AndrewsArmoryllc Posted September 17, 2017 Report Share Posted September 17, 2017 Looking for a bipod and a belt loader for my MG08/15. Please contact me with price if you have one to sell. Thanks, Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pstidan Posted September 18, 2017 Report Share Posted September 18, 2017 Original German 08-08/15 belts are offered from time to time on eBay. Most are in poor condition and good enough for display purposes only. Tabbed Vickers belts work just fine after the pockets are stretched out. Sarco and OOW offered loaders for these tabbed Vickers belts in the past. I don't know if they still do. Bill Guiette makes a great belt loader. That said, it's probably better to get some surplus Turkish aluminum 250 round 8mm belts. They are/were inexpensive and can be loaded by hand, no loader needed. IMA sold them in the past for thirty bucks a pop. That was well worth it. An original German 08-08/15 belt loader is rare and very, very expensive. I have no idea about acquiring an 08/15 bipod. Maybe you should post a WTB over on 1919A4 dot com and plenty of Maxim and Vickers shooters hang out over there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike todd Posted September 20, 2017 Report Share Posted September 20, 2017 AN OLD GOATS OPINION ABOUT LOADERS! for what little its worth, over the years I have gathered almost every mechanical belt loader built IE; crank operated .and I love them, but they all have issue's the maxim loader for the MG08 and 08/15 is a well designed robust loader that works. but hard to find and usually expensive, the last two observed this year sold for $2500. ea and the carry chests were either damaged or incomplete. if you don't have one and just want to shoot, the best easy choice is the TURK alum belt mentioned , IF YOU CAN FIND THEM, but last I heard IMA was OUT? they work great, are easy to load by hand, probably faster than one guy with a crank loader. and if it breaks easy to twist the spring and take out the bad. ABSOLUTLY THE BEST belt for the maxim is the swiss metal belt, sadly almost never seen and expensive if they know what its for. must be some confusion about the loader for the "tabbed Vickers belts" yes bill makes a great loader for them, that works well. however it takes forever to put the belts in place and move it after that section is loaded. I only use it for new belts that need stretched to shape and wont load by hand and EVERY TIME, I WISH I DIDNT HAVE IT!! OR THE ^&%^$^# NEW BELTS. !! A CRANK OPERATED LOADER FOR THE "TABBED VICKERS BELTS, WITH A CHUTE AND COMPLETE IS A IMPOSSIBLE WET DREAM AT THIS STAGE. 6 years ago I found one offered $4000.00 in HAND was refused , asked "how much then" and got a blank face. I now have more than that in hand and NO ONE TO OFFER ?? I did see 2 different vendors offer the SWISS CRANK BELT LOADER FOR METAL BELTS ONLY. as VICKERS LOADERS?? at just shy of $1k if I remember right. OF course THEY WIL NOT LOAD TABBED BELTS and there might be 8 or so SWISS guns in the system so the only REAL VALUE they have is to open them up to fit 8x57 MAUSER. then they make the BEST loader on the planet for GERMAN MG-34 and MG- 42 belts. the ORIGINAL GERMAN NAZI ERA CRANK loaders are decent and if not abused work fairly well. a few years ago the YUGO COPY'S of that loader hit the US. I bought several and many have asked me for help with them. I have NEVER SEEN A GOOD ONE!! dumped all I owned at whatever I could get and would not give $50 for an example if I had to use it. so if thinking about one of those BEWARE!! the asking price for those has dropped more than 40% since they arrived and I expect they will more.. the "other loader" that is chased and traded a lot is the browning cloth belt loader. it works well enough if set up right and there are 2 lads present to use it, and most importantly the belts are NOT THE MOST COMMON NOS USGI , RUSSELL MFG inmost cases. they are next to IMPOSSIBLE to load with the needle machine until they have been used and opened up by some other means. the work excellent with used belts or the post war SWEDISH, IZZY, and some Canadian belts . I get lots of calls about problems from folks with NOS BELTS that just bought a machine in desperation to load them and there is no fix I can offer. hope helped a bit, cheers mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pstidan Posted September 23, 2017 Report Share Posted September 23, 2017 I just got IMA's latest email sales ad. It shows they indeed still have some Turkish aluminum Maxim belts. They have them labeled as "Original German Maxim MG Aluminum Ammunition Belt - 250 Rounds". https://www.ima-usa.com/collections/german-machine-guns/products/original-german-wwi-maxim-mg-aluminum-ammunition-belt-250-rounds?variant=25653069061 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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