The Vigneron was adopted to replace the Sten in Belgian service – so is it actually better than the Sten? In my opinion, yes. The sights and overall handling are better. The pistol grip is a welcome addition, although its contours make the grip safety a bit difficult for me to fully depress.
Submachine Guns
Cold War Belgium: Comparing the Vigneron M1 and M2 SMGs
The Vigneron was Belgium’s standard submachine gun during the early years of the Cold War. It was originally adopted as the M1 in 1953, and about 21,300 were made. In 1954, several modifications were made, […]
Bolt Action Rifles
Amsterdam Police Carbine: 8mm Mauser for the Carbine/SMG Squad
In the wake of World War Two, much of Europe was awash in small arms – but there were still organizations looking to purchase new arms rather than use the available surplus. The Gemeentepolitie Amsterdam […]
Bolt Action Rifles
Book Review: FN Mauser Rifles by Anthony Vanderlinden
When I was waiting for my copy of Anthony Vanderlinden’s new book “FN Mauser Rifles” to arrive, I was expecting a typical sort of dry reference work. You know, the sort of thing that is […]
Can we have that introduction again, in Flemish?
Ian,
Your French has improved considerably over the years. Now we challenge you to introduce an obscure Belgian gun while speaking Flemish. Hah! Hah!
I must protest, as this weapon was made by Précision Liégeoise S.A which imply Francophone twice. 1st name is in français, 2nd Liége is located in Français zone, c.f. https://ontheworldmap.com/belgium/city/liege/liege-location-on-the-belgium-map.html with https://en.populationdata.net/maps/belgium-languages/
It would seem one of the great improvements over the STEN is the mounting of the front sight on the bbl.
Actually, the MP38/40 mags will fit in the Vigneron M2 but not vice versa. For some reason, the Belgians were of the opinion that they might need to use German mags but didn’t want the Germans using theirs. Wonder why?
After WW2 the first official new sub-machine gun was the MP1, the Beretta model 38/49 aka the model 4. The MP2 is the Uzi. No MP38 or 40 in service in Germany after the war. So I guess it was just some design happenstance that the magazines do not fully interchange.
That remark was intended as a witticism. But I did want to correct the impression that the MP38/40 mags cannot be used in M2 Vig.
What strikes mea s really odd about the Vigneron is the angled stock. If it was straight parallel with the barrel ist should help with recoil control. As Ian shooting it shows it wanders upwards despite the compensator at the muzzle. A straight stock may have helped a bit.
The trade off might be that a straight-line stock makes it harder to have a good sight picture without raising the sights?
If it was supposed to replace STEN, then this might be simple due to stock shape of STEN Mk.III
I still think that the Sten Mark 5 would be at least as good and probably as cheap. Everyone always compares SMG’s with the mass produced ‘we need guns now’ Sten marks II and III. I wonder if Ian has ever fired a Sten Mark V. especially one with the vertical fore grip.
Really, nobody picked up all the MP38/MP40’s lying around for free? Not even the French (who had two battalions of Panthers post war) or the Ivans (who hauled off anything they could manage to unbolt from Germany and never throw ANYTHING out)? Not even to arm the militia if worse came to worse?
According to https://wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com/2015/06/14/rearming-austria-wwii-weapons/
Bundesheer (Austria) did use 2,838 MP-40 submachine guns which U.S.Army gave and
The MP-40 submachine guns were quite popular. Many ex-Wehrmacht veterans obviously knew how to use them, and the crews of M24 Chaffee tanks liked them as they were more powerful than a handgun but more compact than a carbine. The MP-40s remained in use until the early 1960s.
I wonder if going to a “chicken wing” stance would make it easier to depress the safety and deal with the odd grip. I know when i hold that way, it makes it easier to handle certain guns, especially older designs.