Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am out here at the range today
courtesy of the Morphy Auction Company up in Pennsylvania,
and we have an Ultimax Mark 3 light machine gun here.
This is a gun that was designed for Singapore by a guy named James Sullivan, or Jim Sullivan.
He is one of the engineers who was originally involved in basically downscaling the AR-10 into the AR-15 design.
He worked at Armalite for a while, and then he went off and did some work on this gun and a couple others for Singapore.
And the really interesting thing about this gun is it utilises, in fact it pioneered, the concept of constant recoil.
And that is the idea that the bolt never fully impacts the back of the receiver,
and so instead of a staccato series of impacts on your shoulder, the recoil from this thing is basically one single
continuous, steady push. And that makes it far more controllable than a lot of other light machine guns.
So, we see this today in guns like the Knight's Armament light assault machine gun, but this is where it all started.
So, this is the first time I've had a chance to actually shoot one of these.
I'm really curious to see what it works like, so let's dive right in.
That is exactly what constant recoil is advertised as doing, that just sits there while you fire. It is really cool.
Alright. Now, shooting this from the ground is one thing, but to really get an idea
for how effective that constant recoil system is we need to shoot it standing up.
It really is just as nice from the shoulder as it is from the ground. Constant recoil systems are just awesome.
Alright, I have more ammo. But I know what my thoughts are on constant recoil guns,
I'm curious to get someone else's thoughts on constant recoil. So let's find someone
who's got some experience, perhaps with older machine guns, and see what she thinks of it. Mae?
- I heard you need a second opinion. - I do need a second opinion.
- OK.
Alright, she's already locked back.
- Boom. - Thank you very much. - You're welcome.
- Seems straightforward.
Well. - You seem to like that.
- Just a little bit. - You've emptied the entire drum. - Was I not supposed to?
- Now the gun's smoking. - Is it supposed to?
I've never quite experienced something like that before.
I mean I've shot 5.56 from the shoulder before, and I know there's going to be some recoil,
but the fact that constant pressure, you just don't feel it after the first shot. It's amazing.
- So it really is a real thing, it's not just me? - No
- Like thinking that it's gonna happen and then it really is there.
- Like effectively all you're really controlling is a little bit of vibration, but that's about it.
Otherwise, it's like you said, I didn't feel any difference in pressure against my shoulder.
It was absolutely constant the whole way. That's incredible.
- It's like a garden hose. And that's the short little stubby jumpy barrel too. That's not the full length barrel for this thing.
- What's the full length barrel supposed to be? - 16, 20, I think.
- That's impressive, that really is.
- So the question arises, I suppose, as to why more people don't do this?
- Well, I mean ... are they produced like consistently? Like is it something that they tend to
manufacture and it tends to come out perfect every time in production?
- Yes. - OK.
- It is simply a combination of proper design elements, but the issue is, as best I've been able to to figure it out,
the issue is that this is only a thing in full-auto. Constant recoil in semi-auto is meaningless. - Right.
- Because semi-auto is always going to be bang, bang, bang, one at a time. - There's no point to it.
- There aren't actually that many light machine guns out there that are intended for full-auto only that are newer than this.
This dates to the 1970s, and if you think about the light machine guns that are currently in use,
you've got things like the FN Minimi, maybe the M240, both of which are older than this.
And militaries are really happy with those, and so they're not replacing them.
And so there isn't a huge market for a new design. ... I think a lot of militaries think that this,
the constant recoil thing, doesn't really justify replacing an entire fleet of light machine guns.
- I don't know, I feel like that justifies it. Just the feel alone.
- I kind of do too. So the Ultimax was the one that really set this up, like the Ultimax was the first.
And then today we have the Knight's Armament light assault machine gun. That's even nicer than this to be honest ... that is sweet.
Yeah, so this was actually my first time shooting an Ultimax as well.
- How did you feel about it? - I rate this a 10 out of 10, this thing is awesome.
- I'd have to agree with you on that one. It's beautiful, it really was.
- Would you take it into combat?
- Absolutely. Are you kidding me? It's the ultimate Ultimax. - Yeah, it's pretty nice.
Alright, well, thanks for watching guys, hopefully you enjoyed the video. If you are looking for an Ultimax,
this one is coming up for sale at the Morphy Auction House in their October of 2019
Extraordinary Firearms auction, along with a whole slew of other machine guns.
A big thanks to them for letting us bring it out to the range here.
I wanted to shoot it some, I think Mae enjoyed shooting it as well. - We appreciate it guys.
- Thanks for watching. - Bye.
Sorry guys, I owe you a mag dump don't I? Well, we went ahead and put the long barrel on because it's a nice cool barrel.
We're gonna go ahead and dump 30 rounds through it, but to be honest,
I've always kind of wanted a show on the History Channel, and I figured
if I want to get them interested in working with me, I need to do something a little different,
I need to appeal to what the History Channel's interested in.
So, instead of me doing a mag dump, I've invited a Sasquatch to do a mag dump.
[...]
There's your ammo.
Barp.