Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I'm out here today at the range at the James D Julia auction house
taking a look at one of the guns that they're going to be selling in their upcoming Fall of
2017 firearms auction. What we have here today is pretty cool, because it is a fully transferable
Madsen light machine gun. This is actually from a 1924 Bulgarian contract for these guns.
But you know, the Madsens were pretty much standard, the mechanism didn't change any.
Some of the other features, the styles of the bipod, flash hiders, barrel lengths, magazine types,
calibres, all that stuff fluctuated, but the actual mechanism pretty much stayed the same
from when this gun was introduced in like 1902 through the early 1950s,
when the final major contracts were actually purchased.
This is in fact the first really practical light machine gun that was actually used by military forces.
These were used in the Russo-Japanese war and ... they surprised people with how
effective they were. Going into that war, nobody really knew what the purpose
of a light machine gun was, or how best to employ them. So,
doctrine would develop quickly in World War One, of course.
But these guns would see service in World War One, World War Two, the Russo-Japanese war,
I'm sure there were some of these in the Spanish Civil War.
... Really, it's remarkable how durable and lasting of a design this was,
despite being a very early design as well.
So I have some other videos on the mechanism of the Madsen. It is a really unique system,
it's kind of like a full-auto falling-block rifle, believe it or not.
If you're interested in exactly how the insides work, check out those other videos.
If you're interested in what it looks like to shoot, well, stay tuned, 'cause ...
I have a magazine of 8mm Mauser.
This ... machine gun actually comes with barrel assemblies in both 8mm Mauser and
.30-06, and one of the cool things about this pattern is these magazines work in both calibres.
So it makes it nice for the shooter.
I think that's all I need to say, let's do some shooting.
One of the other unique features about the Madsen is it has a top mounted magazine,
but the magazine is actually offset to the left side of the gun
which means the sights are basically right in the centre of the bore axis,
which is really nice for a left-hander like me.
Anyway, lock the magazine in, charge it.
This does fire from an open bolt, and it's a relatively slow rate of fire actually.
It's actually a very pleasant gun to shoot, it's a little bit on the heavy side, just, just,
just barely on the heavy side for a light machine gun, but that does help it stay nice and controllable.
Now, I've shot a 1946 pattern of these as well, and that had this really kind of useless,
flimsy bipod. This model, this is a 1924 Bulgarian, and I know the 1950s as well,
have a much sturdier bipod up there, and that's working really well for me.
That keeps the gun nicely up and I don't have to worry about it collapsing when I'm shooting.
Well, magazine's empty, that's my ammo for today.
Really cool to be able to shoot, and see fired, one of these really interesting early light machine guns.
You know, ... there isn't a whole lot else in the way of automatic weapons that saw service
literally from the Russo-Japanese war through to
still being used in the 1990s in the Rio de Janeiro favelas by the Brazilian police.
They're an incredibly rugged and long-lived gun.
Although a lot of people don't know about them, don't recognise them.
So hopefully we'll do a little bit to change that today. If you'd like to see this shot more,
well, you'll just have to do that shooting yourself.
This is a fully transferable machine gun, and if you'd like to have it yourself and do all the shooting you like,
take a look at the description text below the video. You'll find a link there to Julia's catalogue page on this guy.
You can check out their pictures, their description, and everything else,
and place a bid on it here live at the auction, or over the phone, or over the website.
Thanks for watching