor range? ''(pulls trigger, nothing happens)'' Other than having the safety on.

--> '''Ian:''' I have one guy tell me he watched an insurgent in Iraq had taken the cap off and he was running across a street with a loaded RPG, tripped, fell headfirst and slid into a curb, the end of the rocket hit the side of the curb and Kablooey, that was it for the guy - [[LampshadeHanging So these are not OSHA-approved weapons]], this can very easily kill you if you don't know how to handle it.

---> '''Video description:''' Today, may the good lord help me, I am taking the Zip 22 out to the range for some shooting.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers: {{Discussed}} as being the cause behind the unfortunate fate of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn08yZAC2V0 Armatix iP1]]. A law had been passed in New Jersey in 2002 where, in order to increase gun safety when it comes to children, any weapons that will be sold in New Jersey must be considered a "smart gun," and the instant said gun reached the market, ordinary guns would not be allowed to be legally sold. On top of issues with the idea of putting computers and electronics in guns with simple mechanics, this resulted in a widespread backlash against the pistol as it was about to be launched in the United States. This even led to gun shop owners in New Jersey being sent ''death threats'' simply for even considering selling the pistol. As a result, the pistol was a commercial flop in the U.S. The worst part about all of this, however, is that after investigation and consideration by the NJ government, ''[[ShootTheShaggyDog the pistol wasn't even eligible for the "smart gun" classification in the first place.]]''[[note]]How the pistol works is that it comes with a watch that is electronically connected to the pistol, and, if in range, allows the pistol to fire where it won't otherwise, theoretically preventing the gun from being stolen or handled by a child and resulting in injury or death. However, [[DidntThinkThisThrough that does not stop someone from taking the gun and shooting someone wearing the watch in its range.]][[/note]]

* UrbanLegends: Whenever particular gun has a specific "reputation", Ian takes a look at it and either tries to explain the reason for the myth to rise in the first place or debunks it entirely when it's just a tall story. On top of that, handful of his crossover videos are usually dedicated entirely to the subject debunking or at least commenting on specific urban legends regarding guns [=and/or=] marksmanship.
* VerbalTic:

* NeverNeedsSharpening: Discussed in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qaTRwq-IRc a video about one of his custom guns]], a short-barreled M1 Garand modified to fit a "scout rifle" profile. Short-barreled Garands were advertised for some time after the war as a tank crewmate's weapon, but they were never actually used in this purpose, as M3 submachine guns offered lower weight and smaller size for easier carry within the confines of a tank - a "tanker" Garand in non-military circulation would just be a surplus rifle with a worn-out muzzle a company fixed by chopping half a foot off of the barrel and then advertised as a rare and obscure variant to sell them for more than they were really worth while also distracting from what else they had to do to get it to sellable it (since most of these also had receivers that were welded back together after being cut in half to demilitarize them).

* ScrewedByTheLawyers: {{Discussed}} as being the cause behind the unfortunate fate of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn08yZAC2V0 Armatix iP1]]. A law had been passed in New Jersey in 2002 where, in order to increase gun safety when it comes to children, any weapons that will be sold in New Jersey must be considered a "smart gun," and the instant said gun reached the market, ordinary guns would not be allowed to be legally sold. On top of issues with the idea of putting computers and electronics in guns with simple mechanics, this resulted in a widespread backlash against the pistol as it was about to be launched in the United States. This even led to gun shop owners in New Jersey being sent ''death threats'' simply for even considering selling the pistol. As a result, the pistol was a commercial flop in the U.S. The worst part about all of this, however, is that after investigation and consideration by the NJ government, ''[[ShootTheShaggyDog the pistol wasn't even eligible for the "smart gun" classification in the first place.]]''[[note]] How the pistol works is that it comes with a watch that is electronically connected to the pistol, and, if in range, allows the pistol to fire where it won't otherwise, theoretically preventing the gun being stolen or handled by a child and resulting in injury or death. However, [[DidntThinkThisThrough that does not stop someone from taking the gun and shooting someone wearing the watch in its range.]][[/note]]

* InsaneTrollLogic: The Puckle Gun's idea for having segregated cartridges, a normal ball one for shooting Christians and a square one for shooting Turks, comes off as this. Ian barely makes an attempt to explain why that was a feature and simply accepts it with an awkward shrug.

** The [=EtronX=], introduced in 2000, is a Remington 700 rifle with the trigger and firing mechanisms replaced by electronic versions. The firing pin is replaced by an insulated electrode, the trigger operates an electronic switch instead of a mechanical sear, and a 9V battery in the buttstock feeding a capacitor provides the energy to ignite the special ammunition primer, a resistor that generates heat to ignite the powder in the cartridge. The way it works is pretty cool, and it has some unusual properties such as allowing you to adjust the trigger pull, or take advantage of the fact that the action isn't under any spring pressure. The electronic mechanism also practically eliminates lock time, which is the delay between trigger pull and cartridge ignition. However it cost about twice as much as a regular Remington 700, and while lock time (which for the average firearm made since 1865 is measured in ''microseconds'') might matter to someone like a [[ImprobableAimingSkills bench-rest shooter]] who has really specific needs, it just isn't significant to the sporting rifle market. Gun buyers were also jittery about the future availability of the special ammunition, and have always tended to distrust any use of electronics in firearms out of fears over reliability. The necessity of not losing the tiny key which allows you to operate it can also be a concern. There's also the fact that ''other'' than the electronic firing system, the [=EtronX=] is just like an ordinary Remington 700. Meaning that while worries about reliability turned typical gun buyers away, the conventional bolt-action setup meant it didn't particularly appeal to high-tech enthusiasts either.[[note]]That said, Remington might not have had much choice; a semi-automatic with electronic firing would be considered a machine gun under US law, since all it would take to convert it to full-auto would be hacking the software to disable the trigger disconnect function.[[/note]] Ian praises Remington for trying, and predicts that electronic ignition is the direction firearms will go in once there's enough commitment from manufacturers and the public, but the [=EtronX=] was too ahead of its time when it came out. It sold poorly, and was removed from the Remington catalog in 2003.

** The idea of starting your own company to produce and sell the really cool gun you just invented. Ian's advice: forget about it. You might have a legitimately good design idea, and if you're a competent machinist it isn't that hard to make a well-functioning prototype in your own workshop. But it's a totally different thing to raise the capital to set up a production line, and to figure out machine tooling that lets you mass produce a defect-free product without the benefit of hand-fitting. New guns tend to have teething troubles, and the gun industry caters to customers who have come to expect an ''extremely'' high standard of reliability. Most gun companies that are founded go bankrupt, and the industry is dominated by large companies because they tend to be the only ones with the necessary mass production expertise and the ability to suck up big initial losses while they work out the bugs. In addition, the development of firearms has pretty much reached a plateau in the 21st century. Rather than truly revolutionary concepts being introduced, gun-makers are just looking to achieve incremental improvements over what already exists. Meaning that it's harder than ever for the inventor to make their new gun stand out enough to get people to buy it. As such, Ian's advice to anybody who wants to be a firearms designer is to make sure they've got some other job to bring in the money, with inventing a gun just being a hobby. That way if the gun isn't a commercial success (and it almost certainly won't be), you don't lose out on anything.

** The [=HK51=] automatic rifle. While a desire to have full-power battle rifle with the size of an SMG is understandable, the weapon is extremely uncomfortable to shoot, even in an open space. Indoors, concussion from the muzzle blast will be even worse because of all the still-burning gunpowder being released as muzzle flash, since you're taking a round designed to be used with guns whose barrels were at least 18 inches long and firing it through one cut down to just over 8.

** Drum magazines, to the point Ian eventually made a dedicated video to discuss them. On one hand, they provide a huge number of shots before needing to reload, and are much easier to swap into and out of your gun than a box full of belted rounds. On the other hand, they are just terribly complex and expensive to make. Drum magazines have a disproportionately heavy mass for their capacity and oftentimes lack interchangeability with box magazines if both sets were made for the same weapon, which tends to further increase feeding problems on the drums - and the drum mags ''themselves'' often aren't interchangeable, either.

* BizarroEpisode: While pretty much every episode of the show is Ian talking about oddball weapons and the engineering that goes into them, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM7dGuGd404 Apocrypha: Tour of the Kyrö Distillery ]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin sees him visiting a high end whiskey and gin distillery]] which he stumbled upon while in Finland. Ian found the place so interesting he felt the need to make a video on it.

** Patents work this way, and Ian explains how many early firearms designs have had to find new ways to do the same thing. The most famous case is Rollin White, who patented fully bored-through cylinders to fit cartridges in revolvers (read: the same way every revolver does it now), gave Smith & Wesson exclusive rights to use it, and aggressively fought to protect his patent even in the middle of the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar. Dozens of unique designs were created to try and get cartridge revolvers on the market without running afoul of his patent until 1869, when UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant used his authority to forcibly deny the extension on the grounds that he was making life unreasonably difficult for the military.[[note]]Rollin White's case is also cited as an example of a patent that wasn't actually valid nonetheless being enforced; French gunmaker Eugene Lefaucheux had ''already invented'' a revolver with a bored-through cylinder to fire metallic cartridges and started selling it before Rollin White even applied for his patent. Moreover, White's patent wasn't even for a revolver firing metallic cartridges, it was for conversion of a single-shot pistol to fire paper cartridges. Thanks to lobbying (and possibly outright bribes) by Smith & Wesson, the White patent was being applied far more broadly than the invention it actually covered. It's no wonder that President Grant blocked it from being extended.[[/note]]

* InsaneTrollLogic: The Puckle Gun's idea for having segregated cartridges, a normal one for christians and a square one for turks comes off as this. Ian barely makes an attempt to explain why that was a feature and simply accepts it with an awkward shrug.

* LawOfInverseRecoil: If Ian get a chance to use full-auto firearm, he would probably discuss how controllable it is.

* NeverNeedsSharpening: Discussed in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qaTRwq-IRc a video about one of his custom guns]], a short-barreled M1 Garand modified to fit a "scout rifle" profile. Short-barreled Garands were advertised for some time after the war as a tank crewmate's weapon, but they were never actually used in this purpose, as M3 submachine guns offered lower weight and smaller size for easier carry within the confines of a tank - a "tanker" Garand in non-military circulation would just be a surplus rifle with a worn-out muzzle a company fixed by chopping half a foot off of the barrel and then advertised as a rare and obscure variant to sell them for more and distract from what else they had to do to sell it (since most of these had receivers that were welded back together after being cut in half to demilitarize them).

--> '''Ian:''' I have one guy tell me he watched an insurgent in Iraq had taken the cap off and he was running across a street with a loaded RPG, tripped, fell headfirst and slid into a curb, the end of the rocket hit the side of the curb and Kablooey, that was it for the guy - [[LampshadeHanging So these are not OSHA-approved weapons]] this can very easily kill you if you don't know how to handle it.

** Case in point: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9bULArrKs4&t=102s&ab_channel=ForgottenWeapons his video on the USFA Zip 22]]. The gun was the brain(dead)child of the company's owner, and Ian straight up says that it's quite possibly the worst gun ever made and that the owner's expectations for how popular it was gonna be were, quote, "completely divorced from reality." [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3fd4goVs-4 The following video]] showing Ian firing it at the range shows [[NotHyperbole that, if anything, he was UNDERSTATING how bad it is]] - to give an idea, the one time he says anything positive about it (that it gave "remarkably good performance", at least for the first magazine) he immediately has to cut to a text screen explaining that when they came back the next day to get slow-motion footage, it jammed on '''every single shot''', lovingly demonstrated all throughout the rest of the video with slow-motion shots of casings doing just about everything except leaving the gun when fired. Even the text description of the video underneath the title is snarky about it.

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Ian sometimes shows us "Chinese mystery pistols," which are pistols made by small workshops during the Warlord period, usually copies of European and American pistols. They were made by and for people who knew that official guns bore text in the Latin alphabet, but who knew European languages about as well as most Westerners know Chinese. The results range from near-misses like WAUSER (i.e. using the correct letters, but having engraved some of them backwards or upside-down) instead of Mauser to complete gibberish.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5NK0M6HE3Y Crossfire MkI combination weapon]] is both a 5.56 rifle and 12 gauge shotgun with the two barrels sharing a single pump action mechanism. Turned out to be very awkward to use and unreliable, not to mention a high MSRP.

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Ian sometimes shows us "Chinese mystery pistols," which are pistols made by small workshops during the Warlord period, usually copies of European and American pistols. They were made by and for people who knew that official guns bore text in the Latin alphabet, but who knew European languages about as well as most Westerners know Chinese. The results range from near-misses like WAUSER (or even WAUSER, but using the mis-aligned M) instead of Mauser to complete gibberish.

** The infamously unreliable plastic-bodied Zip-22 pistol surprisingly managed to get through a magazine with only one malfunction... and then not only jammed several other times, but eventually jammed so badly that Ian had to ''completely disassemble'' it to get it to start working again. Even he has no idea how it happened, and immediately after praising it for surprisingly-reliable performance with that first magazine the video cut to text saying that when he came back the next day to get slow-motion footage, he never got the gun to fire more than ''one'' round without jamming. Ian considers it the worst gun ever made, and it's hard to disagree. Particularly since the ZIP-22 [[CreatorKiller drove the U.S. Fire Arms Manufacturing Company out of business]], a company that was previously famous for high-quality replicas of the Single Action Army and other 19th century Colt firearms.
** Defied with the notorious [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauchat Chauchat]] automatic rifle, which is often derided as one of the least reliable firearms in history. Ian is a staunch defender of the French-issued version of the weapon and was able to demonstrate its reliability on a live firing example (when using clean ammunition). While the Chauchat had some clear shortcomings[[note]]The 8mm Lebel cartridge it was chambered for was a poor choice for automatic weapons (being both rimmed and having a fat case with extreme taper) and was used out of wartime necessity, since it was already France's standard-issue rifle round, requiring an unusual magazine design. The magazine also had large openings on the right side that allowed dirt and mud to get inside, as its pre-war design didn't anticipate the conditions of trench warfare. Nearly all jams of the French 8mm Lebel version were a result of the magazine. And the long recoil mechanism is much less efficient than later machine guns' and automatic rifles' use of gas pistons or direct impingement, resulting in a bulkier weapon.[[/note]], it was also in many respects far ahead of its time, being a select-fire weapon with a pistol grip, detachable magazine, an in-line stock and even a second forward pistol grip to aid in controlling it during full-auto fire, all features that would become standard for select-fire rifles decades later.

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Ian sometimes shows us "Chinese mystery pistols," which are pistols made by small workshops during the Warlord period, usually copies of European and American pistols. They were made by and for people who knew that official guns bore text in the Latin alphabet, but who knew European languages about as well as most Westerners know Chinese. The results range from near-misses like WAUSER instead of Mauser to complete gibberish.

** [=InRange=] has [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj9u4Ts2NpEv4Fnwx2_ig4wVqiONfH1me a series]] wherein they test how well various weapons handle being dunked in a concoction of thick, soupy mud, several weapons of which showed surprising results. The most common factor in how well a gun handles the test is in how many exposed holes there are in the receiver to let mud into the internal working parts - for instance, despite its infamy for being immune to harsh conditions, the AK jammed up because those large holes and loose tolerances, while phenomenal for letting the gun continue functioning with grease and gunpowder residue by just pushing it out of the way, also allow mud to get in and completely block the moving parts, while the AR-15 handled the mud much better due to its completely closed system, complete with vent holes in the side of the bolt carrier which actually force mud off of it with every shot. Operating principle, specifically how violently it cycles, also plays a big role: short-stroke gas pistons like on the FAL and AUG, once mud got in through the large ejection port and the sand cuts in the former's bolt carrier, were completely incapable of overcoming the mud contamination, both guns jamming after a very small handful shots before they failed (the FAL refusing to go into battery with a magazine inserted, the AUG failing to eject, and both ended up ''completely'' locking up), while infamously-violent roller-delayed blowbacks, at worst, were able to keep going (the G3, though needing to be manually cycled by mortaring it against the ground, still consistently went into battery and fired, and even went back to working properly once the mud dried) and at best were all but immune to the mud (the CETME Model L ran flawlessly when just having mud dumped on it, and even pouring mud directly into the path of the charging handle and then manually cycling it only caused a failure to go into battery on one attempt before the next fixed it). The same applies to pistols, where closed-in systems generally perform better based on the speed it cycles at or the simplicity of its design and how many places mud can get into and interfere with its operation - the sealed toggle-lock of the Luger passed with flying colors because its system requires high-pressure ammo to function, while the also-sealed, striker-fired Glock refused to go into battery after one shot, less than the hammer-fired 1911 (which jammed after three shots on the first mag, then got through the second only needing to manually recock the hammer for two of them) but still more than the also-hammer-fired FK BRNO (which failed to even fire once). And similar to the rifles, a Hi-Point pistol, which uses a rather violent straight-blowback action (which has the added bonus of not actually having a locking surface to get gunked up, as Karl assumes was what killed the Glock in its test) was able to return to full operational condition with only some water to rinse off the mud.

** [=InRange=] has [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj9u4Ts2NpEv4Fnwx2_ig4wVqiONfH1me a series]] wherein they test how well various weapons handle being dunked in a concoction of thick, soupy mud, several weapons of which showed surprising results. The most common factor in how well a gun handles the test is in how many exposed holes there are in the receiver to let mud into the internal working parts - for instance, despite its infamy for being immune to harsh conditions, the AK jammed up because those large holes and loose tolerances, while phenomenal for letting the gun continue functioning with grease and gunpowder residue by just pushing it out of the way, also allow mud to get in and completely block the moving parts, while the AR-15 handled the mud much better due to its completely closed system, complete with vent holes in the side of the bolt carrier which actually force mud off of it with every shot. Operating principle, specifically how violently it cycles, also plays a big role: short-stroke gas pistons like on the FAL and AUG, once mud got in through the large ejection port and the sand cuts in the former's bolt carrier, were completely incapable of overcoming the mud contamination, both guns jamming after a very small handful shots before they failed (the FAL refusing to go into battery with a magazine inserted, the AUG failing to eject, and both ended up ''completely'' locking up), while infamously-violent roller-delayed blowbacks, at worst, were able to keep going (the G3, though needing to be manually cycled by mortaring it against the ground, still consistently went into battery and fired, and even went back to working properly once the mud dried) and at best were all but immune to the mud (the CETME Model L ran flawlessly when just having mud dumped on it, and even pouring mud directly into the path of the charging handle and then manually cycling it only caused a failure to go into battery on one attempt before the next fixed it). The same applies to pistols, though the speed of the action tends to matter more - the sealed toggle-lock of the Luger passed because its system requires high-pressure ammo to function, while the also-sealed, striker-fired Glock refused to go into battery after one shot, less than the hammer-fired 1911 (which jammed after three shots on the first mag, then got through the second only needing to manually recock the hammer for two of them) but still more than the also-hammer-fired FK BRNO (which failed to even fire once). And similar to the rifles, a Hi-Point pistol, which uses a rather violent straight-blowback action (which has the added bonus of not actually having a locking surface to get gunked up) was able to return to full operational condition with only some water to rinse off the mud.