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Vickers Machine Gun

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Strangely Brown View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Strangely Brown Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 07 2022 at 11:02am
Originally posted by Shamu Shamu wrote:

In the video (close up of the breech & fed side at 0:59, something is "leaking" out of the receiver.Is that condensation is some form or excess lube?
It almost looks Japanese!Sick

Because each Vickers had only a certain amount of ammunition I think they dispensed with the water cans and tubes to vent the steam back into the cans.
That's an assumption on my part gleamed from a conversation I half heard! 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote shiloh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 08 2022 at 5:34am
"Fire one round or a thousand, you still gotta clean `em".

Thats what my SGM used to always say to us with a big grin on his face
Lead from the front; eliminate all obstacles...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote scottz63 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 08 2022 at 6:00am
Very cool. Thanks for posting!

I saw the water as well and thought it might be a leaking water jacket.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Zed Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 09 2022 at 5:06am
Great to see these in action. When so many have been chopped.
You certainly don't want to be on the wrong end of those!
Thanks for sharing the video.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote A square 10 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 09 2022 at 6:29pm
i would love to have spent more time with john sukey , he had so many things we speak of here but dont own nor ever will , that man was a wealth of enfield knowledge , he came here late and i miss him a lot , MJ will chime in as he knew him well too , we can only dream of what that man owned in his lifetime , 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Strangely Brown Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 10 2022 at 3:15am
Originally posted by A square 10 A square 10 wrote:

i would love to have spent more time with john sukey , he had so many things we speak of here but dont own nor ever will , that man was a wealth of enfield knowledge

I first came across John Sukey on the old "Gun & Knife" forum along with MJ; I was pretty new to the internet back then and was surprised to find so many people from across the pond with an interest in Enfield's.
John came to the UK some years ago for a reenactment display to do with Victorian artillery which as an ex gunner was close to my heart; we often discussed things like the "Screw Gun" made famous by Kipling in one of his poems.  

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote vickersmg Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 19 2022 at 5:24am
If you’re free on Wednesday evening (8pm UK time) and want to find out more about how we planned and delivered the 16 #VickersMG shoot at Bisley on 3 July, then join me on a livestream chat.
Vickers MG Collection & Research Association
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Zed Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 19 2022 at 11:53am
sounds great; I'll try and tune in!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Honkytonk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 19 2022 at 12:30pm
The Vickers is iconic... was the Lewis Gun considered a good weapon?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote hoadie Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 20 2022 at 4:46am
Originally posted by Honkytonk Honkytonk wrote:

The Vickers is iconic... was the Lewis Gun considered a good weapon?

From what I have read, it was terribly inaccurate. But methinks the idea was to keep the enemy's head down.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Honkytonk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 20 2022 at 5:58am
I watched a show yesterday on the demise of the Red Baron in WW1. Interesting. in this show, it was suggested he may have been was shot down from the ground by an Australian soldier and I think it was with a Lewis Gun. I'm not sure if it was an old show and they have since proven or disproved this theory, but it was an interesting watch!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote shiloh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 20 2022 at 7:30am
Originally posted by Honkytonk Honkytonk wrote:

I watched a show yesterday on the demise of the Red Baron in WW1. Interesting. in this show, it was suggested he may have been was shot down from the ground by an Australian soldier and I think it was with a Lewis Gun. I'm not sure if it was an old show and they have since proven or disproved this theory, but it was an interesting watch!


I watched that show and found it intriguing, the way forensics was used to determine the Barons death on 100+ years old indecent reports, how the low entry and high exit of the lethal shot could have only come from a ground based shot.
But will that change the history or the story telling, most likely not.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Shamu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 20 2022 at 9:00am
A machine gun isn't supposed to be "rifle Accurate", there's no point in putting 5 or 6 rounds through the same hole!
Cone of fire was the term, I believe.
Also the Lewis was a light machine gun, the Vickers a heavy, so there's more differences there.
The only bad thing I ever heard about them was the mechanical complexity internally "42 moving parts, 42 ways to jam"!
Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Honkytonk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 20 2022 at 10:51am
So a Lewis Gun was the Bren Gun of that era?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Shamu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 20 2022 at 11:12am
Pretty much.
It was the first "real gun" I ever fired! My grandfather took me to the range where I loaded drums all morning (regimental Powder monkey Star) & got to shoot it in the afternoon, very ,very closely supervised!

I was returned home all beat up, filthy & grinning from ear to ear. My grandmother supposedly didn't speak to him for a whole week!
She tried to "scrub that stupid grin from my face" with stiff brushes & carbolic soap I was lobster red but still grinning!Big smile

You definitely didn't want to let that "Clock Spring" get away from you, to the point it was permanently sealed tensioned & only removed as a complete sub assembly!


Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote vickersmg Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 21 2022 at 8:08am
The live Q&A ended up here: https://youtu.be/1njLHKuOYIo

As to the Lewis gun, our opinion: Good gun as a light automatic. Bad machine gun. Tried to use it for too much sustained fire when first introduced (as it was considered like-for-like with the Vickers) and this reputation affected it for many years after. When realised in the later part of the war that it was used at a section level, it was ideal, if too heavy for an 'assault' weapon.
Vickers MG Collection & Research Association
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