A near Century of Silence is broken,The MG08/15 Lives again!

[IMBLITZVT]

Well I was up to one o'clock in the morning the night before getting her ready. I finished the cleaning of the dewat welds and cold blued them. Other then a little bit where the steel melted from the original dewat welding, you almost can't tell. I then cleaned and the receiver box and waterjacket. Maybe the dirtiest firearm I have ever owned. I even got a toothpick like piece of wood out the waterajacket. Oiled her up good and reinstalled all her parts except those most likely to break which were replaced with spares. Finally a new armorers barrel and lock (both un-numbered) were installed on the original recoil plates. The headspace gauges I bought had to thick of rims so I had to dremel the rims down to get the lock to accept them. It headspaced perfectly the first time! The next morning, I packed up a truck load of Stuff (18 locks, 4 sets of recoil plates, every small spare part I had...etc) and enough different kinds of 8mm to supply everyone at the range, belt loader, belts... and off we went.

So since I have had so much interest, here is a clip of the first time this gun has fired (likely) since it was fired at the US troops that captured it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG5Yplv2cAM[/video]

[IMBLITZVT]

Lets just say it was awesome!

So a few single rounds were fired. The Fusee spring was pretty tight. So it was time for a two round belt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI1_fQVXS5o

As you can see one fired and then the action stopped. So the fusee spring tension was lightened until it worked. Then we moved onto three rounds until that worked. Then it was time for a four round belt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A0FxdYysjI

As you can see, three fired and the last one jammed. A little more adjustment and we moved to five rounds and then to a 10 round belt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kci6X6ggiFs
The first 9 shot before a jam... little more adjusting... then 10 more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOKJUCzssEw[/video]

[IMBLITZVT]

It worked! Then we moved onto a 15 round belt. That worked too. So then it was time for a 10 round belt on a drum (I was suppose to load 15)!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fTxvpGNsPc[/video]

[IMBLITZVT]

So we took it easy on her on the first date. There was no packing in the barrel or muzzle so the jacket was not filled. So I had to limit my shooting to keep it from getting to hot. I made the deal for this gun in Nov of 2009... so been a long wait and I am not in a hurry. Overall she did real well. I did have a few jams and you could tell she was a bit rusty but thanks to some great German Craftsmanship it looks like she will make for full recovery. I was shooting 2002 olympic 8mm ammo. Soon we will move onto other ammo, including Romanian steel case, 70 and 50 Yugo, portuguese, FN and more. This shooting was done on our pistol range (50 yards). The tables are not ideal for the bipod as it moved a bit and rocked the tables as you can see in the video. Oh and the 50rd belt I was using was a strip of original German Maxim belt. It worked great and made things easy.

So in a little under a month, I think I will take her out with some 250 round belts and really let her run! Oh and I am pretty sure the paint was not German camo. It must have been put on by US troops as the paint quickly came off the few spots where metal to metal contact is made, like on the underside of the cocking handle.

[alpencorps]

Hi Matt,

love to see your old German Lady working....

superb..........

big big congratulations...


alpencorps

[42rocker]

Way to go!! Looked great...

Thanks for sharing.

Later 42rocker

[ritter01]

Looks great. Excellent job.

[www.Prussia.us]

Hey Matt,

You have there one hot fraulein, OUTSTANDING.