Schwimmfahiger Gelandeng Typ 166

[sapper740]

Finally got to see one of these rare, wee little beasties! Last weekend we had a tactical battle on a large tract of land just outside Brownwood, Texas. There was a SS unit present that a very well kitted out Schwimmvagen which included a full auto MP40 and MP44. Didn't get a chance to talk at length with the owner as I was on my way to an Aid Station after being blown up by a 2cm. Flak 30 when I came upon their encampment!

[sapper740]

Another pic:

[sapper740]

One more:

[cliff]

The MP44 is a lovely weapon to fire. I owned one converted to semi-auto in New Zealand some years back. Hard to believe it is the forerunner to the AK series of weapons all those years ago.

Cheers
Cliff

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

Originally posted by cliff
The MP44 is a lovely weapon to fire. I owned one converted to semi-auto in New Zealand some years back. Hard to believe it is the forerunner to the AK series of weapons all those years ago.

Cheers
Cliff

Funnily enough, I never have. I've fired just about everything else from WW1 and 2, from the Lewis (lots of fun watching the magazine rotate!) through to the the MG-42 (an expensive, nasty piece of work - the Bren is far more civilised). I've fired every submachine gun from the era and believe it or not, I put the Thompson and Canadian-made Sten neck-and-neck. The pain in the arse about the Thompson (no relection on you, Jan! ) is that it's bloody heavy, but then it needs to be... plus, when you're at grunt-level, you have to rise up too high to use it properly. With the Sten, you can make like a snake-in-the-grass when you have to.

You can only imagine how much money I've spent on ammunition in the last 40 years...

[sapper740]

Originally posted by cliff
The MP44 is a lovely weapon to fire. I owned one converted to semi-auto in New Zealand some years back. Hard to believe it is the forerunner to the AK series of weapons all those years ago.

Yes, it is a great weapon and the fore-runner of the modern assault rifle. I'm sure we're all aware of why its called a machine-pistol...another reason Hitler was the Allies' greatest secret weapon!
I'm happy to live in a part of the world where the government has a grown-up, mature attitude towards firearms ownership. As long as you don't have a Felony record and pay the $200.00 transfer tax, any full auto firearm can be yours. They know Alajuwan Washington and his ilk want cheap "9 mills" or illegally converted cheap Chinese knock-offs of AKs so these rare, expensive firearms simply aren't a problem...although they are incredibly expensive!!!

[sapper740]

Originally posted by Geoff Winnington-Ball
You can only imagine how much money I've spent on ammunition in the last 40 years...

Ditto Jefe! That's why I got into reloading when I lived in B.C. I had a pretty substantial firearms collection...about 80 firearms of all types and all were shooters except my Bren Mk1. I had dies for all the cartridges and a reloading press for each of rifle, pistol, and shotgun cartridges. I was the Vice-president of the Port Coquitlam and District Hunting and Fishing club for a time so had unlimited access to all the ranges, even when the local S.W.A.T. teams were practicing. I always got an invite to fire their weapons, mostly MP 5s and Car 15s but best of all I could recover all the once fired brass. I had more .38 Special, 9mm, .40 S.&.W., 10mm, .45 ACP, 5.56, and 7.62 brass than 1 man could reload in a lifetime, although I did take a good stab at it. I warned my neighbours that if my garage ever caught on fire that they run as far and fast as possible as I always had at least 10,000 loaded rounds, 50lbs. of black and smokeless powder and several thousand primers stored there at any one time! Aaahhhh! I love the smell of Nitrocellulose and Lead Styphnate in the morning!
I remember hearing of people in B.C. buying cheap Ishapore 1A1's (FAL knock-offs) for only $169.99 and taking a couple of thousand rounds of 7.62 Nato to a friend's cabin in Canim Lake where they would convert the rifles temporarily to full-auto and then race each other to see who could chop down a Pine tree first. Silly buggers, bet they went through a lot of ammo!

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

Ahh.... black powder.... at one time we had a two-pounder muzzle-loading cannon on a wheeled carriage... loaded it with extra powder, several pounds of .45 cal round balls, lit the fuse and ran like hell. The smoke cleared sometime later, the cannon was some distance away from where it started, trees at the pointy end were somewhat worse for wear and our box of beer was somewhat depleted. The silliness of youth...

BTW, the FAL series of weapons is useless on full-auto. Yes, I know the match-stick trick. The AR-10 was much more fun, albeit expensive. Hated the H&K G-3 in comparison.

[sapper740]

Originally posted by Geoff Winnington-Ball
Ahh.... black powder.... at one time we had a two-pounder muzzle-loading cannon on a wheeled carriage... loaded it with extra powder, several pounds of .45 cal round balls, lit the fuse and ran like hell. The smoke cleared sometime later, the cannon was some distance away from where it started, trees at the pointy end were somewhat worse for wear and our box of beer was somewhat depleted. The silliness of youth...

BTW, the FAL series of weapons is useless on full-auto. Yes, I know the match-stick trick. The AR-10 was much more fun, albeit expensive. Hated the H&K G-3 in comparison.

Those were the days, weren't they! My love of firearms and things that go BOOM started at a very early age. We were always shooting squirrels and Robins with our pellet guns from before I can remember. At the age of twelve we made our own Black powder...if you've ever been to Vancouver you've probably seen the mountain of Sulphur on the North Shore. We'd go down to the docks and help ourselves. Saltpetre could be bought at the local Apothecary shop and we labouriously ground charcoal briquets to powder and Voila! Blackpowder is much more fun than Nintendo, kids today don't know what they're missing!
Two of my reenactor buddies down here also do Civil War...Confederate, of course...and they own two cannons. They are always inviting me along so I've got that on my to-do list. They hold cannon shoots a couple of times during the year. They build a wall out of logs, place a couple of Union uniformed mannequins on it and blast away! Apparently Campbell soup cans filled with concrete work just fine!
I never liked the G3 much either... the fluted chamber is a poor solution to a weak lock-up and it ruins the brass for reloading, which, of course I understand is not a priority in weapons developement.
I took advantage of every opportunity to fire any weapon at hand during my time in the C.F. Got to play with the A.U.G., Tantal, Galil, and the current Japanese assault rifle (the name presently eludes me), as well as the C6, C7, C9, and M2 QCB. When I fired the Japanese rifle (in 7.62 Nato) I was surprised at the lack of recoil...I thought it must have had a very efficient muzzle brake until Taicho explained to me that the Japanese fired 7.62 Lite. The average Japanese soldier couldn't handle the recoil of the full factory load! Don't ask me why they didn't go to the 5.56 cartridge.
I had a great Master-Corporal during my time in the Golan Heights...he was in charge of the Rapid Response Group and loved weapons as much as I did. We had mass quantities of ammunition for our C7's that was going to soon be TX'd and destroyed. He suggested to the CO that we form a Shooting Team and challenge the Poles, Austrians and Japanese to a competition. Of course, this meant time off our regular duties so we could go to the range and practice...a small sacrifice to make when national prestige was on the line! the Polish Battalion took up the challenge and a course of fire was agreed to. Each team would shoot their country's weapon, then we would swap weapons and shoot with the other country's firearm. Total aggregate score would determine the winner. We were allowed to practice with the Tantal so it was off to the range. Three loaded mags each were handed out to familiarize ourselves with the weapon at the firing line and the command to fire was given. Brrraaattt!.....Brrraaattt!.....Brrraaattt! Hey Master-Corporal! I'm out of ammo! Uh, Corporal Heuring, you're supposed to fire single shots only. I was such a full-auto whore! Anyway, we Canadians won, much to the consternation of the Poles as we were a Logistics Battalion while they were elite Mountain troops! Sufficient beers were issued at the Jr. Ranks mess later to assuage any hurt feelings!

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

(1) I remember putting 5,000 rounds of 9mm out at Borden one day. Wore out the sear in a perfectly good Sten, but it was fun. Went through a few thousand rounds of .303BR on another day, Lewis and Bren. Won't even get into the MG 34 and MG 42...

I was in before the C7 came in, but did get to fire an M16A2... thought it was a piece of crap; the AR-10 and FN C1A1 were my favourites. The C2 was awkward but useful, albeit with the same limitations as the BAR.

Call me a glutton for punishment!

(2) IIRC, when SUNRAY MINOR was on his machinegunner's course, he was given a pallet of ammunition and told not to bring any of it back at the end of the day. My kind of order! Blowing stuff up and shooting machineguns is about the most you can have with your clothes on...