BACKGROUND: Among other restrictions, the Treaty of Versailles banned Germany from developing any type of general purpose machine gun. To circumvent this, German development of an all purpose machine gun was secretly being done in Switzerland in the early 1930's. By 1934 designer Louis Stange of the Rheinmetall armaments factory had made improvements to the secret machine gun developed in Switzerland and the MG34 was introduced as an all purpose selective fire weapon. In spite of the relatively high production cost, the MG34 was accepted by the H.Fzm, Heeresfeldzeugmeisterei, (Army Ordnance Department), a subsection of the OKH, Oberkommando des Heeres, (High Command of the Army), that was responsible for testing, evaluation and eventual issue of all ordnance, and deliveries of the MG34 began in 1936. In 1937 due to the high cost and manufacturing time of the MG34 development began on another general purpose machine gun which utilized stamped and pressed components making it cheaper and quicker to produce. Further developments resulted in the introduction of the MG42 general purpose machine gun in late 1941. Of Note: With a rate of fire of roughly nine hundred rounds per minute, the MG34 was a formidable weapon with automatic and semi-automatic firing capabilities and production continued even after the cheaper and higher rate of fire MG42 was introduced.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Machine tooled, blued steel and sheet metal construction MG34 with a molded brown bakelite stock and hand grips. The components consist of the molded bakelite stock with a horizontally grooved butt end with a countersunk steel screw and a steel attachment sleeve with a pressure locking clip positioned on the bottom edge. The removable stock is attached to tooled steel receiver housing. The original receiver has had the side panels removed from the belt feed openings and is deactivated by a single bolt running upwards through the interior rendering it locked in the closed position. The original bolt, inactive, fold back receiver lid and the trigger housing with grips and trigger are all intact to the receiver. The tooled steel trigger housing with finger guard and bolted on bakelite grips with impressed, horizontal, grooves for a secure grip are all intact. The trigger housing is well marked with the impressed letters consisting of "S" indicating, Sicherheit, (Safety), and "F" indicating Feuer, (Fire). The dual action, rocker trigger allowed for either single or sustained fire and is well marked with the impressed letters, "E" indicating, Einzelschuss, (Single shot/semi-automatic), and "D" indicating, Dauerfeuer, (Sustained fire). The trigger is locked in position. The weapon has a removable, blued, tooled steel barrel encompassed by a tooled sleeve with sixty-one, evenly spaced, bored, ventilation holes. The sleeve serves double duty as a protective shield with it’s main function being heat dissipation. The top of the barrel sleeve has an adjustable, flip up hinged, rear, range leaf sight with the typical, "V"-notch side panel and push button activation, allowing for range adjustment from 200 to 2000 meters in increments of 100. The forward barrel sleeve sight is the hinged, folding, blade type. Both of the sights still function. The bottom edge of the forward barrel sleeve has a removable, hinged, fold down, swivel, spring loaded, bipod with a central, screw down, width adjustment dial. The bipod has extended tabs near the "feet" with oval cut-outs which allow it to be folded up parallel to the bottom of the barrel sleeve with an extended, locking nut to secure the bipod in the closed position as required. The bottom of the barrel sleeve also has an arm that extends into the grooved bipod attachment housing, which, when depressed, allows for removal of the bipod. The forward barrel also has an octagonal nut base, a circular, fluted, muzzle flash with a spring loaded locking clip all intact. Other features to the barrel sleeve include a tooled steel, dovetailed grooved housing for attaching the anti-aircraft ring sight and an extended, closed loop for attaching the carrying sling. The bottom edge of the hand grip also has an extended, closed loop for the carrying sling. The carrying sling is absent. The MG has numerous, impressed, markings including a waffen-amt and the date, "1942" matched and mismatched serial numbers indicating some parts have been replaced, and the manufacturer’s codes consisting of, "cra" to the barrel, indicating manufacture by Alkett Altmarkisches Kettenwerk GmbH of Berlin, and "pem" to the receiver indicating an unknown manufacturer. The MG retains about 80% of it’s original bluing with surface scratching and spots of wear to the base metal. The deactivation is irreversible but does not overly detract from the MG’s appearance. The Mg would make a great mannequin display or re-enactors accessory. Please Note: This can not be shipped to the United States as ATF guidelines on weapons deactivation are different than Canadian laws.

GRADE ***1/2                             PRICE $ SOLD