A near Century of Silence is broken, A MG08/15 Lives again!

[IMBLITZVT]

Hi Guys, I have been posting around here for a while. I thought I would post some picture of what I have been up to lately. I bought a Dewat MG08/15 in Nov of 2009. Lots of ATF paperwork later, I reactivated it in a few hours of work and shot it last weekend! I had a small weld to dremel away, replaced the barrel and lock. It was very dirty and took much more time to clean then it took to reactivate. I was up to one o'clock in the morning the night before getting her ready. Other then a little bit where the steel melted from the original dewat welding, you almost can't tell. It headspaced perfectly the first time! The next morning, I packed up a truck load of Stuff (18 locks, 4 sets of recoil plates, every small spare part I had...etc) and enough different kinds of 8mm to supply everyone at the range, belt loader, belts... and off we went.

Here is a clip of the first time this gun has fired (likely) since it was fired at the US troops that captured it:

<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OG5Yplv2cAM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I did not want to bother packing the barrel and filling the waterjacket the first day so I limited my shooting to 15 rds at a time. Here are some clips of 10rd belts:

<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vOKJUCzssEw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1fTxvpGNsPc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

More details on the gun can be found here:
http://www.mg42.us/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=10690
http://www.mg42.us/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=10935

For those of you into Maxims, I have a small pars list I send out with hard to find parts. I also am always looking to buy anything related to Maxims! If interested, email me at phiteshe@vt.edu

[Alan Smith]

Very nice videos and story; thanks for posting. If you get a chance, please post more photos of the gun (including any you have showing the rewat process).

Regards,

[FestungSpanien]

Fully agree!
Thanks for sharing!

Very nice videos and story; thanks for posting. If you get a chance, please post more photos of the gun (including any you have showing the rewat process).

Regards,

[DennyB]

I wasn't aware that machine guns could be rewated nowadays.

[jh-ss44]

yes, as long as it was still papered in 1968.
a friend bought an m.p.44 from a museum , 1945 de milled. thank god it was papered.
he did some of the work & a "special" gun shop did the rest.
dealing with the atf was a piece of cake, super fast (1997 ish).
actually a non papered item can still get papers BUT, only with the right friends.
jeff