Shooting the German MP40 submachine gun

there are some excellent articles on the web about the mp38 and then before the submachine guns so I will not give you a full history of these arms now to cut the technical part short it is full out or only firing with open bolt and it's blowback operated what I really would like to tell you indeed is how it was used by the soldiers the submachine gun tactics were invented in the First World War the Germans tossed rupan or shock troops strongly needed light weapon to clean the enemy trenches that was capable of high rate of fire and had an increased magazine capacity the shooting ranges in the trenches were minimal so there was no need to fire a rifle round indeed they needed a cartridge that was easily controllable with full auto firing as well the mg 18 and the 9-millimeter Luger round were good answers to this question the closest predecessor of the mp40 was the MP 38 not much difference in operation but the 38 needed more money time and raw material for production for the production of the mp40 stamp steel was used not machined parts as with the previous model if you check the Second World War movies of today you will see millions of German soldiers running around with MP 40s firing with one meter muzzle flashes in fact this is not true the firepower of a standard Second World War German squad was based on the light machine gun an mg 34 or 42 in the beginning years of the war three men operated the machine gun the squad leader a gruppenfuhrer was armed with submachine gun and all the other six or five soldiers were armed with bolt-action repeating rifles this is strongly different from the standard american version where the firepower was based on the soldiers armpit garand semi-auto rifles supported with one soldier on did browing auto rifle the Soviet Red Army had a different ID on using the SMGs as well they aren't complete battalions and regiments with PPS submachine guns field-stripping the gun is very easy remove the magazine and check if the gun is unloaded honey my resto who the locking stud and give it a half turn there should be language now pull the trigger and turn the complete button assembly to the right now you can remove the inner parts the rate of fire is regulated with the telescopic world system that works something like a pneumatic break one common myth around the mp40 that it was so precise that in winter conditions it flows easily well this is not true again however the oil and the grease used in the Second World War times could freeze while joining the action this is why many German soldiers remove the grease completely from the guns during winter times some even lubricated the system it's soft powders like salt for the boat has three positions the first is a rest position that can be locked the second is a firing position and the third is a safety as well this position is not working properly in this gun due to the semi-auto conversion in the early years of the war the 48-hour allowance of the submachine gun was 768 rounds the soldier carried 6 spare magazines one magazine was capable of holding 32 rounds but the soldiers usually loaded only 28 to save the tension of the magazine Springs the bus-stop can be folded out by pressing the button at the axis it was often used also when firing from the head as it helped holding the mp40 steadily the submachine gun is a weapon of close combat the sight of the mp40 is graduated to 100 and 200 meters but as the gun is only capable of firing in full auto mode accuracy strongly drops over 50 70 meters it was best used in short ranges like a city warfare where high rate of fire is a master enemy moving quickly from cover to cover shooting the mp40 is a real delight the recoil is minimal the long travel of the heavy board absorbs the recoil completely this particular piece was manufactured by air MA in 1942 and it was converted to semi-automatic firing mode in a permanent way shooting the mp40 accurately in semi-auto mode to 25 meters is not a great challenge the hold is anything but comfortable but still it is a great fun to shoot the gun and who cares about accuracy when you have the history in your hands and if you grew up on war movies like me there is something you must not miss if you encounter a submachine gun at the range this semi-auto conversions are not the cheapest firearms on the market they are not ideal for target shooting but they mark an important period in firearms history so if you're a collector of the 20th century military arms there must be a place for the mp40 in your cabinet you

Channel: capandball

Views: 3,393,702

Rating: 4.7014084 out of 5

Keywords: MP 40, Submachine Gun, world war II, Firearm (Sports Equipment), MP38, MP18, capandball

Id: DvWJ0gaoRQU

Length: 6min 32sec (392 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 21 2013