Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another
video on ForgottenWeapons.com. I'm Ian McCollum, and I am very excited today to have one of Rick Smith's 1st pattern
FG-42 semi-auto reproduction rifles. This thing is a legitimately gorgeous rifle, and today
is my first chance to actually do some shooting with it. So, I've put ... exactly 10 rounds through it already,
and it's so far worked great, it's nicely zeroed. And I figured let's break out
the camera and show you guys what this thing actually looks
like to fire. It is impressive. Now, first thing. It's got a very iconic shaped pistol grip,
and the Germans did this on the 1st pattern FGs. There is ... like the standard myth, or
standard common gun shop lore, is that this was done so that the German Fallschirmjäger could
shoot this effectively from the parachute while descending. Which is definitely not true, for a couple of reasons.
First off, the Germans tended to jump very, very low. They didn't have very much time when they
were gently floating down through the heavens. Secondly, the German parachute in World War Two had
a single point of contact to the paratrooper's harness. US 'chutes had two, one over each
shoulder, the Germans had one. You start shooting a rifle like this, you are
going to start spinning, it's not practical. And lastly, and I don't know maybe most
significantly, this pistol grip is actually most comfortable when you're prone. And trying to shoot it at a downward angle to me is
actually less comfortable than any of the other modes. If they wanted to design something to
shoot while dropping on a parachute, it would have a very vertical grip to it.
Which, by the way, is what the 2nd pattern FG had. I think that the real reason they did this
was because this was relatively early. And if you think about the other German ...
semi-auto rifles that were in development at the time, the Gewehr 41, they wanted to duplicate
the handling of Kar98k bolt-action Mausers. And I think they developed this grip to
duplicate the grip of the wooden stock on a 98k. And then they realised, "Oh, actually that's kind
of a crappy idea, and it really doesn't matter, let's give it a proper, comfortable grip."
And that's where the 2nd pattern FG came from. Now a couple other things here. The bipod on this guy is attached
back here at the gas block. With the 2nd pattern rifles they
would move the bipod up to the front. On original guns these bipod legs don't lock,
and so you can't really load the bipod. And under firing, especially full-auto fire
because originally these were select fire guns, the bipod would collapse inward if
you didn't hold the gun steadily into it. With the reproductions Rick has actually
added a locking mechanism to these, so that you can push into
or pull away from the bipod. So there's a little latch on the inside.
It's quite well done, it's not technically authentic, but you can't see it from the outside, and it
adds a very nice level of practicality to the guns. Lastly, I am shooting this left handed
because I am left handed, these guns eject at a fairly sharp angle backwards and one of the
options that Rick has is a brass deflector here. Now a brass deflector like this was standard for the 2nd
pattern FG-42s, the real ones, probably because of this issue. However, if you look in the Collector Grade book
"Death from Above", which is all about the FG, ... you will find a couple pictures of a prototype 1st pattern
rifle that had an experimental brass deflector on it. Now they left it off for the standard 1st pattern rifles, but Rick offers it as an option for his semis for
people like me who are cripplingly left handed, so that we don't get hit in the face with hot,
high-velocity 8mm brass, which would really suck. So, I think that's about all I need to say about this. The trigger is much nicer than
the early SMG reproduction FG-42s. It uses ZB-26 magazines, which are fantastic magazines
and actually look quite a lot like original FG mags, which makes them perfect for a reproduction like this. So, I've got some targets out here,
I've got a Mozambique from MOA Targets. I've also got one of MOA Target's
Red Neck Stars, and that's rifle rated. So I think we're going to start with some of the
easier stuff, and then we'll see if we can get that Texas / Red Neck Star.
First offhand, and then prone. This is a very comfortable rifle to shoot.
It's got a direct, like an in-line recoil impulse, like you would get with an AR. The muzzle brake is quite effective.
It produces a lot of blast and concussion, but it's pretty darn comfortable for the shooter. This trigger is now basically a single-stage trigger.
It's a little heavy but it has a very crisp break. It's a really nice trigger, as you can see
no problem hitting some targets. No problem with relatively fast follow-up shots,
even with full-power ... 198 grain 8 Mauser. Let's go for the MOA target,
Mozambique target, sorry. Almost. Alright, I have a few rounds left in this mag. Let's see if I can hit any of the
plates on that star offhand. It's all fun and games until the target
starts moving. So that is now empty. These guns have an automatic bolt hold open. Now if I just pull the magazine out the bolt
will drop forward. There is a manual button right down in here. And if I hold that, I can actually
manually lock the bolt open, which is a really nice feature. Now the original guns had an automatic
bolt hold open, the 2nd pattern did not. And the reason that they made that change
is because the automatic bolt hold open, which did stay even after the magazine was
removed, was a very fragile part and it broke a lot. And so they figured, "You know what?
Better to get rid of it, you can manually rack the charging
handle when you put in a new mag, and that's better than parts breakage on the rifle." So SMG Guns doing reproductions
of these is faced with the question of, "Do we deliberately recreate a fragile part we
know is going to break, or do we leave it off?" And they chose a middle ground where they
left it in, but ... basically as a manual part. They took the fragile bit and left that off. So that
you still get about half of the functionality out of it, but you don't have the fragility that the originals did. Alright, so I have used the manual
hold open to lock the bolt open, which will allow me to put in a mag,
give the charging handle just a little pull, release, and load the next round. There we go. Boom, and we're ready to go. There we go. Alright, I've got some little targets hanging
on a stand right at the back of the range and there's some pretty small ones up there.
So, let's see if we can make them jump around. This is a gun that absolutely
lets you know that it has fired. But it's not unpleasant to shoot,
... this is really a remarkably fantastic gun. So I said the same things about
Rick's ... 2nd pattern guns. Confusingly perhaps, he did the
2nd pattern first, and the 1st pattern second. So the other of his guns that I've
shot have been like this as well, just really quite remarkable to shoot. What else do we have up there? Alright, and that's another 20 rounds empty. I don't know what else to say about
this thing. This is fantastic to shoot. I will definitely be using this in an upcoming
two gun match, but I wanted to bring it out here, make sure it was zeroed, make sure
it was running nicely, before I did that. So hopefully you guys enjoyed
this little bit of a sneak peek. Thanks for watching. [ sub by sk cn2 ]
Visible fireball in full Arizona sun. I bet its visible from space at night. Cool review.
I love Ian as much as the next person, but that his dog is so close to him while blasting 8mm mauser just makes me sad. I really hope it is not used to such loud noises