Light MGs

Light MGs

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Light MGs
  • Stalin's Record Player: The DP-27 Light Machine Gun

    Despite having early experience with the Madsen LMG prior to World War One, the Soviet military opted to follow the German path of machine gun development after the war. Valuing the sustained firepower of belt-fed guns like the MG08-15 and MG08-18 over the portability of guns like the BAR or Lewi...

  • Nambu Type 96 & Type 99 LMGs

    The Type 96 and Type 99 Nambu light machine guns were arguably the best LMGs used by any nation during WWII - they were light, handy, accurate, durable, and reliable. Designed by Kijiro Nambu to replace his 1922 Type 11 LMG (which was fed by a unique hopper mechanism using 5-round rifle stripper ...

  • Slow Motion: Swiss LMG-25

    I had a cool Swiss viewer named Bjoern kindly send me this footage of a Swiss LMG25 machine gun firing - thanks, Bjoern! These guns are very rare in the US, and the only one I've been able to handle was in Europe. If I can ever get my hands on one myself, I will make some video with my Edgertroni...

  • Japanese Type 11 LMG Disassembly

    Thanks to the hospitality of the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, we had a chance to examine and disassemble a Type 11 light machine gun, chambered for 6.5mm Japanese. This is, of course, the very unusual hopper-fed design from Kijiro Nambu, which entered service in 1922. The action is largel...

  • Mendoza 1934: Mexico's Domestic LMG

    Rafael Mendoza was Mexico’s premier domestic arms designer, and the Model 1934 LMG is probably his most successful design. He began work on it in 1929, and it entered testing with the Mexican Army in 1932. It was formally accepted by the Mexican Army in 1934 (hence the designation) and would serv...

  • Ian's Customs: Lage Max11A1/15 Light Machine Gun

    I bought an M11A1 machine pistol several years ago, when I first heard about the Lage Max11/15 project (I chose the M11A1 because I wanted the shortest registered receiver possible). Well, the M11A1 version of that upper sat in ATF purgatory for more than two years, but it is finally out! (Note: ...

  • An Israeli LMG, Part I: The .303 Dror

    The story of the Dror is a fascinating tale of clandestine arms procurement by the fledgling Israeli state. Plans covertly purchased from Johnson Automatics, redesigned to use .303 British ammunition, with a production line produced in Canada. The first prototype guns were brought down to New Yor...

  • An Israeli LMG, Part II: The 8mm Dror

    Today we continue the story of the Dror. Shortly after production of the .303 pattern guns began, the directive came down that the gun was to be redesigned for 8mm Mauser ammunition. Israeli supplies of British munitions were quickly being replaced by material from Czechoslovakia, and the Dror pr...