For those who did not know him, Uncle Bob was a veritable encyclopedia of gun knowledge. He got his first machine gun – an 08/15 German Maxim – at age 12, and went to school in Trinidad Colorado where he studied gunsmithing. After a brief stint as a civilian at Aberdeen Proving Grounds he enlisted and shipped out to Korea, where he saw 14 months of service – much of it spent repairing and experimenting with weapons.

Robert Faris with a Chinese Type 24 Maxim in Korea

On his return to the States, Bob went back to his position at Aberdeen working in weapons testing and development. He transferred to the Yuma Proving Grounds in 1971, and ultimately retired in 1985. Throughout this time he spent his free time collecting military arms, amassing a collection rivaled by few others in the world. Bob was an avid shooter, never one to leave an interesting gun on the shelf unfired and he never stopped enjoying time on the range.

Robert Faris was an invaluable friend of Forgotten Weapons – we could not have made this site what it is today without his generous assistance. He was one of the great folks of the gun community, and will be missed by all. Godspeed, Uncle Bob.

I should really put together an audition video for Season 5…but that’s another matter.

Anyway, the BAR – I’m writing this before the show has aired, so I don’t know what they’ll have the competitors do with it. But I’ve shot a couple BARs (A Swedish converted to .30-06 and an Israeli FN-D in 7.62 NATO) and I have no doubt the competitors will enjoy the experience.

We have a number of BAR manuals posted on the BAR page in the Vault, and I dug out a couple more to add today. It is interesting to note how the BAR developed outside US military service. The gun was originally designed for the trenches of WWI, intended for “walking fire”, which troops would advance on enemy lines calmly firing from the hip (the original magazine belts for BAR gunners include a metal socket to hold the butt of the gun). The gun made a big impression on everyone who encountered it in 1918, largely because of the lack of anything else comparable. But by World War II the original concept was thoroughly obsolete. Int eh late 1930s the M1918A1 and A2 BAr rifles were developed, which added a bipod to the gun and envisioned it as a supporting light machine gun.

A US soldier demonstrates walking fire with a BAR

The A2 BAR also had a somewhat unusual feature; a selectable rate reducer in the buttstock. Instead of a selector for semiauto and full auto, it had a selector to switch between slow fire (~300 rpm) and rapid fire (~550 rpm). A BAR set on slow fire is an interesting experience in machine gun terms – it shoots with a slow chug-chug-chug and is more controllable than one would expect of a fullauto .30 caliber. One has to focus on a specific target – “spraying” and area at 350rpm is ineffectual. Switching to the fast setting makes the BAR behave much more like you would expect, climbing stubbornly and emptying its 20-round magazine much to quickly.

Outside of US military service, the BAR was adopted in various forms by prison guards, police departments, Sweden, Poland, Belgium, and other countries in smaller numbers. While foreign variants of the BAR continued to evolve and improve over time, the US military models were required to be backwards-compatible with the original M1918 variant which prevented most improvements.

Colt R75(A) commercial BAR

The most fully-developed BAR was made under license by Fabrique Nationale in Belgium, and designated the FN-D. This model featured a pistol grip (a significant improvement over the standard stock on the M1918), a rate reducer moved to the area between the grip and magazine, and a quick-change barrel only . These were made mostly in 8x57mm and 7x57mm, although some were adopted by Israel and converted to 7.62 NATO. These modifications addressed the biggest complaints about the BAR – excessive weight and its rapid overheating (the M1918 and M1918A2 had fixed barrels). The Swedish military adopted a similar pistol gripped BAR in the Kg m/21, which they later modified to use a Q-D barrel as well (the Kg m/37). You can find more information on the Swedish BARs at the Gothia Arms Historical Society BAR page. Poland also adopted a BAR with a pistol grip and chambered for 8mm Mauser as the wz. 1928.

For those who are interested, I’m adding two more manuals to our BAR page in the Vault – one on the commercial Colt R75(A) with a quick-change barrel and one on the Swedish m/21 and m/37 guns (in Swedish):

Colt R75(A) BAR manual

Swedish m/21 and m/37 BAR manual (in Swedish)

Want to win our free Mosin-Nagant Timney trigger? This contest will be a bit simpler than our last one – just send us an email telling us what kind of Mosin-Nagant you would be putting it in (remember that there is modification necessary to the rifle, so you probably don’t want to use the Czar’s personal exhibition Mosin). The contest will be open until 8pm MST February 24th (Friday). One winner will be chosen at random and notified Saturday morning. Good luck!

Charola-Anitua cutaway view

While this principle is similar to the Mauser pistol, the Charola-Anitua is a much simpler design and much cruder in execution, with a simplified locking lug and slide assembly.

The Charola was manufactured in several calibers, including 5mm Clement and 7mm. A total of about 3,000 guns made in 5mm and 2,000 in 7mm. The 5mm used a six-round fixed magazine with stripper clips, while the 7mm was made in both fixed and detachable magazine variants (both types holding six rounds as well).

The 5mm Charola was made in 4 different variants:

1. The first accounted for 950 units, with 105mm barrels and marked “PISTOLA AUTOMATICA PATENTE CHAROLA Y ANITUA, EIBAR”, and no caliber markings.
2. The second type (900 made) has a 95mm barrel, and marked I. CHAROLA, EIBAR, CAL 5 m/m”.
3. The third variation (800 made) has a yet shorter 85mm barrel, and these are marked “BEST SHOOTING PISTOL” on the top of the barrels.
4. The remaining 400 guns of the 4th series were made in Belgium.

In 1900, Anitua left the company, and Ignacio Charola decided to produce the 7mm model. The 7mm guns all have 85mm barrels, and the “BEST SHOOTING PISTOL” marking on the barrel. Production of all types ended in 1905.

The 5mm cartridge for the Charola (a sharply tapered bottleneck design) fires a 28 grain bullet at 1030fps, and the 7mm fires a 62gr bullet at 720fps.

We found a factory engraved 5mm third variant and a 7mm model at the Vegas Antique Arms show in 2012, and the owner was kind enough to let us take some photos of both.
5mm Charola Anitua (factory engraved):

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7mm Charola-Anitua:

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This is an excellent book to start a firearms library with. It has a lot of great information for a very affordable cost – I found my copy for $3 at a gun show, but it can be bought on Amazon for not much more.

If you didn’t see the contest when I announced it, check out the holster review and contest page – you have until this Friday evening to send in an entry. Good luck!

Schwarzlose M1907/12

The Schwarzlose uses a toggle lock that looks at a glance similar to a Maxim or Luger lock, except that this toggle does not act to lock the bolt. Instead, the toggle must be broken and folded before the bolt can travel rearward, thus delaying it for a moment. This delay is long enough to allow chamber pressure to drop to a safe level (assuming everything is done right). This does require use of ammunition with a specific pressure curve, as overpressure ammunition will cause the bolt to open early and rupture cases while underpowered ammunition will simply fail to fully cycle the action. The system was designed with a heavy recoil spring and a relatively short barrel (20.75 inches, meaning that the bullet would take less time to exit the barrel and pressure to drop). This meant that the gun had significant muzzle flash (hence the large flash suppressor) and also required an oil pump to lubricate cartridges to prevent extraction problems. The pump oil tank held a half liter of oil, which was good for about 4500 rounds of firing.

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Along with those disadvantages, the gun did have some things working in its favor. Since the barrel did not move (like most contemporary recoil-operated actions), it was simpler to incorporate and seal the cooling water jacket. It also had a very sturdy and reliable feed system. In 1912, the design was modified to use a heavier bolt and spring (and slightly modified lever angle in the toggle), thus increasing the time before opening, which reduced the chamber pressure when it did open, which in turn allowed cartridges to reliably extract without being oiled. The most obvious visual distinction between the 1907 and 07/12 guns is the rounded hump on the from of the 1907 receiver, where the 1912 variation was square at the front of the receiver.

The gun loads from below and right of the receiver, and ejects empty cases out the lower right of the receiver. Loading the gun when empty requires inserting a belt and manually cycling the action three times while holding pressure on the loose end of the belt to bring the first cartridge into firing position. The feed mechanism consists of a gear-like wheel that holds the cartridges and rotates them up to the chamber and then down to the ejection port. Firing is done by depressing the central dual triggers between the gun’s handles. There is a safety located between the triggers, which must be held to the left by one thumb while firing.

History

The Schwarzlose was the standard heavy machine gun of the Austro-Hungarian army during World War 1, and was also adopted by the Czechoslovakian, Dutch, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Turkish, and Swedish armies. Italy captured a significant number of the guns, and used them both during and after WWI. Dutch and Czech Schwarzlose guns were chambered for 8×57 Mauser, while the Swedes used them in 6.5x55mm, and the standard Austrian chambering was 8x50R (later changed to 8x56R). Some guns were build in 6.5x54mm for Greece, but these were appropriated by the Austrian government when war broke out in 1914.

The Steyr company in Austria purchased the manufacturing rights for the gun in 1905, and built them until 1918. In 1931, Austrian guns were modified to use the new 8x56R cartridge, which provided a significantly higher muzzle velocity (2300fps, instead of about 1900-2000 with the 8x50R). This was done by rechambering the existing barrels. The British company Kynoch also built the Schwarzlose under license as the Kynoch Machine Gun. A number of other smaller-production variants were also made, including cavalry and aircraft guns.

Schwarzlose M1908 Cavalry gun

We have three original manuals for the Schwarzlose, which you can download either here or on the Schwarzlose 1907 and 07/12 page in the Vault:

Descriptive Report on the 1907/12 Infantry Schwarzlose (Italian, 1932)

Instructions on Use of the Schwarzlose 1907 (in German, published in Austria in 1913)

Heavy Machine Gun M.24 (Czech, written in French)