Hey guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and courtesy of Morphy's we are out here today with
a German Erma EMP at the range to actually do some shooting.
Now these were available in a couple of different calibres, this one is in 9mm Parabellum.
If you didn't see yesterday's video comparing and contrasting this to the Spanish MP41/44 version,
I would recommend that you check that out because the guns are often confused.
And, well, this is an actual German one.
So I've got myself what is, I believe, a 20 round magazine here.
We're going to go ahead and fire that off, and see what it's like.
Note that this magazine has a spacer in the back,
because the magazine well is long enough to accommodate 9mm Steyr.
Alright, distinctive for its funky vertical wooden front grip.
Alright. See what it is.
Whoo! That's nice, that's a relatively high rate of fire.
Oh. No I'm out. No, I have a little malfunction.
Huh. Interesting. So I actually had (I don't know if you can see that),
I had an empty case stick itself on...
It popped back and actually was held on the ejector.
That's a neat and unusual malfunction.
But, as I was saying, this is a relatively high rate of fire but very controllable.
Now.
Alright, so that's the end of that magazine.
There is an interesting thing that I want to test.
And this goes back to the Spanish versions of the Erma.
They were all made in 9mm Largo because that was the popular common calibre in Spain.
So these magazines do not have a spacer in them,
they'll still fit the magazine well because it was designed to be universal.
I'm curious if we can run a Spanish magazine in the Erma,
because the Spanish mags are a lot more readily available, because a lot of them came into the country.
Well that's not a good start.
That's slightly better, but still not a good start.
Alright, we are going to give this one more try.
Alright, well that pretty well answers that question I think.
... The Spanish magazine does not want to run with the Erma.
Alright, so I think the issue here is the feed lips are in fact different.
This is our actual 9mm Parabellum magazine, you can see the spacer in it.
And this is our Spanish 9 Largo magazine, you can see the feed lips are a little bit different.
So the ... first malfunction I had was I pushed this magazine in a little too far,
because the cartridge stops aren't at exactly the same place,
and so the back of the bolt hit the magazine.
... I fixed that by pulling it back out a little bit.
And then at that point I started having issues of the round would be pushed forward,
but it would ram into the back of the barrel face
and compress the bullet into the case.
And that I'm sure is because of the difference in feed lips.
The round needs to be free to come up and into the chamber, and they weren't.
So that's unfortunate, I actually really thought that these were going to work
because they fit perfectly in the gun, ... well, there's your lesson.
So I'm going to go reload this one so we can do some more shooting.
I'm kind of bummed, ... I really thought that the Spanish mags would work.
But there is, fortunately, one sure-fire cure for being bummed out at the range,
and that is to do some more shooting.
So I have reloaded my one good German magazine here.
Which, by the way, does also fit the magazine well a lot more nicely.
Let's do some more.
That's a nice, good gun to shoot. The vertical front grip
actually does help keep it a little more controllable than trying to
hold onto a horizontal grip. I kind of like that.
I like pistol grips in the back too, but that just wasn't the style in the '20s and '30s, not till the late '30s.
It is interesting to note on this gun that we have both a safety notch on the receiver
and we also have the German police bolt safety,
which allows me to lock the bolt in the forward position.
Not that here on the range I have much call to do that,
but it would be the safer way to actually carry this if you were a policeman issued with it.
You'd have a loaded magazine, bolt closed, with the safety on to ensure that the bolt can't bounce open.
And then when you wanted to fire, you would disengage the safety and rack the bolt open.
The alternative, keeping the thing locked open back here,
means that the ... ejection port is open to gunk, mud, whatever, getting into the gun.
Some submachine guns just kind of have a lazy feel to them.
A lot of .45s, because they have a lower rate of fire.
The MP18,I just kind of has this relaxed, lazy chug-chug-chug sort of cadence to it.
This feels a little bit more urgent.
It's a fun gun to shoot.
The Erma is one of a handful, actually a fairly large handful, of inter-war German
submachine gun designs from the late '20s to the early and mid-1930s that
I think a lot of people don't recognise, a lot of people don't pay attention to,
and a lot of people certainly don't fully appreciate.
These guns are all really nicely manufactured, they all come before the advent of
the ... real economisations of cheap, stamped steel construction.
So, if you're looking for a cool submachine gun, there's some really neat options from inter-war Germany.
A big thanks to Morphy's again,
for giving me the chance to bring this particular one out here to the range to show you.
I don't know exactly where it's hitting, ... I haven't tried zeroing it.
But we're going to see if I can get any of those bowling pins with a single continuous burst.
Thanks for watching.
Not a one, but it was still fun to do.
Alright. No, no, we cannot end it on that note. Did you hear how that ammo sounded?
That brr-BRR-brr-brr-BRR-brr.
That is the sound of craptacular ammunition in a full-auto firearm.
When the powder charges are inconsistent, or the ignition is inconsistent,
... you can actually hear the change in muzzle velocity
because it impacts the cyclic rate of the gun.
And that's when you get this cyclic rate that kind of porpoises around.
So, if I can't show you something cool about Largo magazines working in this gun,
I can at least show you a cool example of the difference in audio signature
between good ammo and poor.
This is brand new, good production 9mm, they're both 115 grain,
but this should be way more consistent.
I probably still won't hit the bowling pins, but we'll give it a try anyway.
That is how good ammunition is supposed to sound,
a very nice flat, consistent rate of fire.
Now we can close out the video.
Thanks for watching guys.