Heavy MGs - Forgotten Weapons

Ukrainian DShK as Infantry Support Weapon

March 18, 2022 Ian McCollum 20

The initial Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014 stagnated into trench warfare after a few months, and Ukrainian forces found themselves often in entrenched positions 500m or more from Russian opposition. At that range, their […]

Soviet DS-39 Heavy Machine Gun at the Range

December 31, 2021 Ian McCollum 13

The DS-39 is an air-cooled heavy machine gun designed by Degtyarev, which was intended to replace the 1910 Maxim as the standard Soviet HMG. It was lighter and more mobile than the Maxim, and also […]

M43 Salakari: A Dynamic Assault Mount for the Finnish Maxim

October 1, 2021 Ian McCollum 20

The Finnish military depended heavily on Maxim machine guns until the 1960s, first using ones captured from the Russians and later starting production at Tikkakoski in the 1930s. One of the difficulties of the Maxim, […]

Vickers Mk IV .50 Caliber Water-Cooled Tank Gun

September 10, 2021 Ian McCollum 30

Development of the .50 caliber Vickers guns began during World War One, but stagnated after 1918, and was not really completed until the early 1930s. At that point, Vickers produced a series of the guns […]

All the Guns on a T-62 Tank (with Nicholas Moran, the Chieftain)

August 6, 2021 Ian McCollum 19

Try out World of Tanks with a special bonus tank using this link! https://tanks.ly/3dqGoBL Today Nicholas Moran (the Chieftain) and I are at Battlefield Vegas courtesy of Wargaming.net, to show you around a Soviet T-62 […]

Vickers for Interwar Tanks: The Class C/T Machine Gun

June 25, 2021 Ian McCollum 19

The Vickers company developed several versions of the Vickers machine gun for aircraft use during the 1920s and 1930s, but they also worked on armored vehicle versions of the gun in the 1930s. Between 1930 […]

The Drama and Mystery of the Goryunov Machine Gun

June 16, 2021 Ian McCollum 32

This guest post authored by Andrey Ulanov. In the minds of Western people, the inhabitants of the USSR may sometime look like ants; a large mass working towards one great goal without personal ambition. This, of […]

Colt’s Model 1915 Vickers Gun in .30-06

April 12, 2021 Ian McCollum 15

After extended testing in 1913 and 1914, the US formally adopted the Vickers gun as the Model 1915. A contract was placed for licensed production of 125 guns by Colt, who had also taken contracts […]

Semiauto DShKM “Dushka” in .50 Browning

March 13, 2021 Ian McCollum 49

Developed by the Soviet Union primarily as an antiaircraft weapon (and used to good effect in that role through World War Two), the DShK heavy machine gun was modernized almost immediately upon adoption. The first […]

Browning M2HB .50 BMG at the Range

December 26, 2020 Ian McCollum 34

The Browning M2 heavy machine gun is one of the longest serving firearms in US military service, and still going strong. Let’s take this one out to the range and find out why!