The Harsh Reality About Collecting Historical Guns (ft. C&Rsenal)

On this episode of State of the Second, host John sits down with Othais and Mae from C&Rsenal, the deep-research firearms channel known for hour-long documentary videos on World War I small arms. The conversation is a wide-ranging history dive rather than a policy debate. Othais explains how the show started: he picked up shooting after college with a Mosin M38, became a gun collector chasing answers the books did not have, and started writing blog posts and posting his own photography on Reddit. When the channel moved to video, Mae came on as the designated markswoman so Othais could film, and the two now run the operation full time alongside their animator, Bruno. Most of the episode is gun-nerd territory. They get into why World War I was such a brutal subject to cover (Battlefield 1 and the YouTube series The Great War drove prices up while Othais kept his promise to finish the era), and how John Moses Browning's real genius was efficiency and iteration rather than pure invention, with credit also owed to designers like Whiting at Webley. Othais makes the case that the modern revolver was essentially settled by an 1874 patent and that much of revolver history traces to Britain and Belgium, not America. They cover Sam Colt as a salesman who pushed economy-of-scale manufacturing through constant overselling, the cyclical history of 9mm versus .45 and .40 caliber debates, Ballistol's strange medical history, surplus collecting, and why old guns cannot be cheaply reproduced today because the old-growth walnut, the milling knowledge, and the primer-limited ammo supply are all gone. C&Rsenal brings a Winchester 97 trench gun and a Remington Model 10 into the room, and Othais talks through restoring sporterized rifles, hunting auctions for matching parts, and the obscure guns he still wants, including a Fedorov Avtomat. They also pull back the curtain on production: four or five cameras, eight channels of sound across four mic layers, and shooting between passing clouds. The back half turns to industry gossip, including a chaotic Gundies awards-show bus ride with Brandon Herrera, Rapid Fire Rachel, Ian McCollum, and Matt Larosiere, plus a story about meeting Liberty Doll. John admits they never really got to gun policy because Othais is the gun nerd of GOA and Kaylee is the policy person, so they agree to have him back for a policy episode. You can find C&Rsenal on YouTube or at the redirect domain oldgunshow.com. Questions this episode answers How did C&Rsenal get started, and how did Othais and Mae end up running it? Othais took up shooting after college with a Mosin M38, became a collector, and built a following by blogging and posting his own firearms photography on Reddit before moving to video. Mae joined as the designated markswoman so Othais could film, and the two now run it full time with their animator, Bruno. Why was covering World War I firearms so much harder and more expensive than expected? Interest from Battlefield 1 and the YouTube series The Great War drove up prices for World War I small arms while Othais kept his promise to finish covering the era. The subject was a brutal, expensive one to document, but he stuck with it rather than abandon the period. What did John Moses Browning actually invent versus refine, and who else contributed to designs we credit to him? Othais argues Browning's real genius was efficiency and iteration rather than pure invention, deeply refining and combining ideas from the pre-Browning era more than inventing from nothing. He also credits other designers, including Whiting at Webley, for work behind designs often attributed to Browning alone. Why does Othais argue the modern revolver was essentially figured out by 1874, and why does so much revolver history trace to Britain and Belgium? Othais makes the case that the modern revolver was essentially settled by an 1874 patent and that nobody really noticed. He says much of revolver history traces to Britain and Belgium rather than America, crediting Belgian patents and British designers for the core of the design. What made Sam Colt important beyond just building a good revolver? Othais frames Colt as a salesman who pushed economy-of-scale manufacturing through constant overselling. His importance came from driving mass-production economics, not just from the gun itself. Why can't old World War II-era guns be cheaply reproduced today? The old-growth walnut, the milling knowledge, and the primer-limited ammunition supply that built those guns are all gone. As Othais puts it, the knowledge pool, talent, and industrial capacity behind them keep diminishing, so cheap reproduction is no longer possible. What goes into filming a C&Rsenal shooting video in terms of cameras and audio? A shoot runs four or five cameras and eight channels of sound across four microphone layers, with filming timed between passing clouds. Mae handles much of the camera and audio work alongside editing and the business side. Where can people find C&Rsenal online? C&Rsenal is on YouTube and at the redirect domain oldgunshow.com. Chapters 00:00 — Welcome and meeting C&Rsenal 00:19 — How the channel started and went to video 05:47 — First video in 2015 and the World War I problem 09:32 — Browning's genius: efficiency and iteration 15:55 — Surplus collecting and Spanish Merwin Hulbert copies 20:44 — Belgian patents and the 1874 revolver 21:24 — Sam Colt the salesman and economy of scale 26:43 — 9mm, .45 and the cyclical caliber debates 37:42 — Ballistol's strange medical history 41:36 — Copies, video games and Battlefield's odd guns 49:21 — Why old guns can't be cheaply reproduced 1:11:32 — Why we don't know modern gun designers' names 1:21:46 — Behind the scenes: cameras and audio 1:28:25 — Gundies chaos and industry gossip 1:37:49 — Wrap-up, GOA's gun nerd, and where to find them About the guest Othais and Mae are the team behind C&Rsenal, a firearms history channel known for long-form documentary videos focused heavily on World War I small arms. Othais does most of the research and writing; he came to guns after college, started as a collector, and built a following by photographing and documenting firearms online (including on Reddit) before moving to video. Mae was a shooter before Othais and joined as the show's designated markswoman so he could film; she now handles much of the editing, the business-management side, and a lot of the camera and audio. Their first video published in June 2015. They work with an animator, Bruno, and are based in the Charleston, South Carolina area. In this episode Othais describes himself as "the gun nerd of GOA." [VERIFY their full real names and individual roles beyond what is stated here] Key quotes "the whole emphasis of the show was to have a very visual format to be able to show people exactly how these things work and where they came from" — Othais "What's crazy is actually if you start exploring sort of the pre Browning era is how much he didn't invent, but rather deeply refined and combined" — Othais "So the modern revolver as we know it was pretty much done in 1874 and no one's noticed" — Othais "the knowledge pool and talent and the industrial capacity is diminishing" — Othais "I am not the policy guy. I come from the industry. I'm the gun nerd of" — Othais