Today we have some video of a British 1918 Farquhar-Hill rifle at the range. This rifle was an early semiauto design that was accepted by the British army too late to see service in World War I, but was used as an observer’s weapon in two-seater British aircraft. It is chambered for .303 British caliber, and feeds from a 19-round drum magazine. For more photos and history of the Farquhar-Hill, check out the Farquhar-Hill page in the Vault. Also, we would like to thank LuckyGunner.com for generously donating the S&B .303 FMJ ammo we used in this video.
Video
Lewis Gun at the Range
We’re back at the range again today, this time with a 1914 Lewis Gun. The Lewis is a fairly distinctive gun, with a its large radiator shroud for air cooling. These guns were used primarily […]
Semiauto Rifles
Farquhar-Hill rifle
The Farquhar-Hill rifle was developed by Colonel Moubray Farquhar and gunsmith Arthur Hill in England, and initially patented in 1908. The original design was a recoil-operated system, but this proved unreliable and was replaced in […]
Commentary
So Many Machine Guns!
Not too long ago, a pretty serious machine gun collector named Richard Wray passed away, and his estate is auctioning off his collection, which includes 80-odd transferable machine guns – nearly all of them very […]
Thanks for the video !
The rifle is a really impressing one !
Slow motion parts in your videos are nice improvement !
Thank you for the video!! It is great to see such a truly forgotten weapon being handled and fired!
Well, that ammo drum isn’t the most briliant design around, even for a Great War vintage weapon, that’s sure!
Was it developed for use in planes, because by then mg’s had long since replaced rifles? as an infantery rifle would a normal magazine have been a big improvement, or was it still to sensitive to dirt?
I like the slow motion parts.
No, it was developed as a semi-auto rifle, before anyone even thought seriously of using guns in aircraft. It’s far from ideal as an aircraft weapon. They used the Mondragon rifle as an aircraft gun too, and that was not better suited than this gun was.
“Farquhar” is pronounced “Farcher”. It is a common Scottish name. The English pronounce it “Farker” which is horribly wrong but closer than the appalling variant used here.
Alternative pronunciations are very, very annoying.
You Brits really ought to start spelling words the way they are pronounced, speaking of annoying things…how the hell is someone supposed to guess that “Farquhar” is pronounced “Farcher”?
That’s funny; I was just reading about this gun not ten minutes ago. Then I started reading about the Marlin M1918, and there was a link on the page to your article on the WWII Marlin quad-mount; after I read that, there was a link on the bottom of the page to “Previous Article: Shooting the British Farquhar-Hill Rifle”. So here I am…