www.MG42.us

Can m1919 Browning cloth belts be used in the MG08? Any preferences on position in the belt?

Thanks..

They work fine in my MG08.

they will not run in either of mine. I was told it was because my lower feed pawls on both guns are german originals and not rebuilt. I think the browning belts run in the guns that have had the lower feed pawls rebuilt. Especially those that were rebuilt out of spec (either on purpose to run browning belts or unintentionally because the rebuilder didnt know the correct angle to weld the arm back on to the shaft). I dont know anyone personally who has had good luck with the browning belts, but im sure some folks have been able to make it work. Im somewhat anal when it comes to my mg's running. I consider a gun not running satisfactory if it has a single stoppage in a 250 rd belt. My 54r converted 08 had 3 stoppages in 2500 rounds at knob creek. One case seperation and the extractor hung on a fat rim in two other instances. I dont like that. Some folks dont mind cranking the gun "gatlin style" every three or four rounds and consider that running. Others consider a gun running if it can go 50 rounds between stoppages. I hold my equipment to pretty high standards so make sure what you are looking for in terms of reliability. Good luck.

Thanks for the info.

So in regards to usage , is the brass tabbed Vickers belt a better option? What about the standard Vickers belt that does not have the brass tabs?

What are people using to load the Vickers belts?

Again , thanks for any info..

The brass tabed Vickers belts work great, but are almost as hard to find as the MG08 Belts. The WWII Vickers belts work well, but you have to make sure the rounds are pushed forward enough so the rolled edge doesn't bind. To load my Vickers belts, I use my 1918 Browning loader, and just load them in one at a time. You should look at the aluminum belts IMA has. they are easy to load, work well, and are pretty inexpensive. The down side is they are brittle, and each belt seems to come with at least one or two busted links.

Try the Browning belt and see if it works.

bbigbore ....

Could you give me some info on loading the Vickers belts with the 1919 loader? Are you refering to the non tabbed belts, or will it load the tabbed belts also?

What do you mean by "loading them one at a time"

I know of a 1919 Belt loader that i can get my hands on, but presumed it could only load the Browning belts.

Any info is appreciated. thanks..

literally , one at a time. place a cartridge into the belt by hand. Set the belt.cartridge on tho the loader, then hold the top bar down on the belt while you use the crank to push the cartridge the rest of ht way into the belt....

With my particular guns, I use brass tabbed vickers belts when shooting 8mm and pkm belts when shooting 54r. I load the brass tabbed belts with an original german loader and the pk belts with the russian pk loader. I have never found a satisfactory way to load the tabless vickers belts. I have a bunch of 303 on those belts and when I shoot it I just give the belts to the spectators at the shoots. I believe someone on the 1919 board was making a loader to load these belts. I never had much luck keeping them loaded. They stretch really bad and I had rounds fall out while shooting the gun, or even handling the belts. As I said in an earlier post others probably have had good luck and I am just speaking from my experience.
I personally do not consider any belt without a loading device an option. I dont even like the modified plateloaders for the tabbed belts. They just take to long in my opinion. I will use a plate loader with links on my .50's but the only option for those guns. Everything else I use has a hopper and handles of some sort.