www.MG42.us

Ran across mg08 today for an inexpensive price
1) Am I legal to own this?
2) Can anyone tell me more history behind this mg
3) How much can I get in it's current condition
4) Who could help me restore this piece of history and how much would
It cost me to restore
As much as I know: manufactured in 1917, all numbers match

Any more knowledge would help me

Nice looking MG08. As far as "can I own it?"......
-Are you in the USA?
-Is it transferable?
-Is it a Pre-May 1986 dealer sample?
-Are you an SOT? Manufacturer?
-Is it de-milled/welded-up?
-Anything inside it?
-Does it fire/have you fired it?
As to how much it's worth, that depends on all the previous answers.....
Thanks for the pictures....Phil

More information would be great!

It's really nice looking. The most important missing component will be a piece of paper called a "tax stamp". It may or may not have been registered before 1986. If you suspect it was, do your research to track down the paperwork to see if it's transferable. Could just be misplaced. If it was never registered, well, it's a little late for the hacksaw thing now....Phil

It has two side plates, so if one of them isn't a dummy plate, it's either registered on an ATF form, or it's contraband. Lawyers are expensive and you wouldn't like jail, so find out if it's on a Form 4, which means it can own it as a private citizen, if you can pass the record check.

All the parts are available, so that's not a problem. It's the two steel side plates that make it a machinegun.

if its not legal you'll be in deep

but if it is legal then its worth big money in the 20k and up

So are you saying I shouldn't pick this up.
The seller doesn't have paperwork.
How exactly do I obtain the history or paperwork for this
It's such an unique piece of history and I would love to have it
But wouldn't be worth it if I couldn't legally posses it
I attached more pictures so you might be as to gauge what this piece is
I don't know what side plates you guys are referring to so I took pics of the sides
Anyone might know a roundabout going rate for this piece?
Thanks any input would be of help

If the seller does not have the paperwork, then you cannot begin the process of transferring the registration to yourself and legally take possession of it. Papers cannot be newly generated. The paperwork must have been generated and kept on file when the gun was registered. If the gun WAS registered, and the papers were lost, there may be a process of getting duplicates from the BATFE, but I do not know. If there is a means of getting copies of the paperwork, BATFE will probably make it a royal pain to undergo. Usually, if you find that the papers are not with owner the gun, the gun is not legal. There are other MG-08's out there. You have to be careful, because there are some BATFE agents who advertise the sale of illegal guns on websites like this one, hoping to catch the people out there who are smart enough to know the purchase is illegal but dumb enough to attempt to buy an illegal firearm online. It's a game sort of like "To Catch a Predator" but instead it's "To Catch an Idiot". You have to be aware of the laws before you even think of buying guns like this.

Do you see the large steel plates on each side of the gun? Those are the side plates. Two of them legally constitutes a machinegun receiver. Having the two of them without paperwork makes it an illegal machinegun receiver.

With no paperwork to go with the gun, a torch can be used to cut up one side plate, and then it is no longer a machinegun and you can buy it. Even as parts, it's still worth some good money. Find a nearby gunstore and ask if there is a machinegun dealer around. A lot of guys at gunstores aren't fully familiar with laws for machineguns. A machinegun dealer will be able to give you answers to all your questions much more quickly than doing it through messages here.

If there are no papers for the gun, beside cutting up one of the plates and selling it for parts, it can be donated to a government affiliated museum. Other than that, it's not worth the jail time/fines for having anything to do with it.

Such things are found on a regular basis, and there is no way to return the gun to legal status. I wouldn't be surprised if the seller works for ATF and is trying to trap someone... they've been known to do such things before. Really.

The LSP is the "machinegun" on a Maxim, right?

The only way to get this particular gun legally is you can buy everything but that plate, which would have to be removed and destroyed (and until then the gun without papers is illegal) before you have any sort of possession. Then you could replace that plate with a dummy plate or a semi-auto plate. Still a big risk when I've seen papered full autos offered below $10K recently.

Hmm thanks for the advice. If purchased I could
Remove the side plates and how much would the rest sell for

Hi Niao, without offering legal advice, you probably shouldn't attempt to acquire or destroy it at this late date. It may indeed be legal...you don't want to be the guy that took a grinder to a valuable NFA item.
Since you're in TX, why don't you PM Flemgunner in LA on this site. He's an SOT and I'm sure that he's seen this type of thing because it comes up once in awhile. And, if you could purchase it, he can build it for you!...Phil

Niaosaur wrote:Hmm thanks for the advice. If purchased I could
Remove the side plates and how much would the rest sell for

If you purchase it with both sideplates, you are breaking the law by having it-- if it's papered (and we are hoping it is), you haven't gone through the NFA transfer process. If it isn't papered, it's contraband as-is.