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Guest post by: Iron Fist

The MG 42 is a short-recoil operated, air cooled, belt fed weapon which fires from an open bolt. The barrel is quick-removable, and can be replaced in less than six seconds by a properly trained crew, although an asbestos glove is required to remove the hot barrel. The action of the weapon is operated by the recoil of the locked barrel, assisted by a muzzle booster which uses pressure from the muzzle blast to increase the recoil impulse. Locking is achieved by a pair of rollers, which are forced outwards from the sides of the bolt head to engage cuts in the barrel extension. Locking (outward) movement of the rollers is controlled by the wedge-shaped front part of the bolt body; unlocking (inward) movement of the rollers by the cams made in the receiver. This is a simple and solid system which minimizes the length of parts that are under stress upon discharge, and also minimizes the strain on the receiver. On MG 3 machine guns, two types of bolts are available, with standard weight (about 650 gram) for fast rate of fire and with heavy weight (about 900 gram) for slow rate of fire. It must be noted that those bolts also are used along with different return springs.The receiver and barrel jacket are made in one unit, and formed from a sheet of rolled steel, cut to shape by pressing and stamping, and then welded and pinned to form a gun housing of generally rectangular cross-section. The front part of the housing serves as a barrel jacket and has a number of oval cooling slots at all sides except the right.

Having to change bolts to change the rate of fire is somewhat archaic, but for a weapon nicknamed “Hitler’s Zipper” for its fearsome rate of fire, it is understandable that one would want to slow the rate of fire when the weapon is being used in certain roles. Unfortunately, the laws of the Unite States are such that most people will find that actually owning one of these fine weapons is simply not possible. While civilian-legal registered MG-42 machineguns do exist, they are rare and prohibitively expensive. Bummer. But all is not lost. Recently, a company named Wise Lite Arms began re-manufacturing MG-42s from Yugoslavia (designated the M53) as a semi-automatic weapon. This weapon can be bought for around $3000. This is still not cheap, but it is orders of magnitude less expensive than the legal full-auto version. If you are more of a do-it-yourself person you can lower the price even further by buying your own receiver from BRP Corp. and a parts kit (there are a number of suppliers for this) and building the Weapon yourself.

Either way, a semi-automatic MG-42 is civilian legal, just like any other rifle. It requires no special license, paperwork, or approval to purchase. Ain’t America great?

http://www.wiselitearms.net/7.html

http://www.brpguns.com/mg42semi.htm