Steyr-Solothurn S2-200: the Austrian MG30 and Hungarian 31M

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The S2-200 was developed by Louis Stange at the Rheinmetall company in Germany in the late 1920s. Because Germany was not allowed to be doing this sort of arms development at the time, Rheinmetall bought a controlling stake in the Swiss firm Solothurn AG, to make the product deniably Swiss. The gun itself is recoil operated, with a rotating locking collar connecting the bolt and barrel, rather like the Hotchkiss Portative. It was a design that had some early influence on the German MG34, although the German military declined to adopt it. Instead, it was taken into service in 8x56mm by both Austria (as the MG30) and Hungary (as the 31M). A third purchaser was El Salvadore, which purchased 47 examples in 7x57mm caliber.
After the anschluss in 1938, the Austrian guns were integrated into the Wehrmacht, where they were primarily used by mountain troops. Hungary did later make a version in 7.92x57mm, designated the 43M.
Many thanks to the Royal Armouries for allowing me to film and disassemble these two very rare LMGs! The NFC collection there - perhaps the best military small arms collection in Western Europe - is available by appointment to researchers:
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You can browse the various Armouries collections online here:
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[@gavinhammond1778]

Love the Royal Armoury. 'It's as rare as rocking horse shit...We have two". Thanks for the content.

[@Kav.]

Actually they have more like 3-4 from memory. When I went there (to look at the British Trials Solothurn) I remember seeing about that many. You can find them as items: PR.319, 6990, 11978, 7029 on their website (I just checked after writing the first part) (Edit coz I was dumb and forgot PR.7029 is a belt fed later gun, not one of the mag fed Solothurns)

[@gavinhammond1778]

@@Kav. Thanks mate for taking the time to reply so effectively. Have a lovely day.

[@mikehipperson]

2 rocking horses?

[@voiceofraisin3778]

@@mikehipperson Captive breeding programme, its too early to release them back into the wild though.

[@yt.602]

I'm fortunate that I live about 15 miles from the Royal Armoury, so go there quite often it's a really good display museum and of course has a huge reference collection which Ian plunders finding the weird, wonderful and unicorns. Great vid. The Forgotten Weapons museum is a real thing :)

[@IRico_chetI]

The S on the trigger most definetly is not for "Sicher", since that means "safe". It probably refers to "Schnellfeuer" or "rapid fire"

[@matatron.]

The R on the gear stick stands for "Race Mode"!

[@42ZaphodB42]

So it doesn't stand for Sexy Mode?

[@petrimakela5978]

​@@42ZaphodB42Everyone knows S-mode is sport!

[@DiffrentPets]

Sicher could also mean "sure" or "of course" so it makes sense

[@theViece]

yes, "schnell" would make a lot more sense in this context

[@venator5]

Hungarian here. Coincidentally the hungarian words also start with the same letters. E stands for "Egyes lövés" (Single shot) S for "Sorozatlövés" (literally chain fire). T on the safety stands for "Tűzkész" (Fire ready) Z for "Zárt" (locked)

[@jefferybaxter6474]

😂 According to built in comment translator “here” stands for for testicle. lol I was confused when I looked back at the first two words in your comment after hitting the translate button.

[@venator5]

@@jefferybaxter6474 I was the one who was confused when I was learning english and meet the here world quiet often.

[@zbigniewgurak8261]

@ venator5 Thanks, brother (Lengyel here) !

[@robertsloan2877]

Here

[@dauber221]

In German it stands for "Schnellfeuer" (fast fire) and "Einzelfeuer"(Single shot), so it works for both. I think he tried to say "sicher", that means "save".

[@Darth-Nihilus1]

I can see a Star Wars Stormtrooper or Clone trooper running around with this. 1920’s to early 1930’s has a bunch of really neat designs.

[@michaelshelton5488]

A lot of Star Wars guns were based on actual historical guns

[@lucashenry6281]

This does look a lot like the first generation of Clone blaster rifles.

[@donjones4719]

1930s sci fi illustrations often used the latest cutting-edge industrial designs and turned them up to 11. This established the basic look of what sci fi is *supposed* to look like. IIRC there are gun illustrations from that era that look something like this. Also, this influenced the MG-34 stock and that influenced a *lot* of sci fi guns. George Lucas famously filled the first Star Wars movies with WW2-derived military designs.

[@lucashenry6281]

@@donjones4719 trust me, gun designers couldn’t care less about aesthetics when the name of the game is functionality.

[@aaron6178]

I believe the stormtrooper blaster was indeed developed from the FG-42. I recall a documentary where producers explained that Lucas' budget was so small that most of the uniforms and weapons were props dragged out from the studio's extensive history of ww2 movie production. Bit of paint and random crap bolted on and hey presto. Pretty cool.

[@peterstadlmaier3107]

Austrian Military: "We want this gun, but it is too expensive." Rheinmetall: "You can save 5 bucks if you do without the front handle" Austrian Military: "Deal!"

[@simoncleret]

Having the lugs rotate around the bolt is neat.

[@monkeyfarmer1138]

The technical term for the rotating "locking collar" is called a fermeture nut.

[@simoncleret]

@monkeyfarmer1138 "Fermeture" meaning either a thing that closes or the act of closing in French

[@pyro4squirrel]

That bolt, locking ring, and barrel extention look like a lightsaber

[@AtlasJotun]

Certainly looks like it would excel in melee lol

[@JTD19881369]

I was definitely going to say that. Lol. Thank God they used a flash bulb and not this

[@attilatoth5955]

The Hungarian magazines were coated with cadmium to prevent corrosion. Their capacity was 25 pieces of 8x56R mm ammunition. The capacity of the magazine of the 43M light machine gun was 30 pieces of 7.92x57mm ammunition.

[@arjen7024]

I could watch you wax lyrical about interwar LMGs for hours, this video is peak forgotten weapons

[@majinojinn]

Tin magazine coatings is a rare three requirement nexus: cheap, rust resistant, and low friction to get them out of pouches rapidly.

[@justindunlap1235]

Plus tinning is a ridiculously quick and easy process compared to other finishing options.

[@michaelshelton5488]

"This is full auto only. There's no semi auto setting. Also there's a double trigger, the top is single shot and the bottom is full auto." How very German. 🤣

[@billysunday7507]

Wrong

[@MarkErikEE]

@@billysunday7507 Why wrong? Interweb sources say the same thing for trigger - E for semi-auto, S for full auto.

[@billysunday7507]

@MarkErikEE try again. You're wrong also.

[@michaelshelton5488]

If anyone is wrong. It's Ian. My comment was just a quote from the video.

[@megamintlgb4390]

wrong ​@@billysunday7507

[@TheZinmo]

Thanks from Austria. But one thing should have been said: Austria and Hungary both had similar restrictions in their after-WWI-treaties as Germany had. Maybe not as stringend in what they could produce, but certainly in the size of their armies and their armaments. So these are rare (too) because Austrians and Hungarians were only allowed a limited number.

[@darkiee69]

The carry handle might be a loaders handle, so the loader have something, other than the hot barrel, to hold on to when getting the mag in and out.

[@Getpojke]

I was wondering if it could be that or for the operator during walking fire?

[@NikkoJT]

@@Getpojke I don't think it would be very useful for the shooter to hold. It's very close to the pistol grip, so it wouldn't balance the weight well and you wouldn't get much leverage.

[@gregkollaeg2365]

Go to the weapon museum in Solothurn! Its really nice.

[@DeplorableBitterClinger]

Agreed, and dirt cheap considering what's there, and that it's in Switzerland.

[@phileas007]

and they even let you borrow stuff if you ask nicely.

[@holyarch-kek9451]

Oooh, I've been waiting for a video on this one for years!

[@svenjonsson9]

It is like a MG15, MG34 and an FG42 had a baby! So interesting to see how both the MG34 and FG42 took features from this design.

[@patrickporter1864]

Except that this the mom of them all. .

[@enricopaolocoronado2511]

I like how this machine gun looks. It's like an FG42 but Austrian.

[@Elatenl]

But made in Germany lol, so it's like an FG42.

[@102ndsmirnov7]

@@Elatenl Or rather, it's like an FG42

[@jackknall9966]

@@Elatenl but ian said its not made in germany afaik, so really its more designed in germany, made in austria, assembled in germany

[@Elatenl]

@@jackknall9966 Oh then I haven't paid attention lol, i though it was fully made in germany and then exported.

[@sarath431]

My thoughts, exactly

[@DoktorBayerischeMotorenWerke]

Wow! Thanks Ian!!! something I hoped for many years you would do a video on... you can see the evolution to the MG-34.

[@cooperharrell6984]

I remember this gun from bfv actually, wasn’t very good there but it was unique looking and I always wondered about its story so thanks Ian

[@Reskilober]

It would have been ok with a bigger magazine but LMG mag size and MMG mechanics just wasn't a good combo

[@cooperharrell6984]

@@Reskilober yep

[@Blondie-Actual]

It was great in a flank, or a really tight capture point, but it should've been a Lmg.

[@SlaveKnightGael1579]

Whoever at Dice decided to put it in the MMG class is a moron

[@vaportrails1]

I liked it cuz it was accurate and i got a lot of headshots with it

[@generalbrus8627]

I bet the "S" stands for "Schnellfeuer" and not for "sicher" sicher means safe, Schnellfeuer means "fast fire" as in full auto,

[@Dummvogel]

I agree. Einzelfeuer and Schnellfeuer.

[@donjones4719]

I love tubular guns - SMG's, a couple of pistols - and now an automatic rifle.

[@Snicshavo]

Poor mans FG-42 I met this gun in Scorched Earth and ended up liking it

[@heaven-is-real]

no belt fed????what the...❤

[@TheManglerMaster]

Me too man

[@alexcanplaygames5270]

My fav gun in SE.

[@TheManglerMaster]

@@alexcanplaygames5270 It's like, an assault rifle with a bipod and several 4kg weights strapped to It

[@spondulixtanstaafl7887]

An elegant weapon, of a more civilized age.

[@williestyle35]

Last time I was this early to a Forgotten Weapons video, Ian still did "mud tests" with Karl on InRangeTV The Austrian M 30 disassembled is hilariously overbuilt and complicated, but about par for the course of this era of recoil operated firearms. Thank you Ian! I definitely enjoyed this video. 😊

[@vaportrails1]

The S2-200 is one of my favorite MG's in Battlefield V

[@michaelshelton5488]

I always look forward to an interesting Forgotten Weapons video to watch on my morning break.

[@Goc4ever]

The S2-200 really is one of a kind, one of the first guns that led to the birth of the concept of general-purpose machine gun. This MG would be crazy if it were used as a club in melee combat.

[@ReidMerrill]

I've been waiting for this for so long

[@hankskorpio5857]

Being a big Star Wars fan as a kid cold war era gun aesthetics just will always have a special in my heart lol

[@arthurbrax6561]

the Austrian MG30s got rechambered to 8mm Mauser once they joined Germany. During the war, Hungary eventually adopted the 8mm Mauser as its standard round and late war 31Ms got made in that round with the new name 43M. There was a Hungarian website about small arms used by them in ww2, it said that 2000 or 3000 31Ms got bought directly from Solothurn and then they got a license and made around 10-12 thousands. I cant find the website but if I do I will edit this comment.

[@cynthiakoehne7004]

this bolt roller cam system is almost exactly what I imagine how a modern .44 magnum carbine would work, simplified of course!

[@Sugarmountaincondo]

Right off the bat I can see some similarities of this being developed into the FG-42. I really love when you cover the very rare & unique guns from all periods of military use just because I am that type of a guy that loves the obscure stuff. 👍👍❤

[@richardsalsman1069]

Really elegant design

[@MTODbasics]

The silhouette of this immediately took my brain to Tusken raiders from Star Wars. Interesting firearm.

[@etiennelamarche7796]

Mannn what a beautiful light machine gun, I love the esthetics

[@jon-paulfilkins7820]

Nice. Decades ago I started tabletop wargaming. Got into WW2 with a Barbarossa Campaign. Decided that there were enough German players so coin tossed for Hungarians or Finns, Got Hungarians, so been interested in their unique items ever since.

[@Skelbton]

It seems like it would make sense as an automatic rifle more than a light machine gun, it’s about the same weight as the BAR, more or less.

[@erichthered]

Great video I appreciate all of your content. The backup cart guns are really fun. Cheers sir.

[@davidkenworthy2403]

Thank you for another excellent video!

[@markoneil6562]

Man that is a mean looking front sight! Looks like the Devils horns or something.

[@bitfreakazoid]

Whoa. That safety selector ring is super awesome. I don't believe I've seen any others like that before and wonder if any have.

[@josephd27]

This is why I watch this guy. Learning about guns i didn't even know existed 😊

[@danschneider9921]

I love the bold way the Hungarians marked their weapons during this period. Like they are almost yelling at you

[@petesheppard1709]

That is a slick little gun; I can see how mountain infantry would find it very practical.

[@aaron6178]

MG and FG all the way. All the variants are cool, and they work really well. The fact that the MG3 has been in continuous service in West (and unified) Germany since 1959 speaks volumes. About 1200 volumes per minute in angry mode...

[@MrChidorinagashi10]

About to go watch the archduke ferdinand doc again

[@clusterstudio18]

Been waiting for this one for many years!

[@davefellhoelter1343]

Had me with "Hotchkiss Portable"! Always did think these triggers pure genius. Thank you Sr. Thanks for letting all of US take a look.

[@papajohones4290]

Ive been waiting so long to see this gun show up on here

[@fogogin]

Its looks to be in remarkablely good condition given its scarcity. Pretty cool weapon.

[@Ashmoleon2006]

Heck, slap some greeblies on it and maybe some kinda wonky ww2 era optic and you've got yourself a star wars weapon there. In fact i might hit up our star wars ttrpg GM about my character using something similar to this for his light repeating blaster.

[@Darthdoodoo]

I wish we had a huge museum of guns where u can play with all the stuff throughout history and see all the cool mechanics in action

[@wallacemoore2398]

The front sight post is a very interesting idea.

[@tomppeli.]

Such an elegant looking machinegun

[@jimbean583]

I really like that you mentioned the fact about el Salvador i had no idea! My dads from there so thats pretty cool

[@GrumpyGenXGramps]

It’s like the Champagne Glass of Machine Guns

[@johnnyharperscoutstable5386]

Interesting operating system on that thing 🐸🍺🔪🔥

[@mattbeebe1288]

that was one of my favorite guns in battlefield

[@thelaughinghyenas8465]

Cool! I hope you have lots more Royal Armory goodies to come.

[@VegasCyclingFreak]

Fascinating weapon. I wonder what the rate of fire was. A 20 round mag would get dumped very quickly.

[@exuberance3973]

I saw this while playing Battlefield 5 not too long ago and of course the gun-seer saint himself makes a video on it

[@Spectrecontrol]

That is one sweet looking gun, would be interesting to see how it goes on the range

[@imadequate3376]

Ive always liked the angled grip's placement. Looks like you could earlly dig that bipod in and fire quite accurate bursts or even a longer pull if you needed to.

[@Fawnarix]

My interest peaked when the similarity between the Hotchkiss Portative was mentioned.

[@Zajuts149]

It makes sense that they were mostly used in Gebirgsjäger units, as most of the early ones were former Austrian regiments.

[@oliverbund9642]

Very interesting. Thank you.👍

[@cynthiakoehne7004]

I still see MG-34's used around the world to this day, so somebody built something right!

[@MichaelSanteler-h7b]

See if you can fine a Japanese Howa type 64 .308 to review!!!! I just learned about this rifle, however there isn’t a lot out there.

[@frandm1987]

I made a fantastic use of that MG in Battlefield V.

[@Cartoondude135]

I almost mistook it for an MG-34.

[@rays.5764]

Wish there were more modern guns with side mounted mags.

[@panzerman22]

The machining is amazing on that lmg ...

[@Alex.LeJeune]

My brain the entire time talking about the bolt and receiver. "This would make a sick lightsaber model"

[@lonestar16oz]

Nice one Ian. Great explanation of the workings.

[@erichufstetler8036]

Hope everyone working in Bessamer,Alabama are watching. Maybe the good folks in Austria will " expand " the breadth and scope of the work and production in Alabama and start producing more and interesting firearms in Bessemer, Alabama U.S.A. As always, thank you for the educational video Ian.

[@scubasteve3743]

Would love to see the belt fed version as well.

[@Retr0Whiskey]

15:25 Between the locking ring and the extension, that looks a lot like a lightsaber hilt and emitter. I wouldn't be surprised if someone somewhere took inspiration; especially given the prevalence of ww2 and older inspired weaponry.

[@rickh9396]

The hills are alive with the sound of machine gun fire.

[@anonplayer8529]

So, now you just have to stick to Jonathans sleeve, look at him with best puppy eyes and repeat "...please,please,pleaase,please,please,...".😅

[@wangl601]

The machining is insane! Yeah no wonder why this thing was not as popular as something like ZB26 or DP

[@sharpe67]

Magnificent mechanical machine. I remember Kokalis wrote up one in 7mm that he had run across in his ….travels.

[@lardomcfarty9866]

Who is he?

[@scottrobinson3281]

@@lardomcfarty9866 The late Peter G. Kokalis was a gun writer for Soldier of Fortune and Firearm News.

[@JustaKubrickFan]

That piece sure is purdy.

[@francoisfouche4700]

I really hope that you do the video on the S3-200. I think that the belt feed mechanism is really cool.

[@davidcox3076]

It's surprising the initial export sales were almost non-existent. Pretty handy LMG for the interwar years. Especially with so many countries already using Mauser ammo.

[@aldoraul13]

¹Forgotten Weapons! I have been following for almost 6 years daily and never grow tired of the arms education and most intensely the beautiful HISTORY

[@KonradSeverinHilstad]

It's a German-Austrian-Swiss recoil operated, rear locking, magazine fed hotchkiss portative...

[@DevinMoorhead]

Fricking early gang reporting for duty

[@williestyle35]

Aye

[@magamike1800]

That forward grip seems to make a lot of sense if it can be used to hold the barrel down. We all had a lot of trouble trying to keep second rounds on a figure 11 when trying to qualify.

[@davidbrennan660]

That is a neat iMG.

[@geraldmaybebaby1585]

The trigger is a neat idea. Being able to switch modes with a simple change of finger position.

[@DoktorBayerischeMotorenWerke]

copied on the famous MG34

[@smallwonder843]

Very cool looking gun. Mechanically it seems to be not so complicated, but it is a massive pain in the lower back to manufacture. So much machining to be done😮

[@ДмитрийСергеев-ю1х]

Very interesting. Thank you!

[@irishpsalteri]

Fascinating.

[@mojungle3054]

This thing looks so fucking cool

[@Kaboomf]

Interesting, you can plainly see they tried to make as much as possible on a lathe as you said. The locking lugs are really just interrupted threads with an almost square thread form, you can cut both the internal and external ones on a lathe then do the interruptions on a shaper or even just by running the lathe carriage back and forth with the spindle stationary. The cam tracks for the locking piece rollers also seem like they can be cut on a lathe with the required gearing for really coarse threads.

[@xgford94]

Ah we are back to the F91W period aka the Pre-Marathon era . I feel the James Rupley effect in action

[@matthaught4707]

You're probably the best person to ask, but does that French-style big front sight post with the channel cut in it actually work as intended? It looks like the French gave up on it after a while, but I never could tell if that was because it simply didn't work, or if it was an economy measure to make the guns cheaper and simpler to manufacture.

[@Kav.]

Ian I am begging you to find one of these to shoot. I had previously been doing some digging on the British trials Solothurn and so have actually seen the same gun you are showing in this video (along with the fantastic Serial 1004 British trials gun) Shooting footage seems to just not exist and images are really scarce. It's strange that such a widely used weapon (I mean, relatively) is so absent of documentation.

[@jeffreyoldham55]

In my research of the G3 battle rifle, I learned that all of the G3s produced for HK by Rheinmetal had to be destroyed because of bad quality. That doesn't appear to be the case with this firearm, however.

[@samhat41]

i was in the leeds royal armoury this week, it is amazing, you should visit there