www.MG42.us

I just received my TNW MG34 and am ready to go to the range. Any advice from other owners
on shooting one of these for the first time ? Things to look out for etc ??

Thanks

Roger from Iowa

When you chamber the first round, don't strip a round off of the belt. Take a single round, load it into the chamber, let the bolt go forward, and then insert the belt. My 34 always had trouble chambering the first round when using the belt. Belo told me this was common and to manually load the first round and then insert the belt. This works on the semi 34 because it operates from a closed bolt.

Bossman,

Since you have a new MG34, I highly recommend that you contact John Baum at http://www.germanmanuals.com and get a copy of his translations of the original Butz Manual and others that deal with the MG34. Although yours is SA, most of the information is very relevent. These manuals will answer a LOT of the questions you may have. The price is very good for the information you get and will help show all operation, maintenance, etc.

Contact John and he can help determine wich manual/s that will be the best for you.

Thanks for the responses, guys. I wasn't aware of the loading technique, I do have
all the pertinent manuals from John Baum on the MG 34.

I'm going to be using Romanian 8mm, how far do I need to detail strip to adequately
clean for the corrosive ammo ? Also, what is a good lube for relubing after cleaning ?

Thanks again,

Roger

I have been next on the tnw list for about 2 mouths, so when did you " just received " you TNW MG34?

Bossman wrote:Thanks for the responses, guys. I wasn't aware of the loading technique, I do have
all the pertinent manuals from John Baum on the MG 34.

I'm going to be using Romanian 8mm, how far do I need to detail strip to adequately
clean for the corrosive ammo ? Also, what is a good lube for relubing after cleaning ?

Thanks again,

Roger

I have never had to load mine that way. So I am curious as to what may be the difference that makes anyone have to load one by hand first.
The Romanian 8mm shoots great in mine.
Use the lube that TNW recommends.

Make up a batch of Ed's Red (link - http://www.kuci.uci.edu/~dany/firearms/eds_red.html). Make up a Few PVC containers out of 2-3" PVC pipe. You can skip the lanolin. In any case this stuff works great for eating up baked on carbon. Just throw the booster/front end parts in the container and let them soak over night. Also this stuff neutralizes the corrosive ammo. You'll be getting corrosive residue on EVERYTHING so having a cleaner and netralizer that's cheap lets you use plenty and keeps your gun nice. I very much prefer the Ed's Red to using the windex with ammonia to zap the corrosive residue (I think it works better, plus it cleans as well). It wont remove copper so you'll still end up cleaning/scrubing copper out of the barrel. It also wont screw anything up like leaving water based windex on your gun will (it causes rust to). Dont get Ed's on anything painted (KG/duracoat tolerates it fine) as it will eat the paint.

Polish the front of the sear - if youre skilled enough not to change the angles. Then lube the sear face and the concaved washer (you'll see it on your FP where the sear engages to cock the FP back) with some moly grease. This will save you a sore finger if your trigger is real heavy.

Have fun!

Do you soak the barrell in the pvc container as well ?

Thanks

I have if Im planning on shooting it again soon or dont have time to really clean well. I do wipe it down before reinstalling it and run a patch down the bore before shooting it. I have several PVC tubes that I use for several different things. I keep filled until the Ed's gets nasty looking then I replace it. Best use so far is taking suppressors Ive shot with water based media and not having to worry about corrosion - just plop the can in after shooting. In a day of so, take it out, shake the gunk out and, blow the rest out with some compressed air - DONE! Put it away until next time.