Whoa ... What Kind of Firearm?

[Jeff Thomas]

Friends ... please take a look at this link, and tell me what kind of automatic weapon this is ... look about 25% of the way down the page (captioned "A Pakistani soldier with a machine gun ..."). Most bizarre.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_2027000/2027624.stm

Thanks.

Regards from AZ

 

[40ozflatfoot]

Bears a resemblance to a somewhat modified MG-34. Hard to tell at that angle.

 

[Marko Kloos]

It's an MG3, the German standard GPMG. I believe they manufacture it under license over there. It's essentially an MG42 in 7.62x51mm, with some minor design changes and a somewhat reduced rate of fire. You can tell it's an MG3 rather than a MG42 by the AA sight on the receiver (folded down into storage position in the picture.)

It was our standard general purpose medium MG when I was in the service....I've seen the thing from that angle many times.

 

[KSFreeman]

MG3. Sometimes mistaken for MG710-1.

It's operation is as Lend sez. Rheinmettal sold the license in the late `60s if foggy memory serves. Cannot remember when tooling up began over there. Can look it up in the library at the FBP if you want.

 

[Jeff Thomas]

Thank you very much. Take care.

Regards from AZ

 

[MuzzleBlast]

It's essentially an MG42 in 7.62x51mm, with some minor design changes and a somewhat reduced rate of fire.

In other words, it is pretty much the perfect medium belt-fed machine gun. Wonder why we are using the FN MAG instead?

 

[40ozflatfoot]

Wonder why we are using the FN MAG instead?

Politics.

I read somewhere that the MG-42 was not used nearly as much as the MG-34 because of its very high cyclic rate. You could go through a belt before you could get your finger off the trigger. Stories I heard from WWII GIs that fought the Germans said that it fired so fast that you couldn't hear the individual detonations; just one brief burrrrrp, then silence. True or false?

 

[Danger Dave]

True. the MG42 had a ridiculously high cyclic rate. It sounds more like a loud burp than a gun. I've heard one fire live - it's a great way to send money downrange quickly. I've heard from one veteran that our soldiers called them "rattlers" because they sounded like a rattlesnake when fired.

 

[hksigwalther]

What is the difference between the MG3 and the MG74?

 

[hksigwalther]

Found it.

http://translate.google.com/transla...=&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&newwindow=1&sa=G&as_qdr=all