first post in the "other hmg " forum

[Perro]

The photo on the OTHER HMG page is of a zb37
i have a couple of these parts kits

one of my favorite pictures showing that the barrel on the zb37 is longer than an AK47 all by itself :)

followed by a few photos of the ZB37 / MG37 in action


what a fantastic czech heavy machine gun.

one look at one of these closeup, and you would truly appreciate it! The amount of machine time (produced before CNC machinery) to build one of these is AMAZING. They couldnt build this gun today for less than $20,000.00 a piece, and thats getting it outsourced!

most everything on this gun is either milled, or turned on manual machining, and its a HUGE beast

thought you would enjoy

[Perro]

photos of the almost MINT parts kit
had these all stored on my hard drive
tanker wanted to know what would be a good MG for the "other" section, so here are the photos i have had on the HD for a while.

[M1 Tanker]

Damnit Perro, you know that is going to start my saliva glands and I'm going to drool all over myself. I would love a semi zb37, those things are a work of art.

Your pictures really show the machining.

[Perro]

dont know why the others didnt take

[Perro]

the forum is giving me errors when trying to upload 4 more pics?

also have a video of one - when i get ftp access, ill upload it

[M1 Tanker]

I'll go see what I can find out Perro.

[Rampager]

Perro, what caliber is that???

[weasel_master]

Damn that thing is sweet. What's it weigh?

[wulf50guy]

Perro, what caliber is that???

That's what I was going to ask.
that is an awesome piece of hardware.

[Optimus Prime]

8mm I'd guess...?

[SteelCore]

There does look to be a lot of lathing work in that bbl. It that smooth outer bbl stuffed into a liner shaped with those heat-sink fins, or is that one piece of lathed steel for the bbl?

It is art, fer sher.

ZB-37 is an 8mm mauser belt fed heavy MG with two rates of fire. Used in WWII by the German and Axis powers and after the war by israel, greece and many other countries.

[Optimus Prime]

I was just guessing from the fact that the Czech military at the time would have been Mausers. Yay common sense!

[Deadheadmatt]

Perro, you must have a huge gun room. Your collection always amazes me. Have you assembled any of the kits in the photos?

Matt

[Perro]

Perro, what caliber is that??? 8x57 - 8mm mauser - huge gun for that caliber


Damn that thing is sweet. What's it weigh? ALOT - not sure exactly, but the barrel weighs like 20 pounds by itself. its close to a m2hb .50 browning, but much shorter.


There does look to be a lot of lathing work in that bbl. It that smooth outer bbl stuffed into a liner shaped with those heat-sink fins, or is that one piece of lathed steel for the bbl?
it is a solid chunk of steel. if you sat and studied the receiver, you will see the milling machine tooling marks. They basically took a solid bilet of steel, and milled all the crap away to make that receiver. I was being serious that it would cost $20,000.00 to make that gun today, and thats outsourced. Its an amazing amount of detail, and work. another thing that amazes me with these guns. Most machine guns use a stamped sheet metal top cover (mg42, m60, pkm etc etc) the top cover, and feed tray on this gun are milled from a solid billet as well.


Have you assembled any of the kits in the photos
i have not gotten to the zb37s. im still trying to get the time to turn some replacement firing pins for my mg42 semi auto, and after that is the vickers.

both of the zb37 kits i bought were 99.9% condition from being mint. they are truly awesome kits


tanker, i need ftp access please.

here is a video of what i assume to be a post sample one that i found on the internet. The gun is set on the slow rate of fire (the rate of fire can be changed by moving a lever to allow it to fire a fast rate of fire, or a slow rate of fire)
http://www.cetmerifles.com/zb37.mpg

[Optimus Prime]

Man... what does fast sound like?

[Perro]

the british bought a liscense to manufacture these, and they evolved into whats called the BESA tank gun (the brits used them on tanks but didnt make them as intricate as the czechs did - see the photo in the below link)
http://www.ds-solutions.co.uk/Store/index.php?cPath=5_17&osCsid=06a8dc173baf685b6be28f8be91ff9a8


The spade grip handle hoo hahs, move, and you cock the gun by unlocking, and pushing forward on the spade grips until the sear grabs the bolt, then you pull backwards on the spades which pulls the bolt back to the open bolt position, then you lock the spades back in, and fire it.
Im trying to find the other photos of it on the tripod - the tripod has an anti aircraft extension leg built into it - see the photo above of the soldier firing one in the AA role

[wonderwolf]

Dang

[M1 Tanker]

Perro, call me and we will do user/pass over the landline.

[SteelCore]

"the top cover, and feed tray on this gun are milled from a solid billet as well."

Man...that is just a machining feat all around! I'd call it a museum-worthy piece, truly a collectible!

Youse gots maad toyz Perro!

[CaptMax]

Besides Wiselite Arms is there anyone else who has built one of these kits into a semi-automatic :icon_question:
http://i713.photobucket.com/albums/ww139/CaptMaxII/DSCN3309.jpg
Bump to keep this thread active.
CaptMax

[weasel_master]

Capt, they are the only ones I know of right now, although I think there is another well known fellow (I bet you can guess who I'm thinking of) that is working on one. I'm not positive, but that's what I recall from the Creek.