And what about, albeit old and difficult for the mass scale, but super-reliable Madsen? Many people forget about him, while he had unusual automation and incredibly compact design! By the way, in some places it is still in service, and the machine gun is already more than 100 years old !!!
kugelblitz
And it so happened that in the comments to my material there was also this appeal, put in the epigraph. However, in the materials about "Bran" not a word was said about this machine gun, primarily because TOPWAR had already published an article entitled "General Madsen's Devil's Balalaika" (https://topwar.ru/60984-chertova-balalayka-generala- madsena.html), however, for quite some time. However, turning to this material, I saw that, firstly, this is a reprint from the pages of the "Russian Seven", that is, it was originally intended for a site with a different thematic focus, and secondly, apparently, precisely because of this, the author, focusing on the history of the Madsen machine gun in Russia, only casually touched upon the features of its design. On the one hand, why not, but, on the other, it turned out that the author came out with good-quality material on a historical theme, but the most interesting technical "moments" of this machine gun remained in the shadows. Therefore, I thought and considered it possible to "shoot after", and most importantly - to accompany the article with original diagrams that give a comprehensive idea of this truly unique design.
This is how this unusual machine gun looked. Outwardly, it can be easily identified by a sector magazine, a very short mechanism box and a long barrel with a perforated casing.
For those who are interested in the fate of General Madsen and all the vicissitudes that resulted in his machine gun coming to us in Russia, as already noted above, it makes sense to read about the "damn balalaika" weapons. After all, its creator began to develop it back … in the mid-1880s of the XIX century. Moreover, at first it was supposed to be an automatic rifle, which in 1886 was developed by the staff of the Royal Arms Factory in Copenhagen, whose director was Julius Alexander Rasmussen. So this rifle even had a double name: Rasmussen-Madsen.
Rasmussen-Madsen automatic rifle, model 1896.
And on it, even then, all the specific design features of the future machine gun-unique were applied - a sector magazine inserted from above, a bolt cocking handle, which looks more like a handle from a coffee grinder, and all its internal "mechanics". In 1896, the rifle was adopted by the Danish marines. But … it turned out that the rifle had many shortcomings. For example, the barrel quickly overheated. And when the ribbing was made on the barrel, and even weighed it down, and equipped with a bipod, this is how the light machine gun turned out. Well, if you consider that in 1901 Madsen became Minister of War, it is not at all surprising that his machine gun was soon adopted. According to some sources, it began to be produced at the Danish factory "Dansk Industry Syndicate" in 1900 (in any case, as Wikipedia reports), according to others - in 1902, or in 1904. Chris Shant has the brand of the first model: "Rekytgevaer M1903".
"Rekytgevaer M1903". Please note that the flash suppressor on the machine gun was still absent.
In any case, the very design of it appeared very early, so today it is perhaps the "most ancient example" of manual automatic firearms. Madsen's reliable and accurate light machine gun enjoyed great popularity, despite the high cost of production and the fact that it required high quality cartridges to fire. Well, mass serial production continued until 1950!
"Madsen" М1924. The machine gun has a handle for carrying and replacing the overheated barrel.
Madsen's machine guns were produced in various calibers: 6.5x55, 7x57, 7.62x51, 7.62x63, 7.92x57. Therefore, their weight and a number of details were different. Visually, they differed the most in the shape of the stores, since stores of different capacities were used on it. For example, a 7.7 mm British machine gun weighed 9.1 kg. The length was 1.14 m, the barrel length was 580 mm. Box magazines were produced for 20, 25, 30 or 40 rounds. Rate of 450 rounds per minute. Bullet muzzle velocity - 715 m / sec.
"Madsen" М1940.
And here are the machine gun data for the Russian rifle cartridge: 7, 62 × 54R. Barrel length - 590 mm. The muzzle velocity of a 9.6-gram bullet is 797 m / s. Weight with bipod - 9.2 kg. Length - 1120 mm. Magazine capacity - 25 or 33 rounds. Rate of fire - 420 rounds per minute. Sighting range - 1707 m.
"Madsen", on which … incorrectly, that is, the magazine is not fully inserted. Please note that the magazine, although inserted into the machine gun on the left, but not along the axis, but on the left. Therefore, the sighting devices were located in the traditional way: the sight block on the barrel cooling jacket, and the front sight at the base of the flame arrester.
As you can see, the performance characteristics are quite comparable, although the machine gun "treated" different cartridges in different ways, and worst of all "digested" English and especially Russian welted cartridges, which had very large manufacturing tolerances.
After the German occupation of Denmark in 1941-1942. Danish machine guns were delivered to the Wehrmacht, and the DRS factory produced their belt-fed modification.
The machine gun was criticized a lot. They said that with such an abundance of complex details, in principle, he could not work. Critics' doubts were also based on the fact that it used a very unusual combination of basic details: barrel recoil and Peabody-Martini swinging bolt. Thus, the Madsen machine gun became the only weapon of its type that uses a non-slip bolt. In addition to originality, another important advantage of this model is the relatively low weight for air-cooled weapons. And although in many countries it was removed from mass weapons back in the 70-80s of the last century, it is still found and used as a military weapon!
Diagram of the Madsen machine gun device.
Well, now let's look at the work of all the automation parts of this unusual machine gun. He received his unusual swinging action Peabody-Martini, undoubtedly, as a tribute to that era. After all, when it was created, it was the swinging gates that were, one might say, at the zenith of their glory. Well, and this machine gun works with this bolt is really very unusual.
This is what the barrel looks like with the receiver screwed onto it. On the right, a slot for the cartridge is visible on it. Below you can see the "fork" of the lever that controls the shutter.
We will begin, however, not with work, but with disassembling the machine gun. If you remove the pin in the rear part of the butt plate, then the upper part of the machine gun box swings up on the hinge, and … then you can remove the barrel together with the bolt carrier from it. That is, the barrel is one piece with the bolt carrier, inside which the bolt swings up and down. It does not move forward or backward. Only up and down, and the barrel locks, resting its flat part against the bottom of the sleeve. And that's it! Its functions end there!
Diagram of the machine gun box device. The box lid is highlighted in pink. Khaki - box. In gray khaki - the lower part of the box. A three-position firing translator is clearly visible and two "bolts" - one fastening the upper part of the bolt carrier to the lower one, and the other - their common axis of rotation.
This diagram shows the position of the cartridge in the chamber, which is supported by the bolt. Above it is a stop spring. The extractor device is also visible. Moreover, this is a separate part, not connected with the shutter!
How does it all work? And it works very simply. When fired, the barrel, together with the receiver frame, moves back inside the box just 10 mm back. In this case, a special lever from the bolt carrier interacts with the protrusion on the box and raises the bolt up. In this case, the extractor ejects the sleeve from the barrel, it slides along the semicircular guide of the bolt and falls into the hole at the bottom of the lower part of the box. Its cover leans forward. The sleeves hit it and also bounce forward. There is no danger of any falling into your sleeve. And the flat and curved spring does not allow the bolt to rise higher than necessary.
Liner extraction scheme.
This diagram clearly shows the fastening of the magazine to the box on the left and the supply of the cartridge through the side opening of the bolt carrier.
This diagram shows the various details of the machine gun: FIG. 11 - the bolt and the location of the striker with a spring in it. Det. 32 is a lever that resembles a fish hook, and it is on it that the trigger 33 hits, and it, in turn, sets the drummer in motion. Fig. 12 - detail 41 - this is the cocking handle of the shutter mechanism. Fig. 14 - mainspring.
Since the bolt in the bolt carrier moves only up and down, a cartridge fed from a magazine pushes a complex-shaped lever into the barrel, reminiscent of a field hockey stick, interacting with a protrusion on the machine gun box. At the same time, it does not enter the barrel in a direct way, but first moves from top to bottom, then from left to right, and at the same time at an angle to the axis of the barrel, enters it with its head and only at the end moves in a straight line. When the cartridge is in the chamber, the bolt is lowered and simply rests against the bottom of the case. Thus, shooting is carried out with the bolt completely locked, which is important for the safety of the shooter.
What else is important to emphasize? Thanks to such a device, the box in which all the mechanisms of the machine gun are located turned out to be very compact, and it itself is not too large, so it was possible to shoot from it like a rifle - from the shoulder! The barrel is ribbed so it doesn't overheat too much. The perforated cover protects the shooter's hands. Convenient reloading handle, conveniently located hole for ejection of cartridges, machine gun box from above is well covered from dirt. The store does not interfere with the usual aim. At the same time, the mechanism of the machine gun with all its levers and protrusions is very complex. That is, it can be made only on milling machines, while doing a lot of operations. The presence of many complex parts, making such complex movements in such a tight space, causes an increased sensitivity to contamination. Serving a machine gun to a person who did not hold anything more complicated than a shovel in his hands, well, it's just very difficult.
The first machine guns did not have a flash suppressor, but then it appeared, as well as a special muzzle that enhances the recoil of the barrel.
The machine gun, as you know, was actively used during the First World War and even stood on airplanes. By the beginning of World War II, he was no longer so popular, but again he fought in Europe and Asia.
Macedonian partisans in Skopje in 1944.
Japanese soldier with a captured Madsen machine gun on a tripod machine.
After the war, the machine gun was actively exported to the countries of South America. In Brazil, they were converted to the standard NATO patron and are still used by the police today.
The Madsen machine gun at the National Army Museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Brazilian policeman with a Madsen machine gun.
So this is not a "damn balalaika", but a very high-quality, albeit complex weapon, the history of which has not even ended!
