GunLab (KnownHost) » MG-42

Using the MG-51 belt loader for the MG-34

Chuck — Tue, 07 May 2019 14:00:46 +0000

I have a number of belt loaders and one that I picked up a number of years ago is the MG-51 belt loader. This is a Swiss belt loader originally design for the Swiss Maxim gun. Later they were converted from the cloth belt to a metal belt for the MG-51.

In this case the loader has been converted to 8×57 and uses the MG-34/42 belt.

This is the box holding the loader.

As packed in the box.

A couple of views of the loader.

This is the video of me loading up a belt of 8×57 for the MG-34 and MG-42.

Fun at the machine gun shoot

Chuck — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 13:02:23 +0000

This last weekend was our semi annual when we get around to it kind of twice a year maybe only once a year machine gun shoot. It is nothing great or grand. There are no fees, no explosives, no sales tables, no flying targets and no spectators. Just a boring time of a bunch of guys that enjoy shooting machine guns, cannons and mortars having fun. We have had up to a couple of hundred people show up and as little as only 10. This was a nice get together of about 40 or so people with about 400 or so different types of weapons. It was a time to relax. The guys next to me had a very nice mini gun as well as an assortment of other machine guns. There were MG-42,MG-34, Vickers in both 8×57 and 7.62x54r, M-2 , Maxims, a couple of Hotchkiss guns and a pile of 1919 and 1917 Brownings. A very nice cross sections of machineguns.My wife and I did a number of videos generally in slow motion, it just looks cool and it also allowed me to study the operation a little more closely. I got to work on a couple of Brownings and get them up and running as well as a Vickers. I had a great time. What could be better then working on and shooting machine guns. Here is a quick video of some of the fun had.

There is more to come on the shoot. A couple of interesting items coming up is a 8mm Vickers using MG-34/42 belts, the Hotchkiss portative, and an MG-34 that was said to work in 308.

Just as a side note I now have the updated version 19 ultimate version of pinnacle studio. I am trying to improve my videos and using some of the more complex extras. Hoping to get better at this.

Gun show report part 2

Chuck — Sat, 05 Dec 2015 14:07:44 +0000

The second day of the show is over and here is another update report. There were a lot of great guns to buy so I bought stuff instead.

As I walked around I came across a guy selling French 32acp magazines, now I really don’t need an French 32acp magazine I could not pass on the price. 5.00. I mean where can you buy a 5.00 magazine. So I bought all of them, 50 magazines. They will go great with all the other magazines I have and don’t have a use for. The only bright spot with this deal is that they look a lot like Spanish pistol magazines and those I can use.

The next useless items I bought was pile of Chinese type 68 rifle parts. No one has a type 68 Chinese rifle, but I have the market cornered.

I also picked up a FN MAG tripod. That will be used for a mounting set up for the Hotchkiss.

Other then the useless parts and magazines the real find at the show for me was the books. This set is currently being brought in, however only 20 sets are being brought in. It is a 3 volume set, 4000 pages, on the AK and all it variations.

Here are a couple of pictures of what is in the book.

The set of books is not cheap by any means, but it is worth the money. The price for the set is 295.00 delivered.

I also picked up a 22lr trainer that is cute. It is Bulgarian.

And a couple of feed strips for the Hotchkiss.

If anyone has some of these they want to get rid of cheap let me know as I need 20 or so of them.

The last item I picked up was an inexpensive MG-42 gunners kit.

It has been a good show so far.

MG-42/ MG-3 cut away

Chuck — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 08:00:08 +0000

It has been a while since I put up an interesting cut away weapon. Today we are going to bring you a cut away of the MG-42/MG-3 general purpose machine gun.

First a parts diagram of the MG42/MG3.

This is a factory cut away