General Purpose MGs - Forgotten Weapons

H&K MG4: Germany’s New 5.56mm Squad Machine Gun

June 7, 2025 Ian McCollum 27

Full video including range footage is available on the History of Weapons & War streaming app: https://forgottenweapons.vhx.tv/videos/mg4-4k Heckler & Koch released the MG4, a new 5.56mm squad machine gun in 2001. It was adopted by […]

Negev 7: Israeli Scales up to a 7.62 NATO Machine Gun

March 31, 2025 Ian McCollum 11

Full video including range footage is available on the History of Weapons & War streaming app: https://forgottenweapons.vhx.tv/videos/negev-7-4k The Israeli Negev machine gun had a rather long development cycle, beginning in 1985 but not seeing final […]

RP-46: The Rarely Seen Belt-Fed Degtyarev

October 16, 2024 Ian McCollum 36

Enter to win this awesome Semiauto DPM! https://www.fanathem.com/forgottenweapons DEADLINE to ENTER is 10/25/2024 at 11:59 PM PST After World War Two, the Red Army moved from a full power infantry rifle cartridge to an intermediate […]

Finland’s Prototype Belt-Fed GPMG: L41 Sampo

May 13, 2024 Ian McCollum 25

During the 1930s, there was interest in Finland in replacing the Maxim heavy machine gun with something handier and more mobile. There were experiments with large drum magazines for the LS-26 light machine gun, but […]

SS77: South Africa Builds a GPMG on the Shoulders of Giants

October 13, 2023 Ian McCollum 14

In the 1970s, South Africa began looking for a domestic-production GMPG to replace its inventory of FN MAG machine guns. The MAG was an excellent weapon, but the ones in South Africa were getting old […]

Experimental Romanian Paratrooper PKM

July 1, 2023 Ian McCollum 14

Romania adopted the PKM in 1966, and began manufacturing their own direct copy at Cugir. In the 1990s, the plant designed a model intended for paratroopers, with a shortened barrel and unique side folding stock. […]

Darne Model 1933: An Economic & Modular Interwar MG

February 15, 2023 Ian McCollum 67

The Darne company was one of relatively few private arms manufacturers in France, best known for shotguns. During World War One they got into the machine gun trade, making licensed Lewis guns for the French […]

M240 Bravo: America Replaces the M60

November 7, 2022 Ian McCollum 43

In 1977, the US military adopted the FN MAG as the M240 in vehicular configuration to replace the less-than-successful M73/M219 machine guns. The USMC would get an early start adapting the 240 to ground configuration […]

France in the Cold War: AA52 Replaces the Hotchkiss

May 27, 2022 Ian McCollum 24

For another perspective on the AA52 – and some live fire footage – check out Bloke on the Range’s video on the gun today: With the end of World War Two, it was finally time […]

Rheinmetall MG42/59: The Slow-Fire Commercial MG42

May 4, 2022 Ian McCollum 66

After World War Two, when West Germany was allowed to reconstitute its army and join NATO, it needed small arms. The new Bundeswehr chose the MG42 as it’s standard GPMG, and the Rheinmetall firm undertook […]