The undisputed star of the upcoming Rock Island Premier auction is this transferable full-auto German FG-42 paratrooper’s rifle. Only a few dozen of these are in private hands in the US, and they are an extremely advanced design for WWII.
For more information on the FG42, check out the FG-42 page in the Vault, and my review of the SMG Guns semiauto reproduction FG-42.
Michael Heidler has again come up with a one-of-a-kind German firearm, and sent us this writeup. This time, it is an experimental variation on the MP38 submachine gun. Thanks, Michael! The German experimental light-weight submachine […]
Theodore Emil Kommer was born in 1866, son of a German gunsmith. He took the same profession, and at the age of 23 in 1889 opened his own business making guns. He initially focused on […]
Most everyone is familiar with the Luger pistol – it is one of the most iconic handgun designs ever made. Folks who have a passing interest in the guns will probably know about both the […]
© 2024 Forgotten Weapons.
Site developed by Cardinal Acres Web Development.
Really nice rifle. I like how you say you are not supposed to take it apart because its pricy, and continue to do a fps sweep of the room 🙂 Afterwards you remove as much parts as you can 🙂
Also: it looks like the spike banjonet was somehow designed to be used without or with a shorter muzzle brake. (the star pattern continues well under the muzzle brake.)
Re: Bayonet
I suspect that’s more to keep the weight down than anything else. I certainly wouldn’t want to fire the thing without the compensator and while it’s fairly easy to remove I wouldn’t want to do it in the field.
The estimated price is between $160,000-$240000. For how much do these usually sell?
These are so rarely on the market, there is no ‘usual’ price. That’s why it goes to auction.
Man, I laughed when you pointed out the muzzle device was on wrong, Ian-KNOWS HIS STUFF.
Strikes me as a classic of ‘overkill’ design, expensive to make, of marginal structural safety, and of limited tactical value in practice. Surely it would have been better to redesign the paratroopers dropping kit, and give them a slightly modified G.43? This kind of absurd technical rivalry-cum-‘political’ disagreement caused havoc in weapons production in Germany. Fortunately for the rest of us!
Pretty sure the G43 rifle did not exist at the time. (or maybe that the luftwaffe simply did not know it was in development). limited tactical value, not so sure, its like giving all the paratroopers the firepower of a BAR, with no weight penalty.
Maybe if they dropped some size restraints and some additional development it could have been cheaper to build?
One thing which amazes me with this particular design is how it can be taken to last bit without tools and yet it holds together; most amazing. The other is how single shot and auto options are set up. This is truly ingenious piece and it seem to keep drawing fans on and on.
i wonder what happens when you switch fire mode
does the bolt close when you switch from full to semi auto ?
No, the bolt doesn’t close when you switch from full to semi. My understanding (and I forgot to try this out myself while I was at RIA) is that if the bolt is in the open position when you change the selector, the next trigger pull will drop the bolt into the closed position, and you will have to pull the trigger a second time to fire the fire semiauto shot – after that it will run normally. This is because the FCG is a bit SMG-like, and just drops the sear to release the bolt carrier. When the bolt is locked open and a semiauto pull made, the FCG will engage the semiauto notch in the bolt carrier, thereby stopping it. But like I said, I didn’t think to try that out (which I’m kicking myself for not doing).
The bolt is “locked” open on an empty mag by the follower. When you remove the magazine, the bolt will go forward.
Anybody want to buy a boat (and maybe a kidney and a lung)? 🙂
Something that nice needs the proper accessories, like a full Fallschirmjaeger outfit and an airworthy Ju-52!
I go for that Junkers – what a lovely plane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3epvybVQB9o&list=PLFCE3898BEED06D9C
that would look sweet with some rails, maybe a flashlight. i think i’ll buy t and deck it out with magpull pts all around. definitely a badass vertical foregrip.
@bill huggins
One German guy, by the name of Bernd Dietrich (of Sport Systeme Dietrich from Kulmbach, GER) actually came with a design you’d presumably love, bill. This is a modernized FG-42 with 12-inch bbl and lots of 1913 rails…
Me personally thanks a lot, but no thanks.
@Ian
taking my cue from guys who corrected your pronounciation of Krnka, let me say you that Louis Stange was not pronunced ‘STANDG’ but actually it’s more like ‘SHTANGHË’ with hard ‘sh’ and distinctly pronounced ‘e’. Stange btw means a ‘bar’ (like in pry-bar or crow-bar) in German
SMG is also tinkering with a “tactical” model FG… 🙂
Thanks for the correction on Stange – that sounds much more German.