The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
From the Show Floor: 18th Century Assault Weapons & Machine Guns!
These days I don’t spend a whole lot of time checking out the latest and greatest, but I always enjoy the collector section. If that were thrice the size, I wouldn’t complain. I was pleased to see a booth of World War I machine guns, including the Cheauchat. I asked the collector whether the Chauchau lives up to it’s reputation and he responded (paraphrasing) “Yep. It’s a total piece of junk. They didn’t even round any of the edges when they machined it, so it’s almost impossible to clean without cutting yourself. In fact, if you can clean it without cutting yourself, that’s a great accomplishment.” There was also a collection of Vickers Machine Guns. The big silver bowl went to the Revolutionary War collection. We also paid a visit to the Miniature Arms Society’s booth, but we’ll do that as a separate post, since it’s our recurring favorite booth that we visit and write about every year.
Yep. There is a Glock Collectors Association.
Revolutionary War Muskets
Revolutionary War Muskets
Powder Horn of Joseph Chaffin, Minuteman at Concord Bridge, 19 Apr. 1775
Revolutionary War Pistol
Revolutionary War Swords
Powder Horn of Ephram Derthick, Roxbury, Massachusetts, 1775
Powder Horn of John Bond, Brimfield, Massachusetts, 1779
Verbruggen 3lb Cannon Captured at Saratoga
King George IIIs inscription was ground off the barrel.
Ultima Ratio Regum. Well, at least until our boys captured it.
Pistol that served with Morgan’s Raiders.
Chauchat, which is French for “Piece of shit”
Beautiful German hunting rifles.
More of those German Rifles
Business end of the German rifles.
1916 Mauser
Maxim New World Standard, c.1895
Colt Automatic Model 1914. Known as the “Potato Digger”
“I asked the collector whether the Chauchau lives up to it’s reputation and he responded (paraphrasing) “Yep. It’s a total piece of junk. They didn’t even round any of the edges when they machined it, so it’s almost impossible to clean without cutting yourself. In fact, if you can clean it without cutting yourself, that’s a great accomplishment.—
Sounds like most Remington shotguns I’ve used.
Seriously, just because a gun has some rough edges doesn’t mean it’s junk…
The Chauchat is, in my opinion, somewhat unfairly maligned: While the original design was not without it’s problems (Open sided mags for trench warfare? What idiot came up with that?), much of the reputation for unreliability heaped on the design is due to the half-assed American attempt to shoehorn .30-06 (a moderately tapered, rimless cartridge) into a firearm designed for 8mm Lebel (a rimmed cartridge with a much more prominent taper.).
They certainly aren’t great guns, but they’re also not the worst guns ever made.
Drat! I was hoping to see a John Belton “chain fire” musket in this post. That would certainly qualify as an 18th century machine gun. Seems that none of his prototypes have turned up, so far. It was demonstrated for Congress, but he wanted too much money for them to put in a production order.
Remember: machine guns belong in my wife’s classroom.
Wouldn’t that be 19th century?
“I asked the collector whether the Chauchau lives up to it’s reputation and he responded (paraphrasing) “Yep. It’s a total piece of junk. They didn’t even round any of the edges when they machined it, so it’s almost impossible to clean without cutting yourself. In fact, if you can clean it without cutting yourself, that’s a great accomplishment.—
Sounds like most Remington shotguns I’ve used.
Seriously, just because a gun has some rough edges doesn’t mean it’s junk…
The Chauchat is, in my opinion, somewhat unfairly maligned: While the original design was not without it’s problems (Open sided mags for trench warfare? What idiot came up with that?), much of the reputation for unreliability heaped on the design is due to the half-assed American attempt to shoehorn .30-06 (a moderately tapered, rimless cartridge) into a firearm designed for 8mm Lebel (a rimmed cartridge with a much more prominent taper.).
They certainly aren’t great guns, but they’re also not the worst guns ever made.
Drat! I was hoping to see a John Belton “chain fire” musket in this post. That would certainly qualify as an 18th century machine gun. Seems that none of his prototypes have turned up, so far. It was demonstrated for Congress, but he wanted too much money for them to put in a production order.