Schwarzlose HMG Converted to 8x57mm by Romania

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The Schwarzlose 07/12 was made through the wolf of World War One as the standard heavy machine gun of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces, and many of them remained after the war ended. With the breakup of the Austro-hungarian Empire, these guns were dispersed to a variety of nations, among them Romania. The Romanians contracted with FN between the world wars for new 8x57mm barrels and converted a substantial number of Schwarzlose machine guns to 8x57 to match the other arms in use by the Romanian military. These guns appear to have seen little (if any) use in World War Two, and were brought into the US a few decades ago. Being after 1968, they could not be imported as live machine gun, and were instead cut into parts kits. The parts, however, are an easy drop-in conversion on an original 8x50mm Schwarzlose, resulting in a far more easily shootable machine gun thanks to the availability of 8x57mm ammunition.
In addition to the caliber conversion, several other changes were made to the guns. The water jacket and barrel were lengthened by about 4 inches and the cartridge oiler was disabled. The rear sight was replaced with one calibrated for both light and heavy 8mm Mauser loadings, and a set of mounting brackets were added to the top cover - probably for anti-aircraft sights.
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[@andrewsuryali8540]

That thing absolutely looks like the cartoon-standard image of "machine gun".

[@PaulMauser]

That's because most cartoons base it off the Maxim/Vickers which this happens to look like.

[@OberGefreiterZ]

i think its the big flashhider, wich makes this gun looks cartoonish and a bit ridiculous

[@ineednochannelyoutube5384]

+OberGefreiterZ And presumably makes it sound like the wrath of god.

[@witchreturns2263]

But it can do devastating damage

[@willroland7153]

The flash hider should double as a funnel for filling the water jacket.

[@seth094978]

But if you take the flash hider off then the water jacket isn't sealed.

[@Lightspit]

no, no, no, that is a bat launcher and not a flash hider! You know when the vampire is in bat form and must be launched as fast as possible over the enemy! Trust me! I live in Transylvania... for real :).

[@miatafan]

seth094978 they would just need a separate sealing ring that screws on first, and then the flash hider screws on and rests against that

[@Lowlandlord]

Except if it wasn't on you would be filling a bucket with a whole in it 😅

[@BashoftheMonth]

You really need to include a link to your first Schwarzlose machine gun video with this one. It's a masterpiece of turn-of-the-century milled-out-anvil gun technology, and it's one of you're best videos.

[@SirBoden]

I’m pretty sure that “flash hider” is a loudener.

[@sqeeye3102]

Thanks for bringing us another interesting machinegun. I always love hearing about the the history of their importation as well as the history of gun itself.

[@tenofprime]

Indeed, I love to hear about the history of the guns and what impact they have in world events at their time.

[@CaptainGrief66]

We're still missing a Japanese Type 3 Taisho, an American Browning M1895, a Russian Maxim (Though I remember an old video about a chinese one, so you technically already have a video on it) and an Italian M1908/M1912 Perino and a M1914 Fiat/Revelli and we have a complete selection of WWI MMG/HMGs.

[@minisciencedude]

If you check out his website you can find articles on the Perino and Revelli.

[@alexandermarinin7036]

You forget MG15 NA

[@CaptainGrief66]

@@alexandermarinin7036 First of all thats a Light Machine Gun. Second of all, I've never seen a photo of one being used and it comes from BF1, so we have to assume that it never saw extended/significant use.

[@CaptainGrief66]

@@minisciencedude I meant actual videos when we hear history and seen the mechanism, not an article.

[@minisciencedude]

@@CaptainGrief66 Well that's all you currently got.

[@Mongo63a]

For some reason the bicycle type grips of the Schwarzlose, Type 92 and ZB37 have always made me desire to pickup one of each. The machining/mechanism on the Schwarzlose always gets the engineer in me cranked up as well. I can't imagine the amount of time it took to generate one of these. BTW 8X50R was on the market as surplus for a while and many smart original Schwarzlose owners (and ZB39) grabbed it up fast.

[@samuelchurchill6458]

That's not a flash hider, this is a flash hider.

[@choosetheright8654]

Samuel Churchill crocodile Dundee

[@frostthefoxxo7192]

You can also hold it up to your mouth and make gun noises through it in case you run out of ammo.

[@bikecommuter24]

I wonder if the designers had put some intimidation factor into it? LOL

[@dominicksmeech2994]

Yo flash hider so big, it could hide the blast of a railway gun.

[@steverossini]

Pretty sure is a loudener

[@jamesjohnsmithwest779]

I just noticed that youtube automatically unsubscribed me aswell as from a couple of other channels that have something to do with any form of weaponary be it small arms ,tanks or planes...

[@seppesneyers3592]

That sucks

[@MPdude237]

That happenened to me once but with all my channels not just gun channels.

[@flanneloperator7896]

Every time I go on to your Chanel you post like 14 min ago

[@majorcamo4645]

Fake-Fun-Fact: The flash hider also doubles as a megaphone.

[@waffenbear117]

majorcamo loudner

[@seppesneyers3592]

Hahaha

[@nazarderkach9320]

Probably for propaganda purposes...

[@interstellarlapisthecccp4946]

I'm eventually going to get one of these water cooled MG's to add to my collection. So far I have a ZB-30 and MG-34 and the next one I'm planning to get is an MG-42. I'm thinking of getting a tripod mounted MG-08 after or a Finnish M1932. The 08 has a pretty slow rate of fire and the 32 has a much higher one which gives it cool points... it's in a different calibre tho. It would be nice to have 4 MG's all in 8mm mauser.

[@BewareTheLiveWire]

Oof. As someone who's starting the first WW2 Romanian reenactment unit in the US, I wish I had the dough to get my hands on this bad boy... EDIT: Ian, there's actually a few photos out there of Romanians using these, mostly during the campaigns of Odessa in 1941

[@liviu1266]

Whoa, that's awesome to hear that someone so far away has this much interest in my country, Greetings!

[@decem_sagittae]

Why not reenact a real army?

[@dandondera2618]

@@decem_sagittae go love yourself.

[@okaro6595]

You can see from the sight that the loadings matched at 1 km. Before that the heavier had higher trajectory while after that the lighter had higher trajectory.

[@Theduckwebcomics]

Always such a weird, tightly compact machine gun, especially when you see it near a Vickers or a Maxim.

[@rullow86]

Hi Ian, there is also an interwar Czech conversion to the Schwarzlosse to 8x57 ;)

[@marcraygun6290]

Looks like loudener attachment from simspons episode where homer gets a gun

[@botatobias2539]

Transylvania was the arsenal of Romania during and before WW2. Transy produced 10K ZB-30 Czechoslovak machine guns, around 3K mortars of 60 mm, 81 mm and 120 mm (the latter of Soviet design, captured and reverse-engineered, the other two built under French licence), 330 anti-tank guns of 75 mm (original Romanian design, very effective), 360 AA guns of 37 mm (German flak built under licence) and 200 AA guns of 75 mm (British Vickers built under licence). Besides building full guns, Romanian plants also built replacement 100 mm and 150 mm gun barrels for Romania's Skoda howitzers (there were 500 of the former caliber and 180 of the latter). Transy's factories also standardized Romanian medium artillery to 75 mm (around 1000 old guns of 76,2 mm, 77 mm and so on were converted) and finally for the case in point, also around 1000 of these Schwarzlose machine guns were converted. And all of this not even mentioning Transy's aircraft industry, producing well over 1000 war planes including over 400 IAR-80, Romania's indigenous fighter which was the 4th best fighter in the world when it was introduced in 1939. So yeah...that's Transy in WW2 for you.

[@liammeech3702]

"I vant to contribute to the Romanian var effort by constructing veapons for the state, ah, ah aaahh" -Dracula probably.

[@underworld9491]

Bro😂😂😂 we know ho you are 😂😂😂😂

[@loupiscanis9449]

Thank you , Ian .

[@gonerydin4225]

That weld job on the water jacket looks like something I would do. LOL

[@minuteman4199]

Assuming I am looking at it correctly, It's interesting to note that the sights for the two different cartridges almost align at 1000m.

[@neutronalchemist3241]

Infact the lighter cartridge is faster at the muzzle, and has a flatter initial trajectory, but it loses speed faster too, so ther is a point where the two trajectories align.

[@therideneverends1697]

I would be willing to bet that flash hider makes it quieter to the shooter and obnoxiously loud to anyone infront of it

[@user-wx3wc4bo7c]

5:23 that retaining Pin swing ...

[@moalongkumer3232]

As regards ammo, perhaps someone ought to try persuading the Indian Ordnance Factories to export some of their .315 ammo...which, technically, is 8x50R Mannlicher...dodgy as heck but possibly inexpensive.

[@mrpyromaniac675]

That flash hider is massive

[@nicolasvillamil7523]

That's the biggest flash hider I've ever seen

[@MsArmox]

it will be cool to see disassemble

[@miaiguy]

i learn more history about my country here than i do in history classes

[@joeymonster5217]

Do a video on the belt loading machine!

[@Krwekrw]

Czechoslovakia adapted theis Schwarzlose to 8mm mauser too and even build some more of them before WW2.

[@DSlyde]

Anyone else not get a notification for this video? Every other video it has worked fine.

[@richard1165]

A real shame it had to be chopped up at one point, but yes, at least we have a LIVE example of what it most likely would have been in it's closest original military configuration thanks to parts kits.

[@worldtraveler930]

Dear Santa I would like one of these for Christmas. 😁

[@StPaul76]

That rear sight must be from the 1930's since the schweres Spitzgeschoss came around 1934 in conjunction with the MG-34 when Wehrmacht decided to switch into a heavier, high BC standard service round to extend the range of machinegun fire as a part of the general purpose machine gun doctrine.

[@therideneverends1697]

makes me wonder if the AA sights are MG34 compatable

[@alexandruianu8432]

That's correct. it actually is from the late 30s.

[@daddynaz8458]

Why would Romanians need machine guns when they're vampires

[@wingracer1614]

Ian got it wrong. The sights are marked for two different loadings because one was for silver bullets to fight off the werewolf invasion.

[@degauss22ro1]

thats ofensive!! :)))) (JK)

[@Pcm979]

Have you seen Hellsing? Vampires love big guns!

[@Lunkwow]

The use it against does Damn Dirty Werewolf's no self respecting Vampire wants to touch such a creature.

[@nicksande6880]

For when they are shit outta blood

[@NormanHarman]

I hope they didn't just cut and weld a new section into the barrell too.

[@saulboghiu9035]

I'm romanian, and I believe they probably did! :)))

[@tombeer9]

i am very disappointed for the lack of no internals of the gun and its components that is the part that im always waiting for in your videos

[@ForgottenWeapons]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/b5DTiIGgqr-daZI

[@forrestconter3467]

Can you please do a final prices video about all of the firearms that you have done videos on from this Morphys auction?

[@ravenslaves]

As far as the sight mounting goes. Many of the early machine guns came with and were fitted for volley sights. An idea that was quickly abandoned for the obvious reasons. Still, would a machine gun of 1912 be fitted for anti aircraft? Or were the mounts a latter addition for AA? Or ... volley sights? Where the most effective sort of machine gun fire is lobbing random, blind fire over a hill at an unseen enemy...or farm animal. One of many reasons why I love weapons of this era.

[@ineednochannelyoutube5384]

Schwarzloses were absolutely used in an AA role. Probably with little effect, but used nontheless.

[@ravenslaves]

They absolutely were at some point as were most weapons at hand including small arms. What I was most wondering about was at what point that particular fitting was added to the receiver. 1912 seems a bit too early for a specific AA fitting so I'm guessing that this might be a later production model in which case it certainly would almost have to be for a AA sight. But if this is an early production model, a remote possibility, then the question remains. I'll have to look into this further. I'm unfamiliar with the Schwarzlose. EDIT: AHA! a 1918 production gun...AA makes sense now. So does the shoulder stock. The brain is not properly engaged tonight. A curious configuration to be mounted to a tripod.

[@ineednochannelyoutube5384]

+ravenslaves The tripod was probably not part of this particular gun originally.

[@ravenslaves]

that's what I figure.

[@konnigkratz]

Hi Ian, I assume you meant "made through the whole of" World War One, unless "through the wolf" is a cool american phrase I'm unaware of?

[@KTo288]

My guess is that he wanted to write WWI and that an over zealous spellchecker corrected him.

[@mixererunio1757]

you did good grammar nazi

[@jimandaubz]

Screw autocorrect, it just became a cool american phrase, because I am using that daily 😁. Its so cool, its through the wolf!

[@Chevypotamus]

That seems a lot bigger than other machine guns of similar caliber.

[@vice6996]

so what i hear you saying is that you're going to take this to the Morphy range tomorrow...good, can't wait.

[@cameronjenkins6748]

What you said about being able to convert 8x50R guns to 7.62x54R got me wondering if you could actually make 8x50R cases from 7.62x54R. To me, it looks like it could work, but some fireforming would probably be necessary. Now, making 8x56R cases, on the other hand, looks to be impossible.

[@costantinoandruzzi2219]

Starring, as usual, the ubiquitous wall sockets!

[@bogdanstanescu4509]

I've seen many say we're vampires. We are not all vampires, some are werewolves! :)

[@jarink1]

So technically, it's an FN Schwarzlose? I think my brain just exploded.

[@joanterueljurado5867]

you can make a video about "Labora Fontbernat"? Is also a catalan machinegun with little information known. Labora Fontbernat is a forgotten weapon. Thanks

[@ГабриелГригорев]

So we quite good at making guns🇹🇩🇹🇩❤

[@deanschaal1540]

The type 3 is divine and shoots wonderfully. Does the 8x57 have primer protrusion?

[@Ensign_Cthulhu]

Surely not that much size difference to a .50 Browning M2 except for the barrel length. That is one chunky gun for rifle-calibre ammo.

[@LUBAProduktion]

Now this is epic!

[@DarthMayonnaise2652]

Very, very cool.

[@HB45175]

Why are the power outlets in the middle of the wall?

[@dndboy13]

6:40 hey a place to cook your french fries

[@brucerobert227]

Makes me wonder if, since the case head of 8x57 has the same case head as the 7.62x51, could it be converted to that caliber?

[@johnfisk811]

The Schwarzlose in all calibers uses a rimmed round.

[@schmeissergod]

john fisk But 8mm Mauser isn't a rimmed cartridge.

[@johnfisk811]

Fair point. I take it back

[@therideneverends1697]

with a new barrel with a properly cut chamber that seems pretty likely. I mean the 1919 can be converted to used 7.62x51, 30-06 or 8mm mauser only changeing the barrel and feed tray so i would assume this would be similar

[@BrandMalone24]

What a beast

[@geneard639]

Holy, I think I got a hernia just looking at that!

[@brandonsarsland-brunner3390]

You made it look smaller in the thumbnail

[@julienavelange3960]

Isn't the aircraft/optic mount part of the WW1 austrohungarian receiver?

[@jasonnicholas8648]

did they ever try an air cooled system on this gun?

[@witeshade]

I wonder why they went through the effort of making them and then didn't use them. Obviously they were probably outclassed by newer devices, but it still seems odd they wouldn't take advantage of what they had, especially if it has ammunition compatibility.

[@kevinoliver3083]

They were used by second line forces, like the Border Guards and the navy's Danube Flotilla. First line units had more modern machine guns. Such as the ZB 30 and ZB 53.

[@ThatOneFrogGamePlay]

Have you ever done a video on the SLR

[@andrewcruz6475]

I like the sights on that thing , Ian do you know what the sight type is called?

[@smellyshirley]

Is there any other guy out there doing similar work besides Eoin, C&Rsenal, and Hickok45 that anyone could recommend for gun history??? Please?!

[@jnathannger8654]

does that flash hider count as a flash hider? looks more like a sound moderator to me

[@therideneverends1697]

i would be willing to bet intentional or not that it would direct the sound away from the shooter

[@pegoossens]

just a question but is there actually one electric or other socket in the auction house that's been put in straight?

[@MichaelBerthelsen]

Maybe it's SO obscure you could almost call it a Forgotten Weapon...?😉

[@gaylordpantamime]

NOW THAT'S A GAT

[@Humrunner]

What about converting to 8x56R like what was done to the M95's?

[@ineednochannelyoutube5384]

Afaik 8x56R loads fine in an 8x51R chamber. It was expressly designed to do so.

[@MrQ454]

they used as AA and HMG in WW2

[@piotrbrandt]

hi, any idea about a seat for for Schwarzlose lafette

[@archstanton1628]

Who was the wolf of world war 1 then? 😁

[@AlphariusMemegon]

Couldn't you make it work with 8x56R by reaming out the chamber like they did with the M95?

[@kevinoliver3083]

The Hungarians converted the Schwarzlose to 8x56mmR as the M07/31.

[@AlphariusMemegon]

@@kevinoliver3083 Cool, thanks for the info

[@alaskanbullworm5500]

Does it come with wood tipped cartridges? Silver tipped?

[@Stefan_2003]

When you're great grandfather hears about Russians

[@Thecilla]

Why are the electrical sockets upside down

[@kompound52]

That's the proper way to install a outlet. It's a safety thing so of something falls on/behind the plug it lands on the ground prong and not the live prongs. Americans just tend to install them the other way.

[@sb-ant6457]

Looks like a steam punk fish.

[@matthayward7889]

My first thought was “that’s a big old machine gun” and Ian’s first words were...

[@frostthefoxxo7192]

Hi guys

[@williamallan5791]

Thanks for tuning in to another video on forgotten weapons .com

[@matthayward7889]

William Allan hahaha! Well, after that!

[@seppesneyers3592]

This is a converted schwarzlose?

[@seppesneyers3592]

Ian, why are there barely FN weapon videos at the channel?

[@kuronoch.1441]

maybe simply because they weren't forgotten... yet.

[@seppesneyers3592]

@@kuronoch.1441 there are also a lot of unforgotten weapons on the channel like the famas or the tommygun

[@kuronoch.1441]

+seppe sneyers well maybe we can wait for them to be featured here in the future. I for one is waiting for a p90 episode.

[@kuronoch.1441]

+seppe sneyers but a fair point is that the famas would be decommissioned in the near future by france and the tommy gun is quite an old one.

[@seppesneyers3592]

@@kuronoch.1441 But those are famous weapons

[@onik_dovah4354]

best weapon !!!@!@!@!!!!!

[@onik_dovah4354]

great take !1!1!11!f

[@Dangerman31]

you speak true brother this is indeed beast weapon!!! @@onik_dovah4354

[@TimSmith-vl4qk]

WHY DIDENT ROMANIA BUY ALL THE AUSTRO-HUGARIAN AMMO TO CONFUSE THE ENEMY

[@rigormortis1425]

Big ol' doink

[@keineahnung8696]

$18,000 - $25,000

[@CitizenSnips69]

Morning, Ian! If you get a chance, you should look at more artillary pieces. They're my favorite rare category on this channel. The heavier the item you look at, the more i seem to like it. (the more steel to look at on an object, the better!)

[@mattorama]

I watched twice, but I didn't hear the words "and tomorrow we'll have it out on the range to do some shooting." What gives?

[@terenceturcotte4999]

Is it me or does it look cartoonish🤔

[@seppesneyers3592]

When a maxim makes children with a vickers...

[@kevinoliver3083]

A Maxim and a Vickers? Thats incest.

[@user-ui6ef5ei7t]

put diesel in it

[@Krusty_T]

Is that a loudner?

[@ineednochannelyoutube5384]

Its a flashhider.

[@paulpaustovanu8816]

THE ROMANIAN ARMY HAS USED THEM IN WW2.

[@sum-tingwong9936]

That thing looks like it should have wheels, it's gotta weight 200lbs

[@ineednochannelyoutube5384]

32 without water, and probably including the mount.

[@ineednochannelyoutube5384]

32 kilograms that is.

[@sum-tingwong9936]

so, right around 70lbs, yah thats heavy. A berret 50 is less than half that lol.

[@ineednochannelyoutube5384]

+Sum-Ting Wong Granted this is closer in function to an M2 Browning.

[@sum-tingwong9936]

yah, something more along the lines of the browning 1919 or the spanish 1917 as far as it's purpose in the field. The M2 being .50bmg is more of an anti-materiel weapon than an anti-personnel like the more standard caliber guns. My dad had a 1919 we rebuilt using an israeli .308 kit, very interesting machines.

[@ChaplainPhantasm]

Ah, yes. Converting things to better things (for me to say the least xD) Oh, I love Romania

[@robbyeb49]

Eu sunt roman

[@raddestshiba1589]

Eu nu

[@Sashalexandros]

felicitari

[@10011996ian]

asa, si? :))

[@davidlol4466]

Bn atunci

[@andyboi8399]

It pains me to know that my country adopted this mess of a gun.

[@arseniuarsn6841]

is 2023..i just find u..good job

[@vincentbaelde-millar670]

You've mentioned that a lot of obscure guns performed poorly in military trials because of poor quality ammo, is it possible that ammo used in testing these early machine guns was weaker than ammunition mass produced years later, hence the apparent need for lubricating the cartridges?

[@therideneverends1697]

Its more like the whole thing with the blish lock, people just dident quite understand how these things worked back then. they thought that the friction and heat would cause feeding and extraction issues on paper, so these types of things where incorperated to the designe far before they where heavilly tested without the mechanism. Basically they overbuilt it

[@grc70]

No one ever tried a 7.62x54 NATO conversion?

[@mattorama]

When doing a conversion, you typically want to do it in a caliber that actually exists.

[@grc70]

@@mattorama since when doesn't 7.62 mm NATO not exist?

[@grc70]

did I miss a mm somewhere, exfuckingcuse me.

[@mattorama]

@@grc70 Strictly speaking, since forever, because 7.62x54 NATO doesn't exist. 7.62 NATO is 7.62x51. 7.62x54 is the rimmed Russian Mosin/Dragunov/others cartridge.

[@Jamie-dw2jj]

Jesus 🤗🤗

[@DuinHark]

Wierd they were never used in ww2.

[@ineednochannelyoutube5384]

Schwarzlose's were absolutely used in WWII.

[@DuinHark]

@@ineednochannelyoutube5384 this model wasn't, according to Ian.

[@FallujahMarine0311]

2nd