Machine Guns - Forgotten Weapons

Gevarm D4: An Economical MAT-49 Alternative

October 23, 2023 Ian McCollum 8

Gevarm was the gun-making subsidiary of Gevelot, a long-standing French ammunition manufacturer. In 1956 they brought a simple new submachine gun to market. It was chambered for 9mm Parabellum, with a simple blowback action. The […]

Zastava M51: A Compact Yugoslav Prototype SMG

October 18, 2023 Ian McCollum 2

The Zastava M51 is a prototype Yugoslav submachine gun developed before the adoption of the M56. It uses elements of the Beretta M38 (namely the captive recoil spring system) and PPSh-41 (the selector switch and […]

SS77: South Africa Builds a GPMG on the Shoulders of Giants

October 13, 2023 Ian McCollum 14

In the 1970s, South Africa began looking for a domestic-production GMPG to replace its inventory of FN MAG machine guns. The MAG was an excellent weapon, but the ones in South Africa were getting old […]

A Mystery MP-5 in .45ACP…Will it Run?

September 30, 2023 Ian McCollum 22

https://weaponsandwar.tv Join me at History of Weapons and War along with seven other of the best channels for historical and educational firearms content! We are available for desktop viewing as well as on all the […]

Lever-Delayed Prototype SMG: The MAS Mle 1948 Series

September 20, 2023 Ian McCollum 17

When France decided to adopt a new 9x19mm submachine gun after World War Two, all three of the main French arsenals (St Etienne/MAS, Chatellerault/MAC, and Tulle/MAT) developed designs to compete for adoption. Tulle would eventually […]

Pleter M91: Croatia’s High Quality STUzi

August 28, 2023 Ian McCollum 9

The Pleter M91 is a simple design, but a high-quality one that was manufactured by a proper factory production line. The company making it was planning on (hoping for?) large-scale production, and they invested to […]

AMELI: Spain’s Not-Mini-MG42 in 5.56mm

August 26, 2023 Ian McCollum 25

The AMELI (which is a contraction of “ametralladora ligera”, or light machine gun) was introduced by CETME in 1981, and adopted by the Spanish military as the MG82. It was a counterpart LMG to the […]

Story of the Alar: A Simple Student-Made SMG

August 14, 2023 Ian McCollum 5

The Alar is an interesting very rare Croatian domestic SMG. It is called the “Alar” after it’s designer, Stipe Alar. He first came up with the design in 1971 and built one illegally – which […]

MAC/Skorpion Hybrid at the Range: the Alka M93

August 5, 2023 Ian McCollum 2

The Alka M93 was a very simple SMG made by IM Metall (which later became HS Produkt) during the Croatian Homeland War. It is essentially a MAC M11A1 with a long barrel and a vz61 […]

Spectre SMG at the Range

July 29, 2023 Ian McCollum 18

The SITES Spectre was imported into the US primarily as a semiautomatic pistol – but it was really designed to be an SMG. It has an interesting closed-bolt fire control system, and in SMG for […]