As a South African I would like to thank you for your cataloguing and presentation of our small arms history, without your efforts these would be mostly forgotten weapons (ba dum tiss)
They've got this alternative history vibe to them, they're similar but different. Might be because they are so disconnected from Europe but still are influenced by it.
Before corruption completely destroyed our (South Africa's) government and weapon's developer, Denel (the old Armscor), we South Africans loved to play around with out of the box, weird and sometimes "sci-fi punk" ideas towards weaponry. You should see the Denel NTW-20, it looks like something from Halo! It was the rifle used in the movie District 9 to take out the mech. So yea, you guys in the States needs an anti kaiju or mech gun give us a call. (Heaven knows we need it)
They were very innovative. Outside of the major American, European _(FN, Beretta, HK, SiG),_ and Soviet arms industries, you don’t see many domestic designs.
I carried the FN MAG a lot in the Swedish Army. This looks like a superb upgrade to both the FN MAG and PKM systems by mixing the best of two legendary systems.
As an engineering student with a LEW bursary in the late 80’s and early 90’s I spent one of my university holidays measuring up 100’s of breech blocks for this GPMG. If I remember correctly, the somewhat intricate CNC work resulted in out-of-tolerance dimensions on a large proportion. Witnessed test firing in the 100m indoor range. Scary enough standing behind the setup, must be terrifying downrange! Good memories, LEW/LIW was a world class facility with some extremely capable people back then.
@@andriesjacksonas a cappuccino South African, I didn’t get a bursary under the milky regime. And when my children were of bursary age, they’re not going to get a bursary from swart coffee either. So we’ve decided to sell drie hoekie cookies to survive But everywhere we go there is a sign “Geen Smouse”. No hard feelings, just having some fun.
@@TheKaiser12345I’m sure I’ve got the landline number for M-net somewhere here ….. you know … cause M-Net C….. Just having some fun😉. ( now imagine if All 3 of us send a collectively ass ripping message to the Ant Nuptial Cuntry running idiots dividing our 3 generations And multiple races in OUR once beautiful and prosperous and continent economically leading land ) sounds like a revolutionary concept hey!!
This gun was added to Arma 3 not too long ago with the Western Sahara DLC. The notable differences between the SS77 and the Arma 3 SA-77 is that the SA-77 has a welded picatinny rail in front of the rear sight assembly, it has fire modes of 600 rpm and 800 rpm that you can switch between, it has a 100 round canvass sack with a stamped sheet metal attachment point with a nifty diagram of which way the bullets should be pointing it does not have the zipper on the bottom. There was also added a compact version of it which was fitted with more rails on the fore end so you could attach all kinds of doodads, a more compact stock, an entirely different gas port assembly with the front sight attached to that, and a shorter barrel. I do appreciate that Arma's fictional weapons are different in ways that imply a domestic production version as opposed to the original versions modeled poorly.
The design features of that gun are impressive. It appears to have had a lot of thought concerning reliability and maintainability put in during design.
Right on, the SADF fought against SWAPO and the communist Angolan Army in South West Africa/ now Namibia and Angola. An area very similar to the deserts of the US South West.
Sanctions and war are the mother of invention and innovation. Such a pity our weapons industry and development weren't more globally appreciated. Thank you for highlighting our great weapons.
They were globally recognized, but the US stop most our sales,Suid Arabia wanted the Rooi fak helicopter but the Americans didn't like that,China bought some of those helicopters & make a copy the late Joe Modise former minister of Defense roport the to UN.
Definitely the most interesting Forgotten Weapon in quite some time. I have a feeling that Ian was trying so hard not to fangirl over all of the cool engineering that he forgot to show the markings, say how long it was in service, or add the link to the mini-77.
R4 was not good on Battlefield, the bullets were Smaller, this helped as you could press around 50 bullets in the magasin (clip)... then precise, But it lacked firepower. Bullets were of small caliber.
You do NOT want to take that buffer spring out, trust me 😁 I never had that many issues with these (apart from a broken gas piston) and I quite liked it. I found it handy to use as it pointed well and had a soft recoil, accurate, wonderfully engineered (not so important practically but it really was beautifully engineered), and easy to clean/maintain. Ours were mostly mounted and we had some of the spade grips as well which I believe were not exactly common in regular SAA service. It rates up there with the MG3 as one of my favorite to use GPMGs.
As a former magist (FN MAG gunner) I was always curious about this design, so nice to see it up close. It seems to address most of the MAG and PK problems. I can't see why it didn't get wider adoption. One thing that immediately stands out is that the ammo sack would kick you in the balls and there seems to be no way to hook it to the handle with a paracord like with the Israeli MAGs. I haven't seen a Negev 7 yet, but other than that it looks like the best GPMG design in the last 60 years. More impressive than I thought. Because of a short receiver and a hand grip you can use it in an assault as a shoulder fired gun. I'd redesign the buttstock and shorten the barrel, modify the muzzle device and the ammo sack (to match the Israeli pattern) and you'd get all you may want from a 7.62 machine gun. And 7.62 NATO machine guns really do have a purpose. Full size cartridges make a lot of difference. Too bad it looks like they stopped making them.
I remember reading about the SS-77 GPMG in UK gun magazines back the late 90's early I think, and always found it fascinating. Great to see it getting the Forgotten Weapons treatment.
A lot of elements surrounding the weapon makes sense when you put them in contest of the border war which took place, largely, in Angola. 🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦
12:44 I expected the MG to be lighter than 22 lbs/10 Kg considering how svelte it is. Then I saw the bolt and damn it's a complicated piece to machine compared to a PKM bolt. Cherry on the top is the FAL style sand cuts. With a reciever locking system that this thing uses the receiver has to be machined as well The spade grip mechanism is cool though.
Thank you Ian. It always makes me proud to see the ingenuity of our arms industry - considering the global sanctions at the time, our guys consistently pulled rabbits out of hats.
Thank you for this excelent video. Im and old SA defeceforce veteran and i was n masjeengunner with the FN 7, 62 back in 1972. I was in 6 SAI Bravo comp.
4:28 The "colorful" name, I'm assuming, is based in the infantry vernacular. "nutsack". Thank you for your fun videos Ian, these are always wonderful to watch! Hopefully you can get your hands on the 338 MG SIG is making, not a ton of in depth videos on it!
Thank you for making this video, we tested this in my time in the defence force, my job was LMG1, main operator of this weapon, what a beast when it worked, duel recoil spring was an issue on mine. Cut dow trees with ease. I found it much more user friendly than the FNMag, especially on the weight side and stability on full rapid fire bursts. Thanks again for vid👏🏻👍🏻🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦
Thank you for a very informative and interesting video. I recognize 3 guns used in the SA Defense force during 1980 -1986 during my military training. This gun was never used during that time. The LMG used / BREN/ at that time was too heavy for the gorilla warfare on the Angola border.
I was in infantry, late 70s early 80s. We only had brens and heavybarrel R1s. Bren was reliable. A beautiful weapon quite suitable for bush warfare. The only issue was the small magazines
The case ejection dust cover looks like it flips up automatically when the gun is fired. I think I saw this on another weapon recently. Please cover this in detail when it comes up again. It’s a great feature but most guns don’t have it.
What an interesting design, and a very practical approach, especially after the gas piston problem was addressed and the second production run cut back on extraneous bits that did not have significant functional impact.
I caried both the FN LMG(MAG) and the SS77 in the field. FN was an awesome weapon. Never had problems with the SS77 either. It was definitely lighter and easier to carry and run with, and it did make airborne ops easier on the MAG gunner. We did have a couple of Mini-SS guns, but I'm more of a 7.62 guy, especially in bush warfare conditions.
Thanks. A quite well-designed mechanism. The only real problem that I can imagine is the non-captive retaining pins. They would be prone to being lost during field-servicing at night in tactical conditions in the bush.
The world in the 1980s: We are not going to sell South Africa arms anymore. South Africa: Oh, so we dont have to pay royalties on any of your designs we're making, right? The rest of the world: Umm. . .umm. . .umm. . .
Before corruption completely destroyed our (South Africa's) government and weapon's developer, Denel (the old Armscor), we South Africans loved to play around with out of the box, weird and sometimes "sci-fi punk" ideas towards weaponry. You should see the Denel NTW-20, it looks like something from Halo! It was the rifle used in the movie District 9 to take out the mech. So yea, you guys in the States needs an anti kaiju or mech gun give us a call. (Heaven knows we need it)
I watch all of Ian's videos( many multiple times), and That era of South African designs is so fascinating. That PAW Grenade laucher.The Neostad(?) double tube shotgun. That thing should be everywhere.
@@ВадимКараваев-й7ш The PAW-20 is just Tony Neophytou (South Africa's craziest weapons engineer) flexing, and guess what, the weapon was officially adopted into service!
In 83-84 was a no2 on the fn mag in a south african infantry platoon 8 SAI UPINGTON me and the MAG gunner albert greco were selected to be part of the testing of this gun at the RIEMVAASMAAK training ground of 8SAI.
For interest I was issued brand new FN Mag in 1984. Wow that was a great day, was so cool, out of its crate, still covered in the factory grease and not cleaned form shooting in the factory. It was a great LMG, would have like the SS77
this is such a cool gun. so many clever elements and a actually quite like the locking system. man i hate the NFA, so many cool machineguns are virtually unobtanium and i hate it.
I was one of the very first 1993, reaction force paratroopers members in the SADF, and we were tasked to test the SS77. We used this on the 'Jakkals' Para jeep.
Broke bipods jumping off the Buffels during ambush training( South African armored troop carrier and quite high) when hitting the ground the jolt would fling the bipods open and the follow through and the weight I was fully loaded with pear sack full and all my other ammo would cause a lot of putting on brakes… between breaking myself and hitting the ground ..but I did find the bipods weaker than the FNs ones, i never had bad problems with firing / stoppages, I am left handed, best thing for a mag gunner …too easy to cock/unblock a stoppage , loved this gun , have some belt at home ..I find myself taking apart and linking back up again, 5SAI light infantry Klein span team 1990.
I worked on these in the 80s when I was an armourer in the SADF. Beautifully made and well finished internally but, it malfunctioned constantly and was never reliable enough to replace the FN MAG in the field.
As a South African I would like to thank you for your cataloguing and presentation of our small arms history, without your efforts these would be mostly forgotten weapons (ba dum tiss)
Your joke is worse than aparteid.
LMAO
Bro it's an Apartheid invention. Don't think it includes you.
@Peter-bg1ku
Ending apartheid was the worst thing SA has ever done.
@@griftinggamer ye
That spade grip trigger mechanism is beautifully practical.
Watching that bit of the video as I type this, what a clever design! I'm so impressed by the sheer simplicity, it's brilliant
Right? It takes like 20 seconds to convert this from infantry to vehicle use, mounting included.
And it worked, really well.
We used to pride ourselves on being beautifully practical.
I’m surprised nobody else has copied that idea
There's something so interesting about South African firearms, you gotta love em, thanks for showing them off for us!
They've got this alternative history vibe to them, they're similar but different. Might be because they are so disconnected from Europe but still are influenced by it.
There's a charm to the whole "making do with (mostly) what you've got" situation that brought them about.
Before corruption completely destroyed our (South Africa's) government and weapon's developer, Denel (the old Armscor), we South Africans loved to play around with out of the box, weird and sometimes "sci-fi punk" ideas towards weaponry. You should see the Denel NTW-20, it looks like something from Halo! It was the rifle used in the movie District 9 to take out the mech. So yea, you guys in the States needs an anti kaiju or mech gun give us a call. (Heaven knows we need it)
They were very innovative.
Outside of the major American, European _(FN, Beretta, HK, SiG),_ and Soviet arms industries, you don’t see many domestic designs.
@@PrinceAlhorian I do. Where is it?
With a pear-sac as smooth as that, I'm surprised this video isn't sponsored by Manscaped.
I carried the FN MAG a lot in the Swedish Army. This looks like a superb upgrade to both the FN MAG and PKM systems by mixing the best of two legendary systems.
Ss77 doesn't cycle fast enough for the bolt to hit hard enough and there's no gas regulator very unreliable compared to pkm or mag79
once again, as a South African, I love seeing SA guns. Thanks a lot
total mania in the pfp checks out.
As an engineering student with a LEW bursary in the late 80’s and early 90’s I spent one of my university holidays measuring up 100’s of breech blocks for this GPMG. If I remember correctly, the somewhat intricate CNC work resulted in out-of-tolerance dimensions on a large proportion. Witnessed test firing in the 100m indoor range. Scary enough standing behind the setup, must be terrifying downrange! Good memories, LEW/LIW was a world class facility with some extremely capable people back then.
Sad to see how we fell into what w have now......
@@andriesjacksonas a cappuccino South African, I didn’t get a bursary under the milky regime.
And when my children were of bursary age, they’re not going to get a bursary from swart coffee either.
So we’ve decided to sell drie hoekie cookies to survive
But everywhere we go there is a sign “Geen Smouse”.
No hard feelings, just having some fun.
@@TheKaiser12345I’m sure I’ve got the landline number for M-net somewhere here ….. you know … cause M-Net C…..
Just having some fun😉. ( now imagine if All 3 of us send a collectively ass ripping message to the Ant Nuptial Cuntry running idiots dividing our 3 generations And multiple races in OUR once beautiful and prosperous and continent economically leading land ) sounds like a revolutionary concept hey!!
This gun was added to Arma 3 not too long ago with the Western Sahara DLC. The notable differences between the SS77 and the Arma 3 SA-77 is that the SA-77 has a welded picatinny rail in front of the rear sight assembly, it has fire modes of 600 rpm and 800 rpm that you can switch between, it has a 100 round canvass sack with a stamped sheet metal attachment point with a nifty diagram of which way the bullets should be pointing it does not have the zipper on the bottom. There was also added a compact version of it which was fitted with more rails on the fore end so you could attach all kinds of doodads, a more compact stock, an entirely different gas port assembly with the front sight attached to that, and a shorter barrel. I do appreciate that Arma's fictional weapons are different in ways that imply a domestic production version as opposed to the original versions modeled poorly.
Indeed, fictional-but-plausible things are always neat. It's a form of historical fiction, I suppose.
I love that CDLC and the SA-77 in particular.
Really admire the thought that went into the weapon.
The design features of that gun are impressive. It appears to have had a lot of thought concerning reliability and maintainability put in during design.
Right on, the SADF fought against SWAPO and the communist Angolan Army in South West Africa/ now Namibia and Angola. An area very similar to the deserts of the US South West.
Sanctions and war are the mother of invention and innovation. Such a pity our weapons industry and development weren't more globally appreciated. Thank you for highlighting our great weapons.
True, the West has put Russia and China in invention overdrive with recent sanctions and the results are already showing.
Iran has taken our baton and are running with it
They were globally recognized, but the US stop most our sales,Suid Arabia wanted the Rooi fak helicopter but the Americans didn't like that,China bought some of those helicopters & make a copy the late Joe Modise former minister of Defense roport the to UN.
Definitely the most interesting Forgotten Weapon in quite some time. I have a feeling that Ian was trying so hard not to fangirl over all of the cool engineering that he forgot to show the markings, say how long it was in service, or add the link to the mini-77.
mini-77 here ruclips.net/video/GoDqrzUKPBQ/видео.html :0 also a playlist of south african videos ruclips.net/p/PLyvMT0kbJnvtZ-L6MWUfRh9QK87Em6Gdx
Finally, a RUclips video on the Vektor SS-77, and by Gun Jesus no less! Thank you Ian!
"Those legs come apart" was not a sentence I was expecting to hear from one of your videos, ever. :D
Greetings from South Africa 🇿🇦 I love the R4 hand guard with bipod. There’s a wire cutter built into the bipod. Very useful.
Broke mine... on a "little" padlock I had on my "trommel"... we were warned not to do it.. but hey... will a 18 year old soldier listen...
So did the fabric bullet belt bag have any nicknames among the soldiers? Nutsack? Ballsack? Etc?
@@skullfracture2 Interesting you ask.. pears are a commonly used instead of testicles in afrikaans. so peersak(pearsack) already says it.
@@skullfracture2 The ball sack "Balsak" name was already taken by the SADF kitbag/duffle bag.
R4 was not good on Battlefield, the bullets were Smaller, this helped as you could press around 50 bullets in the magasin (clip)... then precise, But it lacked firepower.
Bullets were of small caliber.
Had the pleasure and privilege to be trained on and work with both the FN Mag, and the SS 77. Loved them both.
I love these guns that take "the best of features" and combine them. The AK, M60, Galil, etc. So cool.
The MG42 continues to echo through history.
Until the end. The last MG fired by human beings will be a descendent of "La Máquina"
Spandau forever...or something like that
You do NOT want to take that buffer spring out, trust me 😁
I never had that many issues with these (apart from a broken gas piston) and I quite liked it. I found it handy to use as it pointed well and had a soft recoil, accurate, wonderfully engineered (not so important practically but it really was beautifully engineered), and easy to clean/maintain. Ours were mostly mounted and we had some of the spade grips as well which I believe were not exactly common in regular SAA service. It rates up there with the MG3 as one of my favorite to use GPMGs.
As a former magist (FN MAG gunner) I was always curious about this design, so nice to see it up close. It seems to address most of the MAG and PK problems. I can't see why it didn't get wider adoption.
One thing that immediately stands out is that the ammo sack would kick you in the balls and there seems to be no way to hook it to the handle with a paracord like with the Israeli MAGs.
I haven't seen a Negev 7 yet, but other than that it looks like the best GPMG design in the last 60 years. More impressive than I thought. Because of a short receiver and a hand grip you can use it in an assault as a shoulder fired gun. I'd redesign the buttstock and shorten the barrel, modify the muzzle device and the ammo sack (to match the Israeli pattern) and you'd get all you may want from a 7.62 machine gun. And 7.62 NATO machine guns really do have a purpose. Full size cartridges make a lot of difference.
Too bad it looks like they stopped making them.
I remember reading about the SS-77 GPMG in UK gun magazines back the late 90's early I think, and always found it fascinating. Great to see it getting the Forgotten Weapons treatment.
"The pear sack. I'm sure it NEVER had any more colorful name in the field........" 🤣
“Im sure it never had any sort of more colorful name in the field” 😂😂😂
Balsak… 😂
Ian always bring the most interesting firearms & does the best job at expounding on them.
Love 4gotten weapons!!!
That is quite possibly the best designed MG i have seen yet
Appreciate your community service duderino
I agree. It's too bad that such a good piece of engineering wasn't available to more people.
Thanks for sharing this with us Ian!
They could have exported anything they liked had they, you know, ended apartheid.
A lot of elements surrounding the weapon makes sense when you put them in contest of the border war which took place, largely, in Angola. 🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦
12:44 I expected the MG to be lighter than 22 lbs/10 Kg considering how svelte it is. Then I saw the bolt and damn it's a complicated piece to machine compared to a PKM bolt. Cherry on the top is the FAL style sand cuts. With a reciever locking system that this thing uses the receiver has to be machined as well The spade grip mechanism is cool though.
South Africa made some cool stuff
Thanks Ian
With love from South Africa
8:55 "the fun part is the back end"
I keep trying that same line with my girlfriend.
Thank you Ian. It always makes me proud to see the ingenuity of our arms industry - considering the global sanctions at the time, our guys consistently pulled rabbits out of hats.
I'm glad he mentioned a previous video on the 5.56 version, because I was watching this and having bigtime deja-vu
Thank you for this excelent video. Im and old SA defeceforce veteran and i was n masjeengunner with the FN 7, 62 back in 1972. I was in 6 SAI Bravo comp.
Thank you SO much for showing South Africa's achievements in the military. I'd love to see more of them if you would be so kind?
Finally... thank you! I've only seen pictures of South African and Colombian soldiers with the SS-77.
4:28 The "colorful" name, I'm assuming, is based in the infantry vernacular. "nutsack".
Thank you for your fun videos Ian, these are always wonderful to watch! Hopefully you can get your hands on the 338 MG SIG is making, not a ton of in depth videos on it!
Who could imagine what nickname would come from filling an ammo sack with military ball ammo?
Its even skin color.
It really is a great machine gun design. I wish it was able to get exported. We would be able to see more of them in the wild.
Thank you for making this video, we tested this in my time in the defence force, my job was LMG1, main operator of this weapon, what a beast when it worked, duel recoil spring was an issue on mine. Cut dow trees with ease. I found it much more user friendly than the FNMag, especially on the weight side and stability on full rapid fire bursts. Thanks again for vid👏🏻👍🏻🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦
I look after one on my boat, in SA Navy. Never had a failure. Love my girls
Thank you for a very informative and interesting video. I recognize 3 guns used in the SA Defense force during 1980 -1986 during my military training. This gun was never used during that time. The LMG used / BREN/ at that time was too heavy for the gorilla warfare on the Angola border.
I was in infantry, late 70s early 80s. We only had brens and heavybarrel R1s. Bren was reliable. A beautiful weapon quite suitable for bush warfare. The only issue was the small magazines
Bren was replaced because it was a nightmare in the Ovamboland / Angola sand. No suitable for that terrain.@@rogersmith7555
Thank you for giving us another insightful video Gun Jesus🙏
So you know, I think Ian prefers people not call him that. Presumably a bunch of reasons. Not least this is engineering not theology.
Ok,thank you
This is the best firearms channel on RUclips
What a beautiful Frankenstein’s monster of a machine gun.
What a very interesting weapon. I like the amalgamation of some the aspects of these various different gun designs all folded into this one.
Ever since your videos with Vektor weapons, I was eagerly waiting for this review. Seeing how it functions is simple yet clever.
Arguably the sexiest GPMG ever made....
I have a little bias for my country's arms industry😂❤ 🇿🇦
Agreed. Just like how the R4 is a very sexy rifle 🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦
@@kinglattice705 The R4 is absolutely gorgeous. The Galil pattern of rifles is the best AK type platform on the market.
@@blaisechalmers1464 agreed 100%
That thing is beautiful.
... and freaking huge.
The case ejection dust cover looks like it flips up automatically when the gun is fired. I think I saw this on another weapon recently. Please cover this in detail when it comes up again. It’s a great feature but most guns don’t have it.
Of all domestic firearms design, South Africa is the most interesting
What an interesting design, and a very practical approach, especially after the gas piston problem was addressed and the second production run cut back on extraneous bits that did not have significant functional impact.
The back end is the fun part, indeed!
Loved the comeback arc
Thanks Ian!
Hi Ian, what do you think of South African weapon design and manufacturing compared to more developed weapons producers like the US and EU?
I caried both the FN LMG(MAG) and the SS77 in the field. FN was an awesome weapon. Never had problems with the SS77 either. It was definitely lighter and easier to carry and run with, and it did make airborne ops easier on the MAG gunner. We did have a couple of Mini-SS guns, but I'm more of a 7.62 guy, especially in bush warfare conditions.
South africa from 1960 to late 80s created so many amazing things from Heart transplants to Nukes
i like their approach, that is very professional
Necessity and Sanctions were the mother of invention here in SA.
Thanks.
A quite well-designed mechanism.
The only real problem that I can imagine is the non-captive retaining pins.
They would be prone to being lost during field-servicing at night in tactical conditions in the bush.
All cool stuff! I love seeing guns that were made by picking the best features of other ones
Finally i feel so complete the SS77 Ultimax and stoner 63 are the peak of neato belt guns
Malaysian Coast Guard also use this SS77
The world in the 1980s:
We are not going to sell South Africa arms anymore.
South Africa:
Oh, so we dont have to pay royalties on any of your designs we're making, right?
The rest of the world:
Umm. . .umm. . .umm. . .
Before corruption completely destroyed our (South Africa's) government and weapon's developer, Denel (the old Armscor), we South Africans loved to play around with out of the box, weird and sometimes "sci-fi punk" ideas towards weaponry. You should see the Denel NTW-20, it looks like something from Halo! It was the rifle used in the movie District 9 to take out the mech. So yea, you guys in the States needs an anti kaiju or mech gun give us a call. (Heaven knows we need it)
He's got a half hour long video on the NTW-20, including firing.
ruclips.net/video/1FMeG60vLfQ/видео.html
Ian has a video on the NTW 20 including footage of him shooting it!
Yeah and CR-21 also does look pretty cool but PAW-20 is something alien
I watch all of Ian's videos( many multiple times), and That era of South African designs is so fascinating. That PAW Grenade laucher.The Neostad(?) double tube shotgun. That thing should be everywhere.
@@ВадимКараваев-й7ш The PAW-20 is just Tony Neophytou (South Africa's craziest weapons engineer) flexing, and guess what, the weapon was officially adopted into service!
Thanks for covering this interesting fire arm.
We trained on this at Infantry School in Oudtshoorn early 1990s. Was fun...
It’s very instructive.
Thanks for the video. Thank
In 83-84 was a no2 on the fn mag in a south african infantry platoon 8 SAI UPINGTON me and the MAG gunner albert greco were selected to be part of the testing of this gun at the RIEMVAASMAAK training ground of 8SAI.
For interest I was issued brand new FN Mag in 1984. Wow that was a great day, was so cool, out of its crate, still covered in the factory grease and not cleaned form shooting in the factory. It was a great LMG, would have like the SS77
My favorite line in any forgotten weapons machine gun video “just a simple pull trigger, drop sear”
this is such a cool gun. so many clever elements and a actually quite like the locking system. man i hate the NFA, so many cool machineguns are virtually unobtanium and i hate it.
Thank you , Ian .
🐺 Loupis Canis .
That's such a smart design. The situation really seem to promote amazing ingenuity.
I was one of the very first 1993, reaction force paratroopers members in the SADF, and we were tasked to test the SS77. We used this on the 'Jakkals' Para jeep.
Thanks man! I appreciate your work on our interesting weapons.
👍🇿🇦🍻🇿🇦👍
"The fun part is the backend" Forgotten Innuendos
Thank you for this awesome video
This is so cool. The military in SA back in the day were top class, unlike these days where everything is broken
Intriguing piece of weapon there!
Broke bipods jumping off the Buffels during ambush training( South African armored troop carrier and quite high) when hitting the ground the jolt would fling the bipods open and the follow through and the weight I was fully loaded with pear sack full and all my other ammo would cause a lot of putting on brakes… between breaking myself and hitting the ground ..but I did find the bipods weaker than the FNs ones, i never had bad problems with firing / stoppages, I am left handed, best thing for a mag gunner …too easy to cock/unblock a stoppage , loved this gun , have some belt at home ..I find myself taking apart and linking back up again, 5SAI light infantry Klein span team 1990.
Quite ingenious
"...I'm sure it never had any other sort of more colorful name in the field..."
I worked on these in the 80s when I was an armourer in the SADF. Beautifully made and well finished internally but, it malfunctioned constantly and was never reliable enough to replace the FN MAG in the field.
These weapons will end up in their indented users hands again to fight against the enemy.
As always with our designs, necessity is the mother of all invention.
THE DISTRICT 9 MMG RECEIVES ITS DESERVED LOVE AT LAST
Ian i am a white south African . i like your work.
Very well thought out piece.
Is the barrel off set to one side like the ZH-29? I've always found it weird that it required an angled barrel when vertically locking bolts don't.
South Africa had a couple of mad scientists... to be making such a beautiful gun.
Impressive
What a gorgeous firearm.
They really had to make an ammo "sack" 😆
As soon as I saw that push-out pin for the feed assembly, I said, "Oh, No!" That should be a captive pin.
So a "feedbag" is a cool concept.
"Now, the fun part is the back end..." So they say.
Very interesting. Thank you.
Thank s
Lol that ammo pouch makes it extremely phallic. I would love to know what the G.I.s called that system