Heavy MGs
Vintage Saturday: Smoke Break
This is a really good photo of a Belgian Maxim, although it appears to be staged – the man has his thumbs on the trigger, but there does is not ammo belt in the gun.
Machine Guns
Bolt Action Rifles
Vintage Saturday: Liberators
This is a pretty widely-published photo, but it sure is a good one. It also shows very clearly the US’ horrible excuse for a backpack of the time. For the record, the soldier on the […]
Prototype
BSA 1926 & 1929 Thompson SMGs
In the early days of the Thompson Submachine Gun, the Auto-Ordnance Company was looking for customers globally. General John Thompson had personally run a demonstration of the gun in England in June of 1921, which […]
Prototype
RIA: Thompson T2 Submachine Gun Prototype
The T2 submachine gun was Auto-Ordnance’s entry into the ongoing competition to replace the classic Thompson submachine gun with something more economical to produce. It was a closed-bolt, select-fire design using a progressive trigger and […]
Light MGs
Yugoslav 8mm Chauchat M1915/26 Photos
Reader Mihajlo sent me a couple cool photos of Yugoslav troops with Chauchats converted to 8x57mm. Here’s his commentary: Here’s a picture from WW2 Yugoslavia I’d like to share with you. The guy on the […]
Heavy MGs
Vintage Saturday: Colt 1895 on Water Tower Hill
In 1914, a long-standing strike of mine workers against the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company was ended by the Colorado National Guard in what is known today as the Ludlow Massacre. As part of their […]
Light MGs
James D. Julia: Polish wz.28 BAR Shooting, History, Disassembly
In the aftermath of WWI the newly-united Poland had a military equipped with a mishmash of leftover light machine guns, from Chauchats to MG 08/15s. They wanted to adopt a new standardized weapon, and trials […]
Submachine Guns
James D. Julia: Czech ZK-383 Transferable Submachine Gun
The Czech-made ZK-383 submachine gun is a bit of an oddball in the world of submachine guns. It has several design features typically associated with rifle-caliber light machine guns – an integral bipod and a […]
Light MGs
James D. Julia: Johnson LMG History & Disassembly
The Johnson light machine gun is one of the lesser-known US military machine guns of WWII, although it seems to have been very popular with all those who used it in combat. Melvin Johnson made […]
Gunsmithing
Spoils of War: A 1907 St Etienne Full of Bullet Holes
The 1907 St Etienne heavy machine gun is a really neat gun mechanically, but I can’t shot you that today because this one is jammed together from the 7 bullet impacts that rendered it unusable […]