Welcome to FreeMyCollection.com! The whole premise of this site is to share my collection of antique guns and ammunition with the world. What fun is having a collection if others do not also get to enjoy it? Take a look around, read an article or two, view a few images and learn something new!

W. Tibbals Revolving Firearms Patent

One of the most famous American ammunition manufacturers was William Tibbals. William Tibbals was the partner in the company, Crittenden & Tibbals, who supplied mostof the rimfire ammunition during the American Civil War. Part of what made Crittenden & Tibbals … Continue reading →

New Lefaucheux Pinfire Forum

I have created a new community at https://CasimirLefaucheux.com for anyone to talk about pinfire guns, pinfire cartridges and anything related to the Lefaucheux family of gunmakers. Come join us and ask questions, share items from your collection or just learn … Continue reading →

Killing Vincent: The Man, The Myth, and The Murder

This book features various images of mine as well as some original research of mine related to pinfire cartridges. I was also able to supply Dr. Arenberg with hundreds of original-period 7mm pinfire cartridges to perform modern forensic testing to … Continue reading →

The Smallest Pinfire Cartridges

This article will take a look at some of the smallest pinfire cartridges. The 2mm pinfire cartridge showed up around 1880. This is when Société Française des Munitions began producing the variations shown in the first two pictures above. These … Continue reading →

Underhammer Pinfire Pistol by Joseph-Célestin Dumonthier

This is a really early underhammer pinfire pistol made by the French gunsmith, Joseph-Célestin Dumonthier in 1849. It follows his 2 July 1849 French patent. The whole barrel unscrews from the frame and allows you to load a single 12mm … Continue reading →

Pinfire Cartridge Variations from the White & Munhall Laboratory

When it comes to pinfire cartridges, everything is a variation. Though there are thousands and thousands of variations, in this article we will focus on the 80 that came from the White & Munhall reference collection. Henry P. White & … Continue reading →

The First Cartridge; A History of Jean Samuel Pauly and His Inventions

As a pinfire (gun, cartridge, document, etc) collector I have always had an interest in telling the origin story of its invention. I recently had a post that showed some of the earliest pinfire guns and cartridges. But the story … Continue reading →

Eley’s Earliest Shotshell Patent

Pinfire shotshells first show up in an Eley price list on 31 August 1860, It was in a trade journal called The Ironmonger & Metal Trades Advertiser. They listed 1000 12g shotshells for 50 shillings as well as 1000 16g … Continue reading →

The Earliest Pinfire Cartridges and Pistols

This article will take a look at some of the earliest pinfire pistol cartridges. The best way to explain these will be to look at them with the guns they were designed for. The earliest examples were shotshells that were … Continue reading →

Extremely High Grade 16g Pinfire Shotgun by Coirier à Clermont

The story of Coirier à Clermont is a interweaved tale of partnerships and encounters that begins in 1848. In 1848 a Frenchman named Francis Marquis founded a company that made carbines for cavalry. In French this is the term, harquebusier. … Continue reading →