Machine Guns - Forgotten Weapons

Mini-Ero: The Croatian Hybrid Small Uzi

October 5, 2024 Ian McCollum 16

After producing the Ero, a nearly exact copy of the Israeli Uzi, the Croatia firm Arma started making some design changes. With the Mini-Ero, they picked a size in between that of the Mini-Uzi and […]

Samostril Netsch: Bizarre Prototype Czech Automatic Rifle

October 2, 2024 Ian McCollum 0

When Czechoslovakia began looking for new small arms in the early 1920s, one of the things they were interested in was a “samostřil” – something akin to the automatic rifle in English. A select-fire weapon […]

Steyr-Solothurn S2-200: the Austrian MG30 and Hungarian 31M

September 23, 2024 Ian McCollum 9

The S2-200 was developed by Louis Stange at the Rheinmetall company in Germany in the late 1920s. Because Germany was not allowed to be doing this sort of arms development at the time, Rheinmetall bought […]

HK21 or Portuguese m/968: The H&K G3 Grows into a Light Machine Gun

September 4, 2024 Ian McCollum 27

When Heckler & Koch produced the iconic G3 rifle, it was intended to be a parts of a complete small arms package. The G3 was the infantry rifle, and it was paired with the MP% […]

History of SAW Use in the US Army

July 26, 2024 Ian McCollum 37

THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO WIN! https://go.getenteredtowin.com/forgottenweapons DEADLINE to ENTER is TONIGHT 07/26/24 @ 11:59pm (PST). The first squad automatic weapon used by the US Army was the French Mle 1915 Chauchat, which was […]

PAM-2: Argentina’s Improved 9mm Grease Gun

June 24, 2024 Ian McCollum 8

The Argentine factory FMAP-DGFM was first set up to produce a copy of the Colt 1911, and in 1954 they began production of the PAM-1 (after demonstration of the first prototype in 1950). The PAM-1 […]

Sten Mk5: The Cadillac of the Sten Family

June 17, 2024 Ian McCollum 24

The Sten Mk5 (sometimes written Sten MkV) was really the Cadillac of the Sten series. It was designed in 1943, and featured a full wooden buttstock patterned after the No4 Enfield rifle, as well as […]

Kord: Russia’s New .50 Cal Heavy Machine Gun

June 10, 2024 Ian McCollum 23

The Kord was developed to replace the Soviet NSV heavy machine gun. The NSV was developed in 1969 to replace the DShK, and it was a pretty good gun – but it was manufactured in […]

Sten MkIII: A Children’s Toy Company Makes SMGs

June 5, 2024 Ian McCollum 12

Lines Brothers was a company in the UK that made sheet metal childrens’ toys prior to the war. When production of the Sten guns began, Lines Bros was a parts subcontractor. Their engineers analyzed the […]

Romania’s AK-Based SMG: the LP7

June 1, 2024 Ian McCollum 2

Full cut with shooting segment in History of Weapons & War: https://forgottenweapons.vhx.tv/videos/lp7-smg-4k In the mid 1990s, UMC Cugir began looking at ways to adapt its AKM production tooling to make a 9mm submachine gun. What […]