MG15 destroying empties.

[pitfighter]

Anyone else find their empties are seriously torn apart?
Ejector seems to be almost flattening rim and claw is wrenching the rim almost off the case?

[JBaum]

Have you cleaned the chamber with a brass bore brush on a drill? A clean chamber is critical with guns that eject before the brass gets a chance to shrink.

[pitfighter]

Bore is clean - all good - just wondered if anyone else had the same result.

[bmg17a1]

What make and vintage ammo are you shooting?

[JBaum]

Bore is clean - all good - just wondered if anyone else had the same result.

The bore is irrelevant to the shell sticking in the chamber. It is the chamber that needs to be brushed clean.

[42rocker]

Some ammo is coated with lacquer and as the weapon heats up it forms a layer inside the chamber. This coating causes cases to stick on the inside of the chamber. Normally does not come off with standard cleaning. Also you normally can't see it and tell that it's there till the cases start sticking.
Some folks as a quick fix in the field is to give it a shot of wd40. A quick fix that normally does not last till you can use some lacquer cleaner and a brass brush on the inside. Happens a lot with mac's and ar-15's.

Good Luck

Later 42rocker

[pitfighter]

Sorry, JBaum - I meant to write that the chamber was spotless when we started - I did read, weigh and appreciate your advice thoughtfully - I just did not read or word my response as carefully -
(PS - thank you for the MG34 & MG42 manuals I bought at SAR - they have been great.)

Thanks to all - will follow advice and post results.


Pit.

[amafrank]

The type of ammo you use and how the gun is set up can make a huge difference. The MG15 ejects pretty violently under normal conditions so some things to check are the booster, ammo and what ejected rounds are being ejected into. My gun shredded cases when set up on the bench because the cases were bouncing back up into the receiver and being hit by the bolt at least one more time. Setting it up on the AA Tripod fixed that issue but still brass is pretty hammered by ejection. Some kinds of ammo are easily damaged and being dragged out of the chamber across the mag feed lips can groove or gouge cases as well as the normal necks and shoulders being dinged and dented. If your internal booster cone has a small dia hole it can increase the boost and make an already hard ejecting gun worse. The internal cup is a wear part and I've seen some home-made units with smaller than normal holes.
In any case pictures of the issue will help a lot more because not knowing what is really happening just makes conjecture and guessing the rule...not much help.


Frank

[pitfighter]

Frank,

Thank you, for confirming what I suspected - it seems pretty consistent now.

Pit.

[pitfighter]

This is a pic of the MG15 shooting blanks this weekend - on a TV shoot.
These are 8mm red tip full-flash from Atlantic Wall.
The ROF is very high (higher than our MG42), and it's really quite a sight to see it shoot.



The stuntman did not particularly like shooting it - in slow motion you can see the spent brass bouncing up from the floor and hitting him between the legs, and actually travelling up and behind him over head height.

Need to find that air cooled shroud.

Pit.