Machine Guns - Forgotten Weapons

MG-34: The Universal Machine Gun Concept

October 7, 2017 Ian McCollum 59

The MG34 was the first German implementation of the universal machine gun concept – and really the first such fielded by any army. The idea was to have a single weapon which could be used […]

Book Review: Pistolas y Subfusiles de la República Producción de Guerra

October 1, 2017 Ian McCollum 13

“Pistolas y Subfusiles de la República Producción de Guerra” is a new 580-page reference book about the pistols and submachine guns made in the Republican zone during the Spanish Civil War. It is written by […]

Shooting the Yugoslav M84 PKM: Arguably the Best GPMG

September 30, 2017 Ian McCollum 33

If I could have any one machine gun (but only one), it would be a PKM – in my experience thus far, this is the best universal machine gun that has been designed. Kalashnikov’s […]

Yugoslav M84 PKM: History, Mechanics, and Disassembly

September 29, 2017 Ian McCollum 53

The PK machine gun was developed by Mikhail Kalashnikov’s engineering team right about the time they were putting the finishing touches on the AKM. The PK is in many ways an AK rifle action […]

MP-40/I: The Dual-Magazine Experimental MP-40

September 23, 2017 Ian McCollum 17

The MP40/I was an experimental modification of the MP-40 submachine gun developed by the Erma company (we think) in late 1942. It was presumably developed in response to complaints of Soviet fire superiority with […]

Shooting the Ishapore MkIII Vickers-Berthier LMG

September 20, 2017 Ian McCollum 14

The Vickers-Berthier MkIII was adopted by the Indian army in 1933, and served through World War Two and into the 1970s (at least). It is chambered for the standard .303 British cartridge, fires from […]

History and Disassembly of the Vickers-Berthier MkIII LMG

September 19, 2017 Ian McCollum 30

The Vickers-Berthier was initially designed by Andre Berthier in France prior to World War One. It went through a number of substantial design changes before the war, and was actually ordered in quantity by the […]

The Swedish Suomi M-37/39 Submachine Gun

September 13, 2017 Ian McCollum 11

When the Swedish military decided that 1937 seemed like a pretty good time to be getting some new submachine guns, they arranged to purchase a version of the m/31 Suomi from their Finnish neighbors […]

Suomi M31: Finland’s Famous Submachine Gun

September 12, 2017 Ian McCollum 39

Designed by Finland’s most notable arms inventor, Aimo Lahti, the m/31 Suomi submachine gun is an iconic weapon of the Winter War and the Continuation War. It is a first-generation submachine gun with a […]

Lanchester MkI: Britain’s First (But Not Last) Emergency SMG

September 5, 2017 Ian McCollum 26

The Lanchester MkI was the first British effort to produce a domestic submachine gun during World War II. The British military had rejected these types of arms as “gangster guns” prior to the war, and […]