[ Savage M1918 Aircraft Lewis at the Range ]
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and courtesy of Morphy's we're out at the range today
with a US Model of 1918 aircraft Lewis gun.
And what is perhaps even rarer than the gun is this tripod adapter.
So this is set up on a standard Vickers tripod,
and you can see that I've got this mounted backwards.
Normally the gun points this direction.
Well, the adapter here is pinned in front and back,
just like you would normally set a Vickers gun.
And then it's got a single swivel mount
that allows like full spherical rotation of the gun.
And a collar here on what would have been the base of the barrel jacket of the gun.
And this is specifically cut for an aircraft gun that doesn't have a barrel shroud,
so this adapter actually will not fit a ground gun.
And that makes it really, really scarce.
Now, the gun itself we looked at yesterday, so if you're interested in the details of
when these were made, why, etc. etc.
and an up-close look at the gun, check out yesterday's video.
Today we're going to do some shooting with it.
So, one caveat first is that I basically can't aim this thing
because it's got what is really a very cool front sight.
It is a wind vane front sight.
We talked about this yesterday, but the idea is as you're in an airplane,
depending on what direction you point and the slipstream,
this will move your front sight post to account for wind impact on the bullets.
However, if I'm not at 5,000 feet in a 70 mile an hour, 100 mile an hour slipstream,
that just points straight up, which means the gun shoots incredibly low, so
not going to be doing any target shooting with this today.
Ammunition-wise it is of course in .30-06, so we've got a 97 round aircraft drum.
They of course used double-height drums so that they didn't have to reload as much.
Because the last thing you want to do when you're in an air-to-air dogfight
is have to reach up and deal with reloading the gun, so.
This should run a bit faster than a typical Lewis gun.
They added that muzzle brake to the 1918 guns, and retrofitted it to early ones,
to boost the rate of fire to something like 800 or 850 rounds per minute.
And it does that, and it also makes some nasty concussion.
So I'm going to squeeze these guys in a little further here.
Alright, you want to see what it's like? Let's give it a go.
As you might expect, there's basically no recoil
because it's mounted on the tripod.
And the tripod absorbs the recoil of a .303 very, very nicely.
It's pretty fun. I can totally picture guys up in de Havilland DH.4s on Scarff rings
da-da-da-da away at German fighters.
Alright, I'm not going to hit anything, I'm going to hit everything.
And I think you'll be able to see bullets
splashing around the backstop, which is kind of cool.
Alright, I don't know if it'll show up on camera or not,
but I can see some mirage coming off that barrel already.
It of course doesn't have the cooling jacket
that a regular Lewis would to force air over the barrel
because, naturally, this would be used up at high altitude, well, ... at altitude let's say,
where it's pretty darn cold and the aircraft are going pretty fast.
And just that thing flying through the air
gives it plenty of cooling capacity when it was in actual aircraft use.
Here as a recreational ground gun, you do need to be a little careful not to overdo it,
especially when you've got 97 round drums at your disposal.
Alright, so here's the mount itself, or the adapter.
Locks into the standard Vickers tripod mounting points.
Doesn't look like all that much, this does not rotate.
The whole mount will of course, but this ... socket lets you move the gun freely.
And then the way this comes on and off, we have a screw here.
Note that this ring is actually cut back
so there's just enough space for the rear aircraft sight there.
If we unscrew this, it comes out.
And then this lifts up
and there we go. ... Well, the gun comes out.
So the gun itself, where you would normally have a water jacket mounted,
we've got this ring ... lip there.
That fits into that groove like so.
I don't know exactly what it is, but there is definitely something to this gun
with the spade grips, the fully pivotable unrestricted mount.
...
Don't close your eyes when you're shooting it, but you can close your eyes
and picture yourself up in a World War One aircraft really easily with this.
... Frankly, it's cooler than I anticipated it being.
I thought, "Yeah, we'll put it on the tripod and it'll be interesting, but,
eh, you know, it's a tripod."
No, this is super cool, and ... Lewis guns are just fantastic machines.
Anyway, a big thanks to Morphy's for letting me take this out,
and also to their consigner for letting us take this out and do some shooting with it.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video.
Thanks for watching.
Alright.
Gentle rain of dirt clods.