Machine Guns - Forgotten Weapons

Breda 37: Italy’s Forgotten Heavy Machine Gun

November 11, 2023 Ian McCollum 40

The Breda Model 37 was Italy’s standard heavy machine gun (which meant a rifle-caliber gun fired only from a tripod) during World War Two. It was chambered for the 8x59mm cartridge, as Italy used a […]

Madsens in the Favelas: The LMG Still Going Strong With Rio’s Military Police

November 8, 2023 Ian McCollum 2

The Madsen LMG was first introduced in 1902, and it is still in use with police forces in Brazil today. The Madsen was not very popular with major European armies, but it sold extensively in […]

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 26

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 […]