Introductions (or one way to increase your post count).

[vulcan762]

Picked up a Bren MKII kit and after cleaning it up and putting it together as a static display got really excited to build it into a semi-auto.

For the love of GOD..FINALLY. My tenth post.

I do have a suggestion for the board. Offer some less painful color combos for the forums. This teal and black is REALLY hard for me to read. White or yellow background is much easier on the eyes.

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

If we make this thread interesting enough, maybe the Admin will make it a sticky...

[xtal01]

Ok, now I can show how dumb I am ...

What is a sticky???

Thanks .... Mike

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

It appears that this message already is a sticky. (A message that is suck at the top of the list for frequent reading by all).

[Sledge303]

I am located in Colorado Springs, having retired here from the Army. We set up at the larger Gun Shows in this state, so maybe you might see our tables set up once every month or so. I have been collecting bayonets and various military firearms since High School. I only recently became interested in the "parts sets" craze and belt feds in particular through my association with a local shop. I am the guy who helps out grading and sorting the inventory. I also do the "detective" work to figure out just what some stuff is!
This is how I ended up with my MG34 parts set. I was sorting/checking/grading/noting markings (customer paid the $25 hand pick fee) and this one particular MG34 just called out to me. I had it on my mind all that night and so the next day I called the Boss and asked him if that particular set could be mine.
Since that day this has happened a few more times!
Now to figure out what I can part with to cover the cost of having TNW build that set into a rifle.

[Lone Star]

Welcome to the blog! Everybody has to start somewhere, sometime. Who knows , you may have an insight to a build problem that helps everyone.

[Lone Star]

For myself, I've built FN/Fals , H&K91, M1 Garands and M1 Carbines from kits and have a m53 kit and M3 50cal on order. These MG42 projects will take some careful work to get the SA trigger group and bolt work done, but a it's a challenge that will be rewarded if we do it right. My custom VZ-24 .243 was my first custom rifle but shoots 3 factory Hornady 58gr Vmax into 1/4 " at 100 yards.

[Lone Star]

I was stationed in Alaska fron '72 thru '75 at Elmendorf AFB. Great people, hunting and fishing. The winters did seem to last forever, but we puts skis on a buddy's Cessna 170 and went Caribou hunting in -15 degree wx. I still love to go back and try for a world class caribou and moose. In 1999, I took five friends up to Dillingham but was hindered by a recently reattached Achilles tendon. With the cast on, I could not wear a boot or wader. Dug out my old mukluks (a high lace-up soft boot) and was almost good to go. Still couldn't walk well with a cast in a mukluk in a brace so I packed my LAR grizzly single shot 50 BMG. I figured anything within 800 yards on camp would be fair game. On the second day, I spotted something moving about 500 yards east of camp at the edge of the lake we had landed on. My Steiners it to be a brown bear - a big one. I yelled to my buddies walking 100 yards awayfrom camp to alert them, since they had not seen it. The bear heard the long distance conversation and stood up . 11 Ft tall , approx 1,500 lbs. The bear was joined by another bear who had been feeding on a duck in the lake. Both bears started running northwest around the lake. Now , I'm starting to get nervous. I got my hunters to get to me, lock and load, safeties off, bipods down, earplugs in. They are shooting 300 Win and 300 Wby mags, great for Caribou but light for a brown bear charge. I'm shooting 750 gr soft points made on my Corbin Hydro press. (14,000 ft /lbs KE at the muzzle) The problems are : 1. We are non-resident caribou hunters and can't hunt bears without a guide and bear tags. 2. It's not bear season. 3. There are 2 BIG brown running at us and I'm the only guy who here who has hunted bear. (cont next post .....)

[Lone Star]

Bear adventure , continued ...
Unfortunately for the bears, I have shot the Fifty a lot. My best long range work is three shots in 3/4 " at 600 yards.( 1998 , NRA Whittington Center , Raton NM with a witness) If necessary, I'll put the soft point in the big boys lower jaw and take out several feet of spine. It is not bear season but it damn sure is not people season ! The bears jumped back in the lake and swam across a 75 yard wide cove separating us, giving us a few more seconds to prepare. I unloaded my hunting round and replaced it with a military tracer. Like American Express, don't leave home without it ! I told my buds, "I'll trace the bears at 200 yards, if they keep coming, we're gonna start killing bears at 100. I'm not going to have them in close". ( These bears were hungry ! La Nina weather patterns and disrupted the caribou migration considerably and the salmon spawning was long past. It was almost October and it had not started to snow. ) My plan was to bounce a tracer over the bear's heads and send them packing. Time for a little math ! I'm sighted in at 600 yards for Caribou. That puts the bullet 18" high at 100 yds 24" high at 200, 300, 400 and 21" high at 500 yards. We have a 35 Kt right cross in light rain. Using my bionic TLAR computer (That looks about right !) I came up with 4 feet low and 5 feet right to bounce the unstable tracer round near enough to scare the bears. (cont next post....)

[Lone Star]

Both bears climbed out of the lake and shook of the cold water like two giant retrievers. Silver spray erupted in an arc almost 30 ft across over each bear. "Range !" I called to Jim on my left. "336 " he replied, still looking thru the laser rangefinder. "Do you have you ear plugs in " I yelled at Rick and Gary laying prone to my right. No response. Both guys were watching through their rifle scopes as the bears raced towards us. A rapid look sideways gave me the info I needed. (The big fifty's muzzle breaks do a great job in taming the comsiderable recoil, but at a price. I compare the noise to that of a 105 Howitzter. One shot without proper ear protection will permanently part of your hearing and probably give you tinnitus (ringing in your ears ) forever. I've broken my windshield from shooting off the hood of my truck and blown holes in tarps used for gound cover. ) " Range ! " iI commanded one more time. "217 " came the reply. Both bears we closing fast and filled the upper left quadrant of my 3.5x10x50 MM Leupold Tactical scope. With my bipod dug into the tundra, the rifle barely moved at the shot. The bears continued moving left to right in my scope as the tracer lit. Thirty five knots of wind grabbed the two inch long projectile, pushing it faster and faster to the left. Time was moving curiously slowly as the tracer edged toward the tundra in line with the smaller of the two bruins. Upon contact with the ground, it flipped end over end and continued toward the face of the 1,000 lb bear. Oh, No ! I didn't mean to hit the bear ! Optics play tricks on your depth perception . The bullet continued climbing as it cleared the bears, it's red phosporous glow looking like a Star Wars laser shot that missed. Never seeing Star Wars before, younger brother bear spun once , twice .three times before composing himself to get out of Dodge. Eastbound and down , don't get in his way. Big brother bear was not inpressed and kept coming. (cont next post...)

[Lone Star]

If you ever had the opportunity to crawl under line machine gun fire M-60, AK- 47 M-16 and the like, you'll know that the bullet passes by you at a supersonic speed and has a cracking sound very similar to the sound a bull whip makes when it is snapped with purpose. (we are not talking about the sound the gun makes, just the bullet) The 50 BMG is not like that. The projectile is so much larger that the resulting overpressure created from the shock wave is not only visible with binoculars but is painful to living organisms nearby. At the NRA Center in Raton NM, folks working the target pits at 1,000 yards from the firing line have to wear ear protection from the sound of the bullets! Seriously ! The bullets passing thru the target six to eight feet above your head sound like someone racked back a short barreled 1911 , placed it near your head and pulled the trigger. Almost three seconds later you hear the report of the rifle rumbling across the range and echoing off the Rocky Mountain behind the berm. What does that have to do with bears ? Read on..

Big brother bear (B3) decide to flank us to the north. His charge had stopped and he was crabbing around to his right without taking his eyes off us. Not a good sign! I extracted my fired tracer and loaded another, with several soft points at the ready. " Range ! " " 186 " was all I need to know . B3 was now now almost directly down wind and my rifle was sighted to be approximately 24" at that range. His head looked as big as a washing mashine and his fierce brown eyes the size of tennis balls as I placed the cross hairs on his forehead. "Big Boy, you need a little attitude adjustment ! " I thoght as I squeezed the trigger. Good light, good line on target I thought as the half inch slug bore down on him. As planned, the molten red ray of death passed right between his ears and cleared his lucky hide by six inches. You could see him visibly wince as the MACH 2.3 shock wave assaulted his ears. His knees buckled, his big eyes slammed shut and his lips curled up in a snarl. Don't think he had ever been hurt like that before ! He was still running when he cleared the horrizon about 5 miles away. And he never came back to visit. So when anybody tells you there isn't a reason to own a 50 cal., you can tell em they're great target and hunting rifles and they also are great bear repelllant !

[xtal01]

HI!!!

Wow, someone actually read my entire post!

Great to hear from everyone. I won't make fun fo Alaska .... being from the North, I've heard all the joke .... althought I understand people making fun off thinkgs I did in the past ... snow mobiling (wind chill of -70), scuba diving under the ice, water skiing on Christmas day (had to chip the ice off the boad and around the dock .. center of the channel was still clear of ice)...

I now live in Lexington SC ... about a 1/2 hour from Columbia.

Dan said I need to get a book "Colletor Grade" (I have there books on the sten and bren) about the MG34/42. I was getting my info from several books I have ( the most accurate being a "Modern Machine-Guns" by Greenhill).

Dan said I was correct. His kit will build an MG2 (MG42 pre-45 converted to 308 in the 50's).

Off topic ...

I have a great (funny) story about shooting and my handicapped wife.

See next post ...

[Karbinator]

Drool is right about that huge $80 book German universal Machine Guns...though a great read for any hardcore
collector. You will be able to rant for hours on end about all the goings ons during ww2 with the mg34/42, but be forewarned
that the book leans more towards the 34 in detail. I bought this book first.
Jbaum has field manuals, just what the soldiers used for post war application, and translated
them into english.

Anyways, welcome to the board, and I hope you enjoy your venture

[xtal01]

Here is a picture of a "dummy" gun I made last year and have hanging on my wall.

It is a Soumi 31. I welded the receiver back together (it was a mess) and then welded the barrel closed and welded it into the receiver.

Looks sharp (for about $100 invested). I have one more of these kits put away. Figure one day I may take a crack at designing a closed bolt system for it.

Mike

[Lone Star]

Nice job, xta101

[IMBLITZVT]

Very nice job! What is the sense of having this thread if you delete posts from it?

[drooling idiot]

i think you've confused this thread with
http://www.panzer46.net/mg42board/viewtopic.php?t=1574
which had alot of posts deleted .

[IndianaFarmer]

Hi,
I have been thinking about getting a mg-42 for awhile, but I want so much !!

[IndianaFarmer]

I thought I already had 5 posts and restarted with 1.

[IndianaFarmer]

I wonder what happened.