If you go back as far as the Great War of WW1 and later in WW2… “The Browning Automatic Rifle” gets the nod for a Light Machine Gun (Mr. John Browning’s Machine Rifle) with a very distinctive sound cacophony and an astonishing amount of knock-down power at great ranges using the famous Remington .30-06 Caliber Rounds.
While the Infantrymen carried the similarly chambered .30-06 (Thirty-Aught-Six) M1 Garand (courtesy a design from our Brother from the GWN... Mr. John Garand) … This BAR Fully Automatic Weapon demanded an awful lot physical strength from the Battle Ready Soldier for carrying this weapon and its very heavy ammunition all over Hell and Gone and then engaging the enemy with either “Walking Fire” and/or offering suppression fire for his Squad Members from cover.
After WW1… many of these Automatic Weapons wound up in the hands of Criminals like “Bonnie and Clyde” (Google their names for the original pics they took of each other holding these weapons and their "Loot" from their bank Robbery activities, often cutting down the barrel length(s) to wield with less weight and the problems of being generally cumbersome to handle. Here is a great video that will startle many with just exactly how much serious power and punch this weapon implies:
The VOP (Video Original Poster) mentioned the name of the man who provided him with the weapons he would be demonstrating as “Machine Gun Mike”… Back in the 1970s when I was heavily involved in hand-loading and competition shooting… One Saturday afternoon… I got invited to this Man’s house with some other Fellow LEO friends and I had the privilege of viewing his weapons collections that included American and German WW2 Vintage Machine Guns.
Then I was even more dumbfounded when he brought me into a huge concealed room with metal clad walls and a Bank Safe Entrance. There inside were literally racks and racks of German Schmeisser MP-40s, MP-42s… and an assortment of Rare Rifles and other Exotic Military Weapons. He had a Full Filing Cabinet filled with all of his Federal Firearms Licenses and Tax Paperwork for these things that at that time... ran $200.00 per weapon! I couldn’t even get my head around how much of a fortune this affable, friendly Firearms Collector must have had to invest in fill up his Amazing Armory!
He even had not one… but two German Couriers’ Broom-Handled Schmeisser Machine Pistols that had Hollow Wooden Stocks that carried the weapons inside like a Sandwich in a Kid’s Lunchbox. My God… It was like dying and going to Weapons Heaven and it was indeed… a very rare and Good Day!
This video describes the M1 Garand Semi-Automatic Rifle chambered for the Remington .30-06 Round … the later NATO .308 Round replaced it with when the M14 M1A .308 Caliber Korean abd Viet Nam War conflict era Semi-Automatic Rifle came into its own (...the one shown in the Video is NOT the M1A1 Match Grade M14 Rifle...):
This historical review on the M1 Garand is well worth the viewing, too:
While the Infantrymen carried the similarly chambered .30-06 (Thirty-Aught-Six) M1 Garand (courtesy a design from our Brother from the GWN... Mr. John Garand) … This BAR Fully Automatic Weapon demanded an awful lot physical strength from the Battle Ready Soldier for carrying this weapon and its very heavy ammunition all over Hell and Gone and then engaging the enemy with either “Walking Fire” and/or offering suppression fire for his Squad Members from cover.
After WW1… many of these Automatic Weapons wound up in the hands of Criminals like “Bonnie and Clyde” (Google their names for the original pics they took of each other holding these weapons and their "Loot" from their bank Robbery activities, often cutting down the barrel length(s) to wield with less weight and the problems of being generally cumbersome to handle. Here is a great video that will startle many with just exactly how much serious power and punch this weapon implies:
The VOP (Video Original Poster) mentioned the name of the man who provided him with the weapons he would be demonstrating as “Machine Gun Mike”… Back in the 1970s when I was heavily involved in hand-loading and competition shooting… One Saturday afternoon… I got invited to this Man’s house with some other Fellow LEO friends and I had the privilege of viewing his weapons collections that included American and German WW2 Vintage Machine Guns.
Then I was even more dumbfounded when he brought me into a huge concealed room with metal clad walls and a Bank Safe Entrance. There inside were literally racks and racks of German Schmeisser MP-40s, MP-42s… and an assortment of Rare Rifles and other Exotic Military Weapons. He had a Full Filing Cabinet filled with all of his Federal Firearms Licenses and Tax Paperwork for these things that at that time... ran $200.00 per weapon! I couldn’t even get my head around how much of a fortune this affable, friendly Firearms Collector must have had to invest in fill up his Amazing Armory!
He even had not one… but two German Couriers’ Broom-Handled Schmeisser Machine Pistols that had Hollow Wooden Stocks that carried the weapons inside like a Sandwich in a Kid’s Lunchbox. My God… It was like dying and going to Weapons Heaven and it was indeed… a very rare and Good Day!
This video describes the M1 Garand Semi-Automatic Rifle chambered for the Remington .30-06 Round … the later NATO .308 Round replaced it with when the M14 M1A .308 Caliber Korean abd Viet Nam War conflict era Semi-Automatic Rifle came into its own (...the one shown in the Video is NOT the M1A1 Match Grade M14 Rifle...):
This historical review on the M1 Garand is well worth the viewing, too: