FG42 Rifle Review (Smith Machine Group Reproduction)

the German fallschirmjäger Gewehr 42 or literally parachute hunters rifle commonly known as the FG 42 this is a reproduction made by Smith machine group out of Decatur Texas and it is based on the type 2 model which was originally stamped although due to production simplification with modern techniques out of necessity they have actually milled the receivers of these guns and unfortunately reduced its select-fire capability down to semi-automatic only that being said these rifles are pretty darn close to the original in configuration layout in general feel they have the very iconic and very effective muzzle break the wood is of a very good quality and of course the roll marks are absolutely brilliant this one even bears FCS indicating that it was made by Craig off even though it was unfortunately not it retains the doors to the magazine well that served to keep dust and debris out of the action this is an eight millimeter model that uses rock in zb-26 magazines the safety is true to the original - the select fire capability by pulling this knob out and pushing it to the setting where you'd like it to be it retains the sighting system of the original with the drum that you rotate to the distance setting your desire to shoot at the front sight is where all the adjustment is for both windage and elevation and it flips up and down the spike bayonet is also present and these were originally based on the French mas 36 bayonets although these were requirement I don't see them being very practical after all only about four or five inches of blade sticks out beyond the muzzle one cool thing is that the entire rifle actually recoils into the stock on a recoil buffer reducing felt recoil by a tremendous amount but to offset that bit of good you have to understand the trigger system on the FG 42 is quite bizarre while it doesn't fire from an open bolt in semi-automatic the firing pin is connected directly to the AH prod so pulling this results in quite a bit of mass moving forward and it does hold the rifle back substantially in the accuracy Department but let's shoot it in the first couple of magazines with the FG 42 I did experience a couple of malfunctions now these rifles do come with an adjustable gas system and the manual does state that sometimes you will have to mess with that to get it to cycle properly with different ammunition types and I definitely experienced this after a couple magazines however I did get it sorted out as soon as I found the proper gas sitting so don't be disappointed if your rifle initially struggles a bit shooting the fg42 at 80 to 100 yards is not too difficult the sights are nothing short of excellent the bipod wallet is mounted to the barrel which traditionally is known to affect accuracy at this distance really do not present a problem however the trigger when you pull it since the apparat forward and sends a whole bunch of mass forward with it which makes it difficult to shoot accurately and this is difficult to overcome now in this next bit I did not shoot at steel but I set out a paper target and shot several four shot groups with a 20 round box of eight millimeter match ammunition I shot five four shot groups and it was quite tricky actually I was doing it with a bit of rapidity as you can see here really trying to master that trigger really bracing it against my shoulder really trying to hold it stable and realistically I probably should have folded the bipod and used a rest underneath the wooden handguard but notwithstanding the results at 100 yards were still pretty decent I averaged about three inches to three and a half I do believe I could improve this substantially with more trigger time and with a rest under the handguard but that trigger is very difficult to overcome and it is almost as bad as shooting an open bolt gun now taking it back to 300 is where things got even trickier landing shots on the actual Gong which is 18 inches in diameter presented somewhat of a challenge now I think I could do this if I revisited it I actually took this gun to an indoor range since this trip and recited it in I only managed to land about half my shots on target up the gong now like I said all the adjustment is up at the front sight you do have to drift it over like an a K and you do have to do it with a punch there is you can't really use an 8k sight tool and I would like to take this gun back out and like I said try this again however again the stock recoil buffer mechanism is excellent the muzzle break is extremely effective and I cannot praise the build quality enough so don't let this this part of the tests really deter you from buying one you can order one directly from smith machine group by getting on a waiting list at this time or rather a build list and they are priced at five thousand dollars a little over five Ahsan with the reproduction bayonet and you really get what you pay for the quality is absolutely there so with that said let's take a look inside the rifle so here we have a nice close-up of the SMG guns fg42 now you can remove the grip frame and trigger mechanism by popping off that flat spring but it's not really recommended that you do this very often so instead field stripping starts by pressing this button located on the rear of the stock and pulling it off exposing the recoil buffer to remove the buffer mechanism push down on the tab and rotate it 90 degrees at which point the recoil spring guide and recoil spring will come out from the rear as well and it is a very stiff double coil spring so it provides a whole lot of pressure in tension at this point pull the a prod bolt and carrier to the rear there is a spot located on the gun where you can pull the charging handle out and then continue pulling the AA prod and that will bring out the bolt and carrier you can see the Lewis gun influences here and how this influenced the m60 as well this basically is a Lewis gun mechanism in that there's a cam track on the bolt that's actuated by the op rod moving to the rear the Americans use this on the m60 as well and it is spring-loaded interestingly that's so it can fire in semi-automatic which is kind of a whole video topic in it of itself but it is a very bizarre feature and I hope you guys enjoyed this quick look and breakdown of this gun it is a fascinating firearm it's a it's a gun for the discerning collector at the price point of $5,000 and make an asset to any World War 2 collection there's only 20 some-odd fg42 in the united states they regularly command about 300 thousand dollars so a five thousand dollar reproduction does not sound too bad in lieu of that so I hope you guys enjoyed this big thanks to Ventura munitions for providing the 8 millimeter aspirin to make this video possible we hope to see you all next time

Channel: TFB TV

Views: 1,643,626

Rating: 4.9203429 out of 5

Keywords: gun, firearm, tfb, shooting, FG42, FG 42, Real gun, Weapon (Interest), Shooting Sport (Sport), German guns, WWII Guns, FG 42 full auto, FG42 Full Auto, FG42 Repro, FG42 Reproduction, 8mm, FG42 rifle, Nazi guns, nazi rifle, machine guns

Id: 4a0F1oudCAo

Length: 7min 46sec (466 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 17 2016