Ryo

Someone in May posted a video shooting it through his bolt.. He liked it better than the Ethiopian 8mm surplus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J0uMsISFkA Edit: Another video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BY1sXS4ZFY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG-LWtdPaHQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfPvFmav8WQ

TNVC seems to be on it's game when dealing with NV and Thermal stuff.. or they appear to be. Maybe call them up and just chat with them about it. 7 years ago I looked through a Trijicon thermal optic mounted on a rifle, at Shot Show. It was pretty good, but lacked the extra functionality you can get in today's Thermal. They probably had FLIR make it for them. FLIR seems to make really good thermal stuff. I've only played with Thermal handheld meters such as FLIR and Fluke. They were meant for scanning industrial motors and such for overheating of ball bearings and such. The old models was just thermal and it was hard to figure where your looking at. Fluke had a combination camera and thermal sensor that overlaid on each other so you could tell what you were seeing.. but likely the optics your looking at doesn't do that since there so much that could go wrong. For my gear I went with a PVS14, PEQ15 laser (got the PEQ before MAWL came out), and a dedicated IR illuminator. You can see a lot of detail. with the PVS in combination with a good illuminator. Some of the accessories on the PVS 14 are pretty amazing, making stuff more convenient to see things close and far away without having to adjust the aperture of the PVS14 (which is a pain)

Hey.. I'm a quality oriented slope. Definitely stereotypically the Chinese like going cheap as they can get, they don't care about quality as much as making a profit. I've met quite a few that way.. but also I know quite a few that spend lots of money (on tooling, training, etc) to manufacture their stuff right.

I have been trying to study more about the MG34.. There are 2 topics I'm trying to decipher from all that I am reading. 1. Maintenance: I'm just starting to read about maintenance. I got picked up a translated manual but haven't gotten a chance to dive in to it. This got me thinking what type of tools do I need to maintain it? I have general tool like punches, wrenches, vice, etc.. but not some of the dedicated tools that I saw in Robert Segels's Machine Gun Support Equipment with the ammo can maintenance kit the German soldiers were issue. Also is there a any specific parts I should have spares of in case of breakage/malfunctions? 2. Surplus Ammo: This is the big one for me since I need to buy some.. Since good surplus ammo is drying up, it is starting to be limited to only a few brands of "cheap" surplus. Since I don't want to damage the MG34, I was wondering what ammo have you guys been using with success. I've been looking at forums, YouTube, Forgotten Weapons ammo reviews, etc. All the reviews seen on YouTube were 90% about shooting it out of a bolt rifle. So this is what I've been looking at: FedArm: Cheapest around but I read Mike wouldn't put it in his due to it being surplus parts put together. One video I saw on it showed the box which has made in Russia and the website does state that it is mixed components. Even the brass might be different. Ethiopian: Read it was decent with good annealing but some may have poor ignition (but that was in bolt rifles) Egyptian: Seems like there was some decent reviews on it but not much detail Romanian: Red lacquer is good, but green lacquer is bad. Haven't seen any store selling them. Serbian M75: One video had a guy said it was good in his bolt rifle. PPU: Expensive but new. Might be underpowered compared to surplus. Yugo: bad reputation? heard there might be some case cracking (bolt rifle). 1950's are typically good years but 1954 is rumored to be bad Israeli: Good? Turkish ammo BAD BAD BAD BAD! Also what about reloading? Do any of you guys do that?

@maxfaxdude Thanks letting us know about Mike's tricks. I'm sure he has a lot more up his sleeve.

Been doing some hard core google-fu on Johnson Paste and belt fed machine guns. I finally found info about it... and of course it bring me back to this site. http://www.sturmgewehr.com/forums/index.php?/topic/16565-8mm-machine-gun-ammo-fedarm/#comment-51581 So it looks like you wax your ammo to feed the MG34 better.

I don't look at it as a power grab because many things that are not related to firearms are voluntarily being cancelled. If it was only firearm related stuff I would definitely agree. In my state of trying to implement taxing ammo, limiting round capacity, banning imports, etc I say is a power grab we have to fight every year.

SC Johnson's Paste Wax has caught my attention.. so you rub that stuff on both the bullet casing and the belt? I was thinking of picking up a MG34..

Sadly it isn't surprising. Lots of great events are being cancelled.

As long as the suppressor is aligns up correctly I can't see how a 9mm vs 45 can would make a difference when dealing with baffle strikes. 22 can should work fine too. Only thing I can say is that be sure what ever can you use, it would be best to be able to disassemble the suppressor for cleaning. 22LR are dirty and can fill up a can, causing performance degradation.

I think some company did make a brass catcher for the 180.. I've never seen this type of configuration for the 180 so I find it quite interesting.

Mike, you certainly get a thumbs up here. Now you got me thinking of making a deflector shield for the 180.. though I never shoot nearly the amount you have shot.

PM Sent.

Well I can now say I'm not happy with FedEx. They had signature required but they left a machine gun at the door without knocking or asking for a signature! Fortunately I was paying attention to the security camera and noticed that someone had activated it.

Auction houses typically cost about 20-30% more due to fees and shipping.