Light MGs - Forgotten Weapons

The Finnish RPK: Valmet 78 at the Range

May 5, 2022 Ian McCollum 14

Valmet designed the M78 hoping to sell it to the Finnish military as an equivalent to the RPK, but it was not adopted. Instead, they were old a semiautos on the commercial market. Because this […]

FN-DA1: The BAR for NATO

April 13, 2022 Ian McCollum 28

After World War Two, FN put the BAR back into production. This was initially the FN-D version with a quick-change barrel, but with NATO’s adoption of the 7.62mm cartridge, there was a demand for the […]

Ian’s Customs: Lage Max11A1/15 Light Machine Gun

March 12, 2022 Ian McCollum 11

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 […]

Lage Max11/15: A Conversion From Machine Pistol to LMG

March 9, 2022 Ian McCollum 9

Lage Manufacturing has been making conversion uppers for MAC-pattern machine pistols for a long time. They have a bunch of 9mm uppers in a variety of styles, some using magazines in the grip and some […]

Lahti-Saloranta LS-26 LMG at the Range

December 18, 2021 Ian McCollum 10

I had a chance to shoot an LS26 once before, but without the benefit of a magazine loading tool – and so I could only get 4 or 5 rounds into the mag. This time, […]

Lahti-Saloranta LS-26: Finland’s Domestic LMG

December 17, 2021 Ian McCollum 28

Finland’s first domestic light machine gun was the LS-26. The prime designer was Aimo Lahti, but because of his relative inexperience and lack of formal credentials, Lieutenant A.E. Saloranta was assigned to assist him. The […]

Stalin’s Record Player: The DP-27 Light Machine Gun

August 13, 2021 Ian McCollum 26

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 […]

Combloc SAW: Chinese RPD at the Range

July 31, 2021 Ian McCollum 45

I am excited to take an RPD out to the range today – I’ve wanted to try one for quite a while. The RPD is a very light and compact weapon for a squad automatic, […]

RPD: The LMG Adapts to Modern Combat

July 30, 2021 Ian McCollum 35

Today we are looking at a Chinese Type 56 RPD, but we will be focusing on the basic design and why it was adopted in the Soviet Union rather than the details of its use […]

L-34 Sampo: Aimo Lahti’s Rejected Masterpiece

June 30, 2021 Ian McCollum 39

Finland’s standard light machine gun going into the Winter War was the LS-26, a gun which did not succeed in field use. It was complex and cumbersome, and Finnish troops quickly replaced it with captured […]