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Store Hours
Mon-Fri: 10am-8pm
Sat-Sun: 9am*-7pm
*First hour of weekend range time (9am-10am) is reserved for
members only. Retail store is open to everyone during these hours.
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About The Mauser MG42
The German Army started WWII with the MG34. This machinegun
was a beautifully finished and machined firearm which unfortunately
was too expensive to manufacture and did not meet the stringent requirements
of a wartime effort. Dr. Grunow from the Großfusswerken in
Döbeln in Sachsen, who specialized in mass-production technology,
was given the project to design a replacement. The outcome, after
much design work and testing in the field, was the MG42. This machinegun
was in many ways similar to the MG34 but was much simpler in design,
easier to manufacture and only cost 250 Reichsmark instead of 312
Reichsmark for the MG34.
The MG42 uses a locked bolt system and has a recoiling
barrel. The gun fired standard 50-round belts of 7.92mm ammunition
but had a very fast cyclic rate of up to 1500 rounds per minute.
This fast rate created a lot of vibration, which adversely affected
accuracy until a novel muzzle brake system was implemented which
stabilized the weapon. The fast fire rate made it impossible to fire
single rounds in the field, but by using short bursts this weapon
was formidable on the battlefield, especially in the hands of trained
fire teams. With the fast rate of fire came a susceptibility to barrel
overheating. The MG42 has a very simple and effective means of changing
barrels so that was never an issue. At the end of WWII many MG42s
were used to rearm the French and other countries that had been occupied
by Germany, thus it can still be found in many locations around the
globe. The MG42 has been re-chambered to accept the 7.62x51mm NATO
and is known as the MG3.
Manufacturer: |
Mauser |
Designation: |
MG42 |
Country: |
Germany |
Production: |
1942 - |
Cartridge: |
7.92 x 57mm |
Magazine Capacity: |
Belt-Fed |
Length (gun): |
48" |
Length (barrel): |
21" |
Weight (gun): |
25.5 lbs |
Rifling: |
4 groove right hand |
Cyclic Rate: |
1100 - 1500 rpm |
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