WWI British Vickers Machine Gun

[angelsarereal777]

Great Job Certaining a Collector Prize!!!

[TaZ101SAGA]

When you see a point of view video of a Maxim type weapon, you instantly realize how so many thousands of men fell at it's mercy. With the stability of it's tripod, it seems very easy to keep the gun on target and traverse, anyone advancing over flat open ground had little chance of survival. My respect goes out to anyone who had the balls to advance over no man's land towards these weapons.

[emanres100]

Ideally, a machine gun doesn't face a charge or row of targets. Rather, it is at an angle or to the side of a charging enemy, so you can hit as many as possible. Machine guns are notoriously inaccurate otherwise unless VERY high speed. Targets on a shooting range should therefore be fairly close together and lined up at angles or lined up one behind the other; any other arrangement is not a test of skill. The rule is, in battle, when perpendicular to the line of attacking enemy soldiers, RUN!

[james257wby]

Question, was 450 rpm the maximum rate of fire or could it be increased, were later models faster ?

[C2builder]

@james257wby The only ones I know of that were increased in rate of fire were the ones mounted in aircraft, usually between 600-800 rds per minute.

[paulemann1999]

this gun also used in WW2 or not ? but its hat a very slow shooting round the germans have better guns (im dont a nazi)

[C2builder]

@paulemann1999 Yes, the British used the Vickers (and also the Lewis Gun) throughout WW2.

[F4Wildcat]

@paulemann1999 And why do the germans have better guns? THey dint had light MG's like the brits in WW1, the lee enfield was better then the mauser G98 in almost every way...

And the MG08 and vickers are simular very good guns with the same ROF.

[Yrahcaz75]

@F4Wildcat hes talking about an MG42

[winchuni22]

@paulemann1999

For rate of fire it is slow. But it's how long it can continue shooting for which is also important. It had the record for continuous fire for a considerbale time - more than the German made machine guns.

[harry66285]

cant imagine being a german charging an english trench with that going

[CF4LIf3]

@harry66285 Imagine how the Allies felt about the MG42.

[steffenLarsen54]

A bit of history there, thanks! Amazing to finally see and hear it in action . But I deduct a little for the smooth casing, lol. Imagine a row of them putting down long-range harassing fire .....

[radio53]

I live less than three miles from where this gun was made. It's now a wire/steel cable factory. There used to be a pub across the road from it called the Nordenfelt as that gun was also built at the factory however locals called it the "Pom Pom" because of the use of later marks being used as anti-aircraft guns on warships.

Thanks for your videos. They are excellent.

[crpdst2003]

@radio53  prolly inventor of nordenfelt screw too....interrupted screw to close the breech end with one third turn.....

[GjVj]

Outstanding.

No complaints about video quality/fogging from me, just fascinated to see the piece in action, particularly with the down-the-barrel view when firing.

Many thanks and best wishes from the UK. :)

[Ureteralclock1917]

i'd love to have this gun.

[TheGrunge619]

My grandfather was a machine gunner in the Australian A I F. He fought through 1916 to April 1918 where he was wounded in the head and left for dead.A canadian doctor saved his life after seeing him moving.I dont know how many he killed with this weapon but he was never the same and never talked about why he woke up screaming for years.He drank and beat my grandmother.Its good to see a vickers firing nearly 100 years later but remember what the real soldiers went through for many years after.

[MrMethadrine]

How you r allowed to own such weapons?

[MsBowhunter95]

i want your job

[9beckerful]

i love the vickers! fantastic piece of engineering, makes me proud to be british ^^

[MartinTraXAA]

@9beckerful A fantastic piece of engineering, that if operated just slightly wrong would crush your knuckles :D

[iiThailung]

Wow :o just one question what do you pay for a eapon like this? :O

[Alphacaliber]

@iiThailung 20-40 grand I'm thinking, but I'm no expert.

[badcoairsoft11]

didnt they build these with a snow cap

[pongboy1100]

@badcoairsoft11 those were russian you think of

[Detoyato]

my Favorite Machine Gun... the Good ole Vickers

[MrBlackpowderbob]

At 400+ rounds a minute of .303, thanks for spending the money to show us this in action!

[TheBlabla1996]

i wish i was you, hahah nice vid, man

[camelsamul]

thats cool. it has a water cooled barrel.

[everman111]

I'm going to buy my first rifle soon do you have any suggestions? of corse it'll be bolt action not automatic. I'm 14 so ya

[jimmyhayers]

I envy you haha

[Gramra]

Can you imagine...having to climb out of a trench, dash across no-man's land...and end up on the receiving end of that thing? While he was shooting the Vickers at the targets in the video, I envisioned dozens of uniformed men collapsing as bullets ripped through their flesh...

[VictorSixer]

Beautiful and lethal. Outstanding piece of equipment.

[crysisidiol999]

Is this a Russian lmg version cause it seems to feed like one

[fadalisdestroyer666]

easily the best ww lmg. (im not only saying that because im from the uk)

[ArmedBrit]

@fadalisdestroyer666

HMG, Vickers guns were deffo HMG's. the Bren was the LMG.

[GameTubeHD]

Is it easy in america to buy those weapons or do you have to get a special licese for that ?(sorry for bad english i come from germany ;))

[AngeredKabar]

@GameTubeHD The laws about this are very confusing to explain with the limited amount of space youtube gives me.

Basically if you can find one of these that was on the books before 1986, it will be very expensive but you only need to fill out some paperwork and get some signatures and after a few months you get a little paper stamp in the mail that says you can take possession of it.

The guy in the video has a federal license to build firearms and paid a fee that lets him make machineguns.

[Popanz110]

Cool !



[FireBadger66]

Some of these were used up into the 1970's, believe it or not

[MaxtheLegoMaster]

im pretty sure the us used this in the pacific

[gruntythe1andonly]

Do your neighbors get angry at you for shooting so much?

[wwwtotalitaerde]

Dont let yourself be manipulated by German snitchers trolling the internet searching for opportunities to bleach their Deutschland.German soldiers trying to evade fighting were hunted and assasinated till the last day. Concentration camp inmates were forced to march long distances. If they could not carry on they were murdered on the spot, the bodies left behind. Germans being seen as possible collaborators with the allies were systematically murdered.

[Pcmanx19]

How you get this stuff...

[pongboy1100]

i make the same sound when i am typing :D

[pongboy1100]

the shooting sound reminds me of me typing on my pc :)

[moonyob]

killing machine .............nothing else its designed for

[MaoSuratt911]

How many rounds per minute doese it fire ??

[Azog150]

@MaoSuratt911

I think its about 450 rounds a minute

[fartsmellsfunny96]

@Azog150 no way

[trje246]

i could be totally wrong but i think i heard somewhere that they had a water cooled barrel? yes? no? maybe?

[samj5664]

@trje246 Yes

[brereton1645]

@trje246  Yes, it has a water cooled barrel, thats why it looks so fat, at the front of the barrel under the fore sight is an attachment for a condenser hose.

[BommyBum13]

True british engineering, this isn't an australian

[ThemTheyHeShe]

cool, maybe we'll use it again in the next edition of the series, WWIII

[MrTomo71]

DEAR SANTA...

[Cr0Fighter]

i was wondering what do you do with all those shels on the ground XD

[C2builder]

@Cr0Fighter This is a Gun Club were this video was done and we usually just left the empty casings on the ground. An old man usually came out after dark and would pick out what he wanted so the piles really don't stay for long.

[diramonsky]

It ssems to have a higher rate of fire in your other clip.

[Valles923]

I would not want to run across No Man's land with a dozen of those pointed at me...

[jolio1994]

God that thing scares the shit out of me...I would never have enough ballz to go up against this bitch

[shermanlee85856]

Not sure isit me or my ears , i thought it sounded a little like the ak 47.

[SwordsmanMercenary]

That'll teach Jerry a lesson

[Thatevilmidget]

Oh lord... I love that gun... the brass fittings contrast so beautifully with the blued parts.

[AbuAvital]

Told to me by the designer of the Galil, he challenged Stalone to fire a rifle one handed like in the movies, he couldn't hold it steady!!

[drongolips]

I was firing the Vickers at Arab dissidents in the Radfan South Yemen 1965 in 40 Commando Royal Marines.Brilliant weapon but a pig to man-pack up those mountains No 1 carried the tripod No2 the barrel No3 the cooling water can as well as your personal weapon with a120 rounds the rifle company used to spread a couple of thousand rounds between them.It was a happy day when we converted to GPMG's.

[MrGuyfromhell]

its trowing self around a lot !

[AggroBorkenTV]

i`ve got a question

do you buy/own all of the guns you show in your vids?

[C2builder]

@AggroBorkenTV Yes.

[TheAwesomeBart]

@C2builder You sir, are a badass motherfucker with alot of cash.

[MrOxide17]

@C2builder

You're Awesome!

[Jollygreenslugg]

Another outstanding video, thank you sir.

[mrsuperterd]

this is a dream just like when i was a kid always seen the big guys shooting the enfeild than I shot one and bought one. i have to sit behind one before i die and when am old and rich am buy me one. I enevy you; you know that and am a freeman in canada I thought i was free but not till I have the plesure of shooting a vickers all the books I own are canadian ww2 storys and history of battles. the first gun I bought was a lee enfeild just from the books i read. it earned my peers freedom.

[az0921144]

with the old canbis belt

[xazoulini1]

tatatatatatatatat:)))

[holymoly42]

Whay no traversing?

[tk42295]

dude you have so many nice guns how does somebody aquire all these old original masterpieces?

[ww2easternfront]

That's my kind of machine gun :)

[georgewashington92]

thanks for your vids ,some of the most interesting on youtube ,but maybe you could shoot at some targets like an old streestamp or destroying something other ,this would be even better

[ajohn1511]

Your collection is fantastic! Thank you for sharing! I would love to someday be able to just fire something like that. Again, thank you.

[TheBrokenbiker]

Great video. I have been researching my Great Uncle who was a machine gunner in WW1. He won the Military Medal when his unit fired 800 rounds short of 1 million in a 24 hour action using the Vickers. This was the first recorded use of the machine gun barrage.

[cannonski]

Interesting choice, The Longest Day. I recall that during the strafing sequence on the beach the german fighters looked a little odd.

Now looking on IMDB I see why :

One of producer Darryl F. Zanuck's big worries was that, as filming of the actual invasion drew near, he couldn't find any working German Messerschmitts, which strafed the beach. He finally found two Messerschmitts that were being used by the Spanish Air Force

[frank234you]

Hard to believe anyone would charge that.

[cannonski]

Again, lovely video and I am hugely jealous, being here in Scotland with tight gun controls. That being said, are there any war films you see where you just want to scream out at the inaccuracies of the guns they use? If so, which films and what guns and why?

[C2builder]

@cannonski Thanks for the kind words. I see what you are refering to in war movies all the time and the errors jump out at me like a wild cat! The biggest one I can think of at this time is the wrong sound used with most of the machine guns used in the old classic "The Longest Day", which I think was made back in the early sixties.

[MINIHermanator]

@C2builder I LOVE THAT FILM :D

[DRAC250]

@cannonski lol what about in "Commando" when Schwarzenegger is carrying an RPK and puts about 400 rounds through it without reloading? Or in one of the Rambo movies from the 80s where Rambo kills dozens of Vietnamese soldiers with an AK that has its safety on the whole time... or in the early Star Wars films where the stormtroopers carry WW2-vintage MG42s... I can't help but spot the mistakes lol

[drk4tlf]

was this just used in WW1 or was it in WW2 aswell

[TheSouthernGentleman]

Would machine guns like that still have seen use in world war two?

[C2builder]

@TheSouthernGentleman Yes and they did for certain areas of combat.

[swanyAJ]

@TheSouthernGentleman they where used up until fairly recently in british colonial wars and rebelions

[rayoung74]

@TheSouthernGentleman Through WW2 and Korea and wasn't taken out of service till 1968.

[harlequin2262]

@TheSouthernGentleman

All over the place in the case of the russians. WW1 pieces were their main weapon.

[RedcoatT]

@TheSouthernGentleman

The Vickers was the standard medium machine gun of the British and Commonwealth armies in WW2.

It also saw service in Korea

[Sitron90]

@TheSouthernGentleman The first US marines to fight against he Japanese in the Pacific used these, on the Guadalcanal for example.

[RangerThompson]

That whirling charging handle of death- watch your fingers....

[cannonski]

Ah nice to see a true WW1 Vickers machine gun in action. I've read about them holding the record for continuous firing in WW1 (the gun firing for over 12 hours non-stop)

So is there any gun (machine gun or otherwise) you would like to fire? How about that metalstorm gun (though it seems little strange to me).

[C2builder]

@cannonski Thanks for asking, there is one gun Ive always wanted to shoot and that would be the Bofors 40mm. I have seen it on so many of the old war movies and have always admired the design.

[mikeye9]

How much did it cost to shoot all those bullets? lol

[C2builder]

@mikeye9 Depends on the ammo used but somewhere in the $100 range.

[TheUnmaskedMagician]

that is a bad ass gun

[MultiPeasoup]

I love this machine gun.

[cobrachoppergirl]

Sewing machine of death

[topsailjon]

Brilliant. We can't even own handguns now in the UK let alone a superb piece of history like this (unless deactivated). keep up the good work.

[Benzilla25]

lol for a history project i am making one of these out of wood good job the easter holidays are here

[Thatevilmidget]

Seeing one of those beautiful old beasts firing away is a no fuss recipe for an instant smile.

[resurface420]

hey guys kinda off topic but I recently acquired a Lee Enfield no4 mk2 I absolutely LOVE IT anybody knows any good websites to get 303 British, it is so damn expensive where i live not to mention its very hard to find

[AdmiralNeeda]

In WWI, pilots would often clear jams in their aircraft-mounted Vickers by hitting the gun repeatedly with a small hammer. 3 Questions: What exactly is jamming, which parts of the gun are the pilots hitting with the hammer, and how exactly does hitting the gun clear a jam? Thanks!

[C2builder]

I'm not sure if the "hammer" thing is real, most jams were caused by the ammo belt being cross-fed in the feed block which was cleared by charging the gun while pulling the belt to the left side. Hitting it with a hammer will not fix anything on any machine gun...just makes more things not work. Also, the ground crews would certainly report such abuse in their after action report and the pilot would be held accountable, bad news. Not sure how the story spread but I'm not a believer in it.

[tnhl77]

@C2builder it spread from the movie flyboys about WWI pilots

[tina6581]

@AdmiralNeeda The Vickers used in ww1 fighters had an interrupter fitted. This was set up to stop the firing cycle when the propeller blade was in the line of fire. It would often jam the gun. The type of jam changed over time as the interrupter design was refined. But in all cases it could be cleared by pulling the charging handle back sharply once or twice. I don’t know where you could have got the hammer story from. :-)

[emachines007]

just think what it was like to be on the recieving end

[daSEGAfanatic]

I wonder why water cooled guns arent used today?...one could fire them for longer then any air cooled, I think thet could fire more without warping the barrel then most of todays machineguns.

[haloguy00]

@daSEGAfanatic  because it would take 1 guy to hump the gun one guy to hump the water one guy to hump the ammo when if you dont have watter cooled you cant have as much ammo to carry and no watter to carry letting one or to guys do the job.

[MokomaSusi]

Many automatic naval cannons (usually under 100mm) are water cooled.

[Professsor]

I think because they are a lot heavy to carry.

[Professsor]

Where would you buy a vickers from? there are such beautiful weapons.

[C2builder]

They come up for sale here in the USA several times a year, search the NFA Sale Ad's online and you can find them. A nice example would cost around $24K in US Dollars.

[sherbutorange]

does it contain multiple barrels on the inside or just one? but are the bullets the usual or are they specialy made for the gun itself

[C2builder]

One barrel chambered in .303 and surrounded by water for cooling.

[FreedomWithFirearms]

@C2builder

Was there ever a problem with rusting on the exterior of the barrel?

[C2builder]

No because the gunner's were taught to clean the guns thoroughly and often. I suppose if one was to leave the barrel in the jacket for a few weeks with some water still left in it the barrel would start to rust.

[sherbutorange]

what is the firing mechanism for the vickers?

[C2builder]

The Vickers is recoil operated with a gas boost assist in the muzzle cone. Works on the same principle as the Maxims. They are fired a single push down lever located between a set of spade grips at the rear of the gun.

[the82spartans]

Nice!

Thank you for posting this fine weopon in use.

[stev1212]

Id take the accuracy of the vickers over a faster but less accurate gun any day.

[C2builder]

@stev1212, I totally agree.

[flyboyfx]

Until you pair the lafette with the mg42! lol

But then it comes down to mobility but

I would rather get more lead down range but balance it with accuracy ;)

[AlYahud07]

seems to me it has low rate of fire. would that be something like 6-7 shots p/sec?

[C2builder]

Yes, your fiqure is correct as the Vickers shoots at 450rds per minute.

[m3bobby]

I own both a Vickers and a Browning, and I love both. The vickers is more refined than the Browning but the Browning is definatly the more robust gun. If I had to pick one over the other, I couldn't, I'd give them both up.

[januseva]

I like a nice slow and steady rate of fire like that, I'm sure that makes it very accurate and easier for aiming.

[Briselance]

Quite a slow rate of fire, but I still like that gun.

[lioncurlew]

I would not like to be in front of it!!!

[sniwy]

back in WWI, i'm sure that was fast enough

[atatyrknumber1]

@sniwy Nyaaaaah, the MG 42 had a superior fire rate compared to this, but then again the British army probably had a shitload variety of MG's. :P

[googleisshittoss]

Two of them strapped to a Sopwith Camel...nasty for German Pilots!

[lovemorembigi]

Awesome video - a real tribute to a truly classic machine gun. Thanks for your work and for sharing it!

[speedabit]

How is it compared to browning 1917A1?

[C2builder]

The Browning 1917 is a better and simpler design with fewer parts, and I would say is better than the Vickers. However, the 1917 didn't participate in any major action during WWI so it was never fully tested in battle.

[WWIIOLgeorgh]

Well, both designs did come back into play for WW2, and both held up rather well for sustained fire weapons.

[FredDude27]

@C2builder The Br.1917 MG even some some action in the Korean war.

[C2builder]

Yes sir it did, helped stop the banzai charges several times.

[BInRt]

@C2builder

Banzai charges were rather embarrassing.

[C2builder]

Hands down its the Vickers since it has adjustable headspace, is about 10 pounds lighter and is more reliable in battlefield conditions.

[MrGunsplosion]

what's the cyclic rate like 550?

[C2builder]

Rate of fire is 450 per minute. Steady as a locomotive engine.

[TheGtagunner1]

this is loud cool vid

[waffenss088]

How much does it cost? One round 308. cal? By the way, great shooting!

[onasafnhoj]

its...so beautiful

[jubbles2343]

lovely bit of kit, but I bet you must have taken a loan out to buy the ammo haha

[mugofdoom]

Damn sexy. You are one lucky bastard, I'd give anything for a WW1 Vickers :P

Also, first commenter, first viewer, and first rater... I guess that's somewhat of an accomplishment...