GunLab

Italian AZ-49 submachine gun

I was going through some of the pictures that I have taken in the past and found these. This sub machine gun was made by S.A.M.T. of Rome. It is reported to have been design by Toni and Zorzoli Giandoso in 1944. Never being produced in quantity, approximately 6000 were made, it is none the less an interesting combination of Sten, M-3 grease gun and Beretta.

You can see the grip safety that was used on the magazine housing.

A close up of the back end with it’s Sten like housing.

As see with the stock folded.

The tooling was sold at the end of the war to Burma and made there.

Japax wire EDM update

Work around Gun Lab actually is accomplished, in this case the Japax wire EDM. I spent some time on Saturday changing out bad push buttons on the control circuit board. There were three bad switches and we had received the replacements during the SAR gun show so this was my first day that I had to complete the task. Once the control board was re-installed it was time to test the EDM.

Here is the video of it wire operation test run.

This photo shows the wire running through the machine. I still need to order s few small parts so I can close up the whole thing and get on to the next step. Running the water system and powering up the cutting circuit.

The fun that was involved in threading that wire through all those small holes was way to much fun. I am so looking forward to cutting out inside pockets.

Thanks again to Brett at McWilliams sales and service for there assistance. You can find them here: http://www.mcwilliamsedm.com/index.html

Need help identifying part

I picked this extractor up in some parts and need some help identifying it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Stoner light machine gun

I had the opportunity to examine an m63 Stoner light machine gun top cover and feed tray. This weapon is one of those mystic weapons that everyone wants and can’t afford. I happen to take a number of pictures of it to study at a later date. This is just the photo essay of the top cover and feed tray.

However first a Stoner LMG.

Now for the photo’s

I always take pictures like I am going to make it. In this case I am not but I still like to study every angle of an assembly.

Gun show part 3

To tell you the truth I did not get to the show on Saturday. I was tasked with the kitchen project and it needed to be completed prior to the party Saturday night. So everything was taken out of the kitchen, we finished building the lower cabinets, installed the cabinets and put down the plywood and got about 1/2 way done with the hard back concrete board.

Everything was completed in time for the party. We had approx 40 people show, had a great time and everyone finally left about 11:30. Today it is back to the show for more gun stuff.

Gun show report part 2

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.

Gun Show report

Today was set up day for the dealers so about 1/2 of the show is still not there. Yet their was still a lot of interesting stuff to see and buy. I happen to find a book that I have been looking for.

It is a very interesting book written in both English and German. At 45.00 it is worth the price. If you are interested in a copy you can get it here in country from:

John Baum. Here is a link to his site.

http://www.germanmanuals.com/

Look under the militaria section. While you are there check out all the great stuff John has.

Fun at the shoot on Wednesday

I took the day off to test out some stuff that we made or repaired and just waste some ammo. Here is a quick montage of the shoot.

I have a couple of pictures of some of the guns as well.

An RP-46

A very nice 8mm Lebel Hotchkiss

These two rifles are just gorgeous.

SAR gun show and machine gun shoot.

The next few days are going to be very, very busy. We will have 12 people staying at the house and guest house. The trips to and from the airport. Time will be spent getting ready for the machine gun shoot and show. Then there is the party Saturday night. Then the days spent at the show. I will have my camera with me if anything exciting come along, but no much posting as time we be real tight. If you are coming to the SAR show drop by MG-34’s table in the SAR building and say hi. I will be back posting on Monday with any luck.

Answers to the post of 11-29

The first question that would needed to be answered is what do all these parts have in common. That answer would be up coming projects at Gun Lab.

The Cetme, H&K, 05 , G-41 G-43 and 03 pictures is for the 05 project we are working on. The fire control group is changing to be a copy of the 03 rifle. The safety will be going back to a G-41/G-43/03 type. The magazine will be more in line with The G-43 /03 type. There is a great deal of design work that needs to go on to make the rifle.

The AR-10 bolt is for the AR-16 rifle that is next on the list of rifles that we will be building.

I like single shot rifles and with a friend on mine (Orin) we are working on making usable drawings of a number of them.

I have a Scottie rifle that someone sporterized the stock. Ian from forgotten weapons let me borrow his parts so I could make the correct ones for my rifle.

The destroyer and AR-70 parts are for my rifles and needed to be repaired and measured.

Last but not least is the EM-2 bolt which is being reversed engineered to try and correct a few problems with the rifle design.

On to the pictures.