One Million Subscriber Special! The French 75 - Guns, Drinks, and Shirts! 

The names McCollum. Ian McCollum. Drink? French 75, stirred not shaken 😎

It didn't get this popular by accident. This is one of the most unambiguous examples of earned success by one person I can think of. There just isn't anyone else out there doing what Ian is doing, the way he's doing it. Keep it up!

Gun Jesus turns water into a French '75. Congrats on a million subs!

Forgotten Cocktails

G11 on Christmas???? REJOICE!!!! If he shoots it (which I doubt) I will legit pass out.

Actually, Ian, we do not want to be called your "subscribers". We are your Disciples.

That ice with his bare hands is the secret ingredient . A slight after taste of Cosmoline .

Congrats on 1 million! Both Forgotten Weapons and InRange are such a breath of fresh air of modesty and professionalism in a youtube gun community of cringy in your face personalities. I really do think that this channel has brought a couple thousand of new people into firearm collecting or at the very least an interest in the subject. Your content has helped put gun owners in a positive and light. Thank you for being such a great representation of gun owners.

Congrats Ian, You deserve it Great Videos. Thanks

Should have invited Steve1989 over for drinks. He could have brought some (ancient) snacks along. You two have similar stirring techniques.

A G11 on Christmas?! That's a true miracle!

And so it was the Gun Jesus spread the gospel of steel and polymer to the masses, and gave them peace.

Should have opened the champagne with the French cavalry saber I'm absolutely sure he has on the wall.

The level of nerdiness that you have towards firearms is freaking awesome and I can totally relate to it. I am not alone! haha. Keep up the good work dude.

Unlike all the auction items you feature, I can afford some gin, sugar, champagne, and lemons. Looks like I'm gonna try a new cocktail tonight. Cheers to you and your 1 million subscribers!

Congrats Ian. Before I started watching you I just thought guns looked kind of cool. I never thought they were such complex and interesting machines, as well as having such storied histories. I am so glad I started watching your show, and here's to a million more subscribers!

You deserve it, especially in the face of RU-vid's gunphobia. It's a great a channel!

Congrats, Ian. My Dad was in the Illinois National Guard Artillery in 1939. His gun was the French 75, as he called it. He drove the prime mover, a Reo 5 ton [this was prior to the 2-1/2 ton GMCs]. They wore the Brodie helmets then. His TOE weapon was a Browning BAR -- to secure the truck-- but being the tail of the Depression, the magazines were made of wood. In 1940, to take his place at work while he was at Guard summer camp, his firm hired 2 gals. One of them later became my Mom. They married in 1940 and he had to be discharged, as there were regulations against enlisted men having wives then. When the S hit the fan, after 12/07/41 he tried to enlist in the Marine Corps, as most of his friends were doing, but failed the physical. He served as a CD Air Raid Warden in Chicago. When I was a kid, once on my birthday, we went downtown to the toy store and he bought me a Lesney Toy model of the Schneider M1887 Field Gun 75mm, and told me of its history. It shot halved matchsticks thru a spring breech.[Effective range of 13 inches. It would take down a lead soldier at that range, plastic soldiers al longer ranges.] He pointed out that the guns he had in the Guard had steel wheels with rubber tires rather than the big wagon wheels for horse-drawn rigs. Great memories. Gotta get me one of those T-shirts.

I know it's taken A TON of work. Congratulations! 🇺🇸

The French actually had a number of heavier fieldpieces (including howitzers) prior to WWI; however, the Mle 1897 was their only gun with a recoil mechanism. They had a number of older guns using the De Bange (sp) principal of breech loading, but they had no recoil device, as well as being heavy and time-consuming to transport and emplace. In contrast, the Germans has a variety of light, medium and heavy transportable, recoil fieldpieces including howitzers and minenwerfer, and they had more of them, especially at the divisional level. Fairly early in the war they reduced their infantry divisions to three regiments and increased the number of medium fieldpieces. Control of these weapons was also more decentralized in a German division. I recommend John Mosier's "Myth of the Great War" if anyone is interested in this development.

Ian should've been in Rewind

The US Army even used the Gun, 75mm, M1897A4, the American built Canon de 75 modèle 1897, in WW2. They used towed versions, truck-drawn and horse-drawn, as field artillery pieces and tank destroyers in the very early phase, and mounted it on half-tracks as the first "heavy" self-propelled tank destroyer, the Carriage, motor, 75mm Gun, M3. It was also the ancestor of the Gun, 75mm, M2/M3, the main weapon of Tank, Medium, M3 and Tank, Medium, M4, and had connection with the later Gun, 76mm, M1 which was used on the late war Tank, Medium, M4.

you deserve every single sub Ian, forgotten weapons is legit one of the best youtube channel, not just gun channel but any channel overall.

Meanwhile, Ian can be found in the basement of the Versailles palace, in a dark corner, clutching a Lebel, drunk with a bottel of "Domaine de la Romanée-Conti" and speaking to Charles De Gaul, and slowy muttering the words "Vive la Resistance".

Holy shit. My mind was blown when he lifted that globe lid up

I am getting one of these shirts for sure! My great grandfather was a U.S. Army artilleryman as apart of the European Expeditionary Force and said that they loved the gun. They would fire "mountains" of ammunition that they would pull off the newly invented 4x4 trucks that would drive them forward. He loved it because it was a simple gun to use. He even said that they were tasked with checking out some German captured peaces and one of the Artillerymen lost a hand due the the complicated recoil system. Awesome price of history. Keep us the good work! Congrats on the one million mark, here is to a couple more. (Sips a French 75)

The real reason original cocktail recipes are hard to track down, is that their inventors tended to be drunk at the time ;)

Ian can you explain how I too can store ice on my bookshelf?

REJOICE BROTHERS FOR HE IS DROPPING HOLY SPACE MAGIC ON THE 25TH.

indy neidell came into my bar in berlin once and ordered a glass of red wine. I was thinking about offering him a french 75 on the house, but then decided to leave the man alone. Speaking as a bartender: you would want to shake gin, lemon juice and sugar (simple syrup!) instead of just stirring it, but for study room purposes this is perfectly fine. Never seen the collins glass version though, will definitely try it! Thanks for being you Ian!

I’m not crying you’re crying

A few months ago I had the sudden realization that this channel and Inrange are my favorite youtube channels. Never stop Ian, we all love you

Long live Gun Jesus and his wisdome! Thanks to all this Weapons, knowledge and History you brought to us!

Congrats Ian! You've been building this channel against all odds on this platform, and your hard work, has payed off

Forgotten Cocktails channel when?

One million subscribers, compilations, and a G11 video! It truly is Christmas time!! Thank you Gun Jesus!!!!!

G11 for Christmas. Thank you Guns Santa.

Congratulations, you're a modern example of how to make history more interesting . You are great at putting these firearms into their historical context, their design, manufacturing, and how they are to be used in battle, hunting, etc..

We want a series on forgotten cocktails!

It's been a long time coming, Ian. I remember watching you back in 2014, back before you ever met Karl. I've always admired your enthusiasm and attention to detail. You really are an inspiration.

It's a privilege to be a part of that one million strong-army. I've stumbled upon this channel over a year ago and the first video I've watches was the Polish Maroszek rifle - made sense since I'm from Poland. I used to shoot in high school, I've spent quite some time playing paintball, I'm deep into military history, but I don't consider myself a gun person. Yet Ian's superb storytelling, subtle jokes and very professional voice operation (I used to work in radio, so I have vague idea what I'm talking about here) glued me to this channel and since then I make a point to watch every video even if I don't care much about particular gun. I can learn something new, get new perspective of different topic in relaxing manner. Since I know I'm not alone in this approach, I'd like to congratulate Ian on terrific job that resulted in bringing new people - like me - to this topic so the vast knowledge won't be forgotten. Thank you, Sir!

I distinctly remember the first video I ever saw from you (PTR 44) and I was intrigued by the technical approach to your videos. I remember researching who was making a semi auto replica of the Strumgewehr 44. I was looking to purchase one if it was available (before the HMG replica). Your meticulous and in depth view of various firearms and weapons technologies throughout history is what has kept me here. Almost 7 years later and hundreds of videos later, you are still pumping out amazing content. Thank you Ian for all of your hard work and I am looking forward to watching your content for years to come.

Never order this man a Kamikaze or you'll have to hear the history of Japan since 1300 before you drink

So glad to see someone who is this knowledgeable and passionate about firearms and history has hit 1 million subs. I’m only 17 but I’ve probably been watching your videos since you were around 400-500k subs. Congrats Ian and I can’t wait to see what you do for 2 million ! You deserve all of it

Imagine Ian drunk dialing Karl.

Congrats man, I remember when you were blasting random full autos in underground ranges Will always watch your content

Congrats Ian. ;) Been watching for at least 6 years now and it was about time you got to one millions subscribers.

Of course Ian is even making his cocktails using impeccable scholarship.

That globe being a drinks cabinet was the biggest reveal since Citizen Kane's Rosebud.

Gun Jesus, stripper of guns, mixer of gins

Congrats Ian, one of the few RU-vidrs left in 2018 who actually *earned* their 1M milestones. Looking forward to the great content you come out with next year and hopefully many years to come.

The French 75 was one of my favourite artillery pieces ever and surely one of the most important. The Canon de 75 mle 1897 was legendary.

You could say you've hit a... mle stone.

Congratulations on 1 million subscribers! Thank you Ian for all your hard work and bringing/keeping this history alive.

Congratulations from Finland! Your educational but at the same time entertaining channel introduced me to some Finnish guns even I didn't know anything about. Thank you!

Having been around and watching this channel since around 2012 or so, It is so dandy to see the channel grow this big. I am going to celebrate with a fine tasty wine that has been aging since 2005, Cheers my old friend. May you always bring the light of knowledge to the world.

Now we just need to get Ian in the next RU-vid rewind

Congratulations Ian, you truly deserve the 1 million subscribers. You are among the RU-vidrs that are phenomenally dedicated and always produce the highest quality of video they can. Cheers!

A ton us of? I think you mean a million of us. Hehehe... Congratulations Ian.

They can't trace the origin of the cocktails because everyone's hammered when it transpires. Congratulations! Good to see excellence rise up.

Happy for you, gun Jesus. Hope you know the entire internet worships you.

Congratulations to the intelligent, pleasant, humble, and talented person with the perfect mix of meticulousness and sense of humor. It's one thing to bring actual paper-grade research quality to RU-vid (already a super-rare thing), it's another to present it in such an agreeable and accessible way that thousands of people watch your videos religiously before going to sleep. Thanks for the cocktail, too. Haven't gotten around to learning it despite hearing about it a dozen times, and it seems to be the perfect thing for me.

hooray here’s to another million more I’ve been following you pretty much from the beginning or at least since the youtube channel, I’m so happy it’s come this far, you really are vital to the spread and common access of info in this whole area.

During WW1 the French 75 was in high demand. There were a couple of "Forgotten Weapons" that were pressed into service. French merchant cargo vessels faced the German U-boat threat and needed some form of protection. These "Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships" (DEMS) were not as high up on the priority list as the battlefields in France. Thus, they were outfitted with older ordnance. One such vessel was the SS MONT BLANC, a French munitions cargo ship. It arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia on December 1917 with 3000 tons of explosives aboard. The documentation I've found indicates it was armed with a 95 mm cannon on the stern and a 90 mm cannon on the bow. As this was a French vessel the likely suspects are the 1875 model Lahitolle 95 at the stern and the 1877 DeBange 90 at the bow. The stern gun itself became a projectile when the ship exploded into a debris field that covered several miles. The broken gun barrel is currently displayed where it came to rest 2.1 km (1.3 miles) from the center of the explosion. The breech end matches that of a Lahitolle 95 and the barrel bore is 95 mm. I am not aware of the second gun having been found. I only recently stumbled across the French 75 video. Excellent presentation as always… which is why the subscription is now at 2.6 million. I look forward to you hitting 3 million subscribers. Cheers. J Vincent

Happy 1 milion anniversary!

I've been a subscriber since before you did that fundraiser for new cameras/equipment all those years ago. So awesome to see how far you've come.

congratulations brother if anyone was to deserves this, it's definitely you!

Congratulations! If anyone deserves it, it’s definitely you! Finally decided to pick up from forgotten weapons merch as well

Congratulations Ian! A GENTLEMAN AND SCHOLAR ,indeed!

Ian, I truly appreciate your explanation of how a firearm works. I find it very fascinating to see exactly how a particular firearm excelled or failed. Please keep it up as long as you can. Hopefully for years to come. Congratulations on 1M subs. Your channel deserves it.

congrats ian ! you deserve those subs !

Congratulations Ian! All your hard work shows and your great amount of knowledge that you share with us is so appreciated. I hope you get your new play button soon and I look forward to watching your show for many more years to come and seeing you hit many more milestones.

You deserve it. Your focus on the gun itself, it's characteristics, workings, history and the people involved rather than a "Whoooooo GUNS! Lookit how many waterbottles and watermelons it blows up! 'MERICA!" makes this channel worthwhile watching.

Love your channel, Ian. You take an academic approach towards firearms that no one else has on RU-vid. A lot of other channels take advantage of the "romanticization" of firearms in the media and use slick editing and action music to gain an audience while you present a purely objective view. And your ability to avoid politicizing firearms and simply provide an education for the public is nothing short of astounding. So many other firearms channels can't help but leak in their own views removing a sense of objectivity. I commend you as an academic who can reach out to everyone, no matter their background and origin. Thank you.

You deserver every single one of your subs and views. The passion you put into your videos and your research is contagious. Keep up the good work

Also the 75mm Canon de 1897 was the most modern french artillery piece in 1914, most french artillery dated from 1869 - 1893. With a few smaller guns dated from 1900 - 1905, mostly 47 mm hotchkiss cannons.

Congrats! Feels great to be part of this one million community!

Been here since that em-2 video way back when, super stoked that you’ve hit 1,000,000! You deserve it Ian, you’ve put a lot of effort and love(also pew pew) into this channel and it shows.

Congratulation Ian !!! Our beloved gun jesus just hit a one million subscribers 👏👏👏 I really love this channel since 2014 and still watching it today hahaha, woooohooooo !!!

Congratulations! Forgotten Weapons continues to be one of my favorite sources of entertaining, interesting content, and regularly provokes my love for guns. Thank you for all that you do, cheers to a million more!

I got my friend to have one of these just last night and she loved it. I've got the shirt on the way to wear to the bar when it arrives!

You deserve all of this success. Thank you for your hard work. I look forward to seeing you reach 2 million

Your videos are fun, educational, mature and most of all LOTS of guns. So I won't be surprised if this channel hit 2 or 3 M in the future. Congratulations for this channel's milestone

thanks for all the vids you already done, Ian! This milestone is well deserved due to the amount of work and dedication!

congrats i can remember subbing you had around 5000 subs cant believe its been this long i remember think this is great but i dont know if it ever be more than a niche area of the guntuber world but to see you at 1 million im glad to say i was wrong

I’ve been looking at your website since well before RU-vid. Glad to see so much more content and to see the project grow

Will there be also a 'German 88'?

I remember stumbling upon this channel back in high school around 7-8 years ago. Hell, I even remember that old intro of Ian shooting various firearms in a short montage. I still can't believe it's been that long! Anyway, thank you for all the hard work you've put into this channel and with Karl on InRangeTV. Here's to nearly 10 years on RU-vid and 1 million subscribers! Cheers and Happy Holidays from Guam 🍸!

Ahhh Gin... Ok it is ok and you mention it, but to me the classic is with cognac, it is all French, & that's the way WW1 Col. Patton drank it in France... " Ever since it was published in The Savoy Cocktail Book and infiltrated the top bars in Paris and New York, the French 75 has reigned as one of the most elegant Champagne cocktails. Though some today try to serve it with gin as the base, Cognac is not only a far better choice in terms of flavor, but it was the original spirit used back in the early 1920s. However, there are other ways to make this drink even more decadent. " food republic . A matter of taste and that is cool. Congrats!

Congratulations! We'll probably never really appreciate all that you have put into this endeavor. Thank you!!

Congrats on your milestone. See you at 2M subs. Great job and excellent videos.

Really happy for you, Ian. I've been watching that subscriber count climb for years. Keep it up!

I discovred you when when your sub count was 300k, I feel so old now

My favorite use of the French 75 was at Bir Hakeim; the Free French "borrowed" some Chevrolet Trucks from the British (cut down and converted for long range raids) and rolled the gun right into the bed, facing backwards. Called the Canon de 75 Portee, this truck with a gun was used in place of both self-propelled artillery, and as a makeshift anti tank gun (using 75mm AT shells). Also, the French 75 cocktail is my go-to drink when at conventions and on the road, there is a hotel bar that makes it with grapefruit juice instead of lemon and garnishes with a maraschino cherry. A tasty variant on a classic. Cheers on a million subscribers!

That's awesome, and I gotta get me one of those globes.

Congratualtions on 1m. It's refreshing to see a youtuber who actually knows what they are talking about reach this many subscribers. Carry on doing what you do, as it is informative at the same time as entertaining.

Congratulations lan, your Christmas present came early this year!!!!!

I think I've been subscribed since the 150k mark. I enjoy your work immensely. Anytime i get arrogant about my firearms knowledge i think of you and humble myself.

Was really hoping Mr Ian was goin' to do his best Christopher Walken The Continential while demonstrating his best mixology form.

Congratulations Ian. I can't understand why you don't have more subscribers. Thanks for all the work you do.