The Maxim - The Machine Gun That Changed the World
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- Опубликовано: 4 июл 2022
- Let’s take a look at the machine gun that changed the face of warfare (and probably a couple of maps) forever, the Maxim water cooled machine gun.
Thanks to SDI for sponsoring! Again, it’s SDI.edu for more info!
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Thanks for watching guys! Hopefully you enjoyed this breakdown of the Maxim and have a new appreciation for it! Let me know what other historic machine guns you’d like to see us pick up for the channel!
Thanks to SDI for sponsoring! Again, it’s SDI.edu for more info!
What's Poppin?
Nice.
I love the content Brandon, keep up the good fight!
I was waiting for this video always makes my day better :)
Ak notification squad
Fun fact, when Maxim's son invented the suppressor, the patent said, "For silencing both firearms and internal combustion engines." That's right, the suppressor and the muffler are the exact same patent.
Guess mufflers should be illegal too, since obviously, it makes things more deadly! /sarcasm
I learned something new today thanks
Honda Civic owners never run suppressed
@@thestig007 On Amazon, the Chinese sold them like oil filters!?
@@thestig007 as a member of the straight pipe cult, i agree. #loudpipessavelives
I can't imagine hearing something like that for the first time in war during the musket era
It'd be a certified "shitting your pants" moment.Especially once you start seeing the men next to you drop like flies.
1884 first machine gun - 1984 intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads directed by space satellites. 20th century was the bloodiest, most destructive 100 years in human history yet it started with horses and ended with people on the moon.
Gatling guns were pretty famous by then
@@Alan-cl2ix 66 years between the Wright brothers flight and Neil Armstrong landing on the moon
Talk about terrifying. Honestly, you would probably first think that there was several hundred thousand soldiers firing in a very tightly coordinated manner.
This weapon was so advanced for the time that some soldiers and colonials felt genuine disgust at how horrifically unfair an advantage it gave them. Inspiring the iconic quote:
"Whatever happens we have got
The Maxim Gun and they have not."
Theres so much animosity towards those who would have made the world a far better place to live for everyone else. If only the men of our past who had the courage and cunning to accomplish a better world order were as bad as they are accused of being. Then humanity might have stood a chance against himself. Look what being nice gets you. A world falling apart because of 'modern sensibilities.' Humanity traded 'imperialism,' for a 'progressive' featureless world with no hope of climbing out of its own vanity and hedonism. Its tragic. Old relics like this at least remind us of the brilliance we once possessed, and valued. Now our daughters have no heritage and find themselves bottom feeders for sale. Our men are weak, alone and unloved by the women who have married capital. There is no pity by the lesser peoples who are content to watch the world burn and blame everyone else for their neglect and slovenly natures. Our new imperial leadership uses words of fairness, while they hollow out the future for a decadent present in the name of progress. The world hasnt changed for the better, its only gotten much worse and those that govern have become far more cruel. They do not use machines like the Maxim any longer, they command, control and destroy our very souls with smiles and televisions and algorithms which train us like pets. Strange how this pattern constantly repeats.
@@greenflamingoentertainment8613 You'd better go and take up the White Man's Burden then.
@@greenflamingoentertainment8613 Yes. You sound like you need a Maxim or your very own.
@@tonytaskforce3465 Who wrote this comment? Its entirely based and unbelievably black pilled. Oh that was me. I don't have time for playing with exquisite antiquities. I'm too busy being a super villain.
@@greenflamingoentertainment8613 you really found a unique way of saying you are insecure in any and all ways.
You're watercooling your CPU, I'm watercooling my machine gun. We are not the same.
Still blows my mind how advanced this gun was for its time
true but..the mg42 is still better imo
@@u2beuser714 the mg42 was designed later than the maxim lol
@@spacedout4061 my point is that the mg42 was ahead of its time the same way maxim was
And this is why gun grabbers saying,"The founders only knew about muskets!" is a bunch of horse $#!T. Concepts around the modern firearm were already in play, but metallurgy was trying to catch up to make it possible for mass production. (I know this was invented about 100 years after USA was built, but the fact remains for other predecessors.)
*_Post note for the un-trained in the google arts,_* of " repeating rifles from the 1700's." (Of which there are a surprising number of you apparently), that say the founders didn't understand there would be bigger, faster, and more effective firearms than muskets.... Which should be noted, were the standard issue "weapon of war" from the british empire at the time, so parady with military tech was already on the table and accepted(And yes, despite of Commander in Chiefs incessant lies about it, CANNONS and mortars were owned, operated, and USED by private individuals on the regular(regulated/trained/familiar); as well as Warships with BUNCHES of cannons. Get educated n00b.)
Okay, you're wrong; The founders had knowledge and access to several guns before the founding, and certainly after while composing the Bill of Rights, that make the fundamental differentiation of "machine" guns minuscule, because it's only natural that due to better steel, parts production, and improved mass production, as compared to the "Puckle Gun", the "Kalthoff Repeater", and the "Cookson Repeater"... and those are only those that we know of that were widely known, I'm sure there are plenty that were made 1 of 1 that are lost to history. I would easily be understood that a revolver is a smaller step to belt fed guns in complexity and operations, than muskets, which again, the founders were well aware of revolvers and multi shot firearms that were produced from the very end of the 1500's, by *_blacksmiths_* with anvils, hammers, and color scales for temperature and temper hardening controls....
@@BlackJacx1 the founders founded the us in the 1700s... not the 1800s...
This is a gun where the 2000 meter setting was actually useful to deny an area to the enemy. You would constantly fire several maxims at an area at extreme range to create a beaten zone where enough rounds landed to deny the enemy freedom to move thru it.
Lead poisoning, at a minimum.
The Maxim predicted holding banana with a Negev
@@fjubben Ah, the CS laser beam...
Yes...
Worth remembering that when the British Army phased out the Vickers/Maxim, It was replaced with a 2" Mortar to do the indirect fire/area denial job.
Also british used their maxims as howitzers
1884....wow. That is mental how old it is and it's STILL works flawlessly. Hats off to you Maxim, you were a mad lad and WAY ahead of your time.
Completely unrelated to any of this but hey you have my friend's name! :D
@@niknotfund3612whats your name?
@@applesauce.6011 You probably don't know me but it's Da'Torre
@@niknotfund3612 hmm ok
1884 when gatling think he has best gun on world...hiram Maxim..hold My Beer...
10:14 it is insane to be how the Gatling gun and Maxim guns were developed before submachine guns. Those rapid fire guns have such complex mechanisms to load the next round, meanwhile submachine guns are basically a tube with a spring. The brazilian mekanika uru has only 17 parts.
fun fact: Hiram Maxim lost his hearing in later life due to years of exposure to firearm noise; multiple sources suggest that his son Hiram Jr. developed the silencer (and, using similar principles, the car muffler) due to this hearing loss.
Thats actually really interesting
I think he was knighted by the queen or king of Britain so I heard.
So what your saying is America developed sneaky guns before sneaky cars. Sounds right
Maxim still manufacture mufflers for the most part. Their design hasn't changed much over the years. Good stuff. 🤙🏾
Should've designed a water cooled suppressors
“Whatever happens, we have got
The Maxim gun, and they have not.”
― Hilaire Belloc
Beat me to it. Turned into one hell of a slogan.
who?
A French writer/social commenter contemporary with the turn of the last century. Very interesting (at least to me) ideas about economic justice (not socialist, but not capitalist either).
When you get to the Western Front and they *have* got the Maxim gun 😐
@@ottovonbearsmark8876 Right? Turns out other people can just build them too. Who knew? Whoops.
It's amazing to think that the Maxim was already 30+ years old when it saw it's use in WWI.
That's not really remarkable, the AK-74 is like 50 years old, and the M4 is also pretty old
@@kashephillips2133 are YOU slow? he said that the maxim was 30+ years old when it saw use in WW1. i replied by saying that both the M4 and the AK-74 are 30+ years old right now.
Dude, using “For Whom the Bell Tolls” to introduce it was FUH…KING…PERFECT.
"POV your tribe has natural resources" got me. The smile on your face made it even funnier
Does same tribes are migrating to your lands now 😂😂😂
Who needs a new machine gun when you got it right the first time?
Hiram Maxim was a glorious genius and absolutely was ahead of his time, and built arguably the most reliable firearm ever when we still used black powder and mercury for primers.
Madlad approved.
Wow mercury was used for primers back then? I'm a half assed gun guy but I had 0 idea
@@enasnI99 Fulminated Mercury to be accurate. A contact explosive that was used for caps and primers until the advent of modern impact primers.
@@Toggers99 Thanks for the info!
The M2 is still seeing use today with some that have been in use since WWII
@@enasnI99Actually, no. Folks stopped using mercury fulminate because the stuff decayed over time and would stop working if you stored it for too long. Late 19th Century they were using potassium chlorate as the shock- sensitive priming compound in caps and cartridges.
Potassium chlorate is not without its problems. It becomes overly sensitive when mixed with sulfuric acid (remember than one ingredient in black powder is sulfur) and another problem is a byproduct of this kind of primer is potassium chloride-- a salt.
Potassium chlorate is _exactly_ the corrosive component of milsurp ammo today. The primers are reliable-- they just douse the bore with salt residue in the process.
Fun fact: Maxim's son invented the silencer becasue of the maxim machine-gun that his father invented.
Test-firing this gun constantly made his father go completely deaf (since this was long before modern ear protection) and he wanted something to prevent that from happening.
This machine gun is beyond fascinating, it's not just a marvel of engineering for the time but almsot 150 years later it's had a massive impact not only on military tactics but has indirectly affected geopolitics, culture, manufacturing etc etc. And if that's not impressive i don't know what is 👌
If I recall, the British tested either a Maxim or a replacement for the Maxim by having it fire continuously for days. They kept linking belts together and replacing the water in the tube and only suffered 2 or 3 jams in several days of sustained fire.
The Vickers
They were getting rid of the .303 in favor of .308, se there was a bunch of rounds needed to be fired/destroyed, and someone had an awesome idea of just shooting till they either run out of ammo or the gun's destruction, which is awesome!
Close, but not quite.
When the brits took the Vickers MG (basically the British licenced maxim) out of service, bases around the empire were ordered to get rid of their old ammunition, as the replacement machinegun used a different caliber.
One opportunistic base commander however, went about the destruction in an entirely separate way. He ordered that the millions of bullets in storage be all expanded.. and so that's what they did.
Gunners took turns in shifts, firing the single vickers continously untill all the ammo was gone. In the end, 5 million bullets were fired in a 7 day period, and the gun wasn't much worse for wear after the fact.
you can further look into it if you look up "Vickers gun shot for a week straight"
Woooooowwwww
@@jackgamer6307 5 Million Rounds ;)
I'd like to think that Maxim went the extra mile with the ejection design, that spent casing is a free dust cover.
Agreed. Because he could have used an upside down feed ramp to tilt the cartridge and have it slide out of an angled ejection port. The port would have to be much larger so that it would basically just drop them, like minigun so it wouldn't cause ejection issues. I like to think he thought of that, and this was an intentional feature.
Yea just looking at that design, that shit slaps.
@@samson9428 This reply confuses my monke brain.
Your panther brain
Little bit of history.
The MG42 is known as Hilters Buzzsaw
The Maxim Machine gun was known as the devils paintbrush
The Lewis gun was known as the Belgian Rattlesnake, as well
@@aarondevaldez9134 even though it was made by an American and used by the British
These machine guns have some badass names
7:14 bro really said “no witnesses”💀🗣️🗣️💀💀💀🔥
With this being a Finnsh Maxim , you notice the massive latch on the water jacket, the Finns made it so that they could shovel snow into the jacket , because you know, Finland...
I mean, if it works and looks ridiculous…
Не согласен! Конкретно эта модель появилась после Советско - Финской войны. Наши советские конструктора переняли опыт финнов и с конца 30-х годов производили эти пулемёты с расширенной горловиной для использования снега для охлаждения. Также зимой использовали для охлаждения смесь воды и спирта, но спирт очень быстро "испарялся"))))))))))
Iirc the Russians also used the larger hatches on the M1910s
Hence the “snow cap” reference by Brandon
fun fact: as long as this gun has a supply of water, ammo and a handful of barrels, these guns can shoot indefinitely...
in the 60's someone did a test with a Vickers (basically a later version of the Maxim) and they shot something like 5 MILLION rounds continuously for 7 days straight with only short brakes to change the barrels. At the end the gun was inspected and found to be within service spec in every dimension.
Mf was the whole reason why we had a ammo shortage
i have a feeling the alcohol racism and colonialism of the era was like pixie dust for firearm design
Zzzzz
ww1 documentary i just watched said 2 machine guns stopped an allied attack. Killed lots of people too. A lot of the machine guns of the time had the ammo in stripper clips of a bit less than 20 rounds so you would have a loader or loaders working.
@@Bruh-dw8xu iirc they dumped all .303 British that they had because theyre gonna go NATO
Thanks for the video on the Maxim. What an amazing machine gun for its time!
Pretty f-ing sweet Brandon! I've always wanted to fire a Maxim MG. I was an M-60 guy in the army and I developed an affinity for machine guns
Mildly interesting fact: The gun is so iconic it made it into an expression in the Serbian language. (Russians/Allies gave us some to use during WW1 and WW2). "Tuce kao maksim po diviziji", literally : he's wrecking it like a maxim wrecks a division. You use it when a tool or a machine (gun or not) works really well.
My new favorite saying!
Based Serbians?
In German there is also the expression 08/15, which normal or everything like normal. It comes from the German Maxim the MG 08/15.
@@West_Coast_Gang indeed
Absolutely based.
What’s most crazy about the Maxim is not only is it the first machine gun, it is an excellent design that is still in service today. It would be ludicrous to see a Benz Motorwagen puttering around on ether or a Wright Flyer landing at LAX, yet this thing arrived, and remained. Remarkable engineering.
First belt fed machine-gun. Machine-guns are much older. Getting gun was in the Civil War. And many different volley gun designs going back much further.
Well, the B-52 is still in service, and its first flight was closer to the Wright brothers' first flight than to now.
It’s kinda like the 1911 in that it dominated during its time and still enjoys so action today ( although limited) sometimes the original design is just to good to entirely replace.
volley guns and a gatling guns are not a machine guns.
"machinegun" as that term is defined in 26 U.S.C. 5845(b}: The term “machinegun” means any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single trigger pull. Neither volley guns nor gatling guns can shoot automatically multiple shots with a single trigger pull. They are repeating weapons, closer to bolt action rifles than machine guns.
The fact that this weapon still sees use speaks leagues about how good it is
I feel like Maxim was a time traveler who wanted to live in the 1800s but also really liked machineguns
Lol yeah
The Maxim paradox: By liking machine guns he goes back in time and creates machine guns, thus leading to a possible time loop
@@xnotasweatxThe cooler Grandfather's paradox
@@xnotasweatx grandfather's paradox but better
To really put in perspective how absolute the Maxim redefined warfare, it could manage to spit out more bullets in an 12 hours than the number of shots fired in entire wars only 20 years prior.
Absolutely astounding to think about, all things considered
Underrated observation. While I've not tested it personally (only dumped 1000 rounds in 4 bursts on one), it is said that as long as you didn't run out of water, you could easily fire it for 12 hours straight.
@@briang530 (wouldn't the barrel expire beforehand just from ballistic wear? I honestly don't know - fact check me)
Some of the gatling guns did some stupid fire-rates too.
@@mgabrysSF well it's a fair observation and Data is shady at best. Given continuous fire for 12h would be approaching half a million rounds I suspect that both mechanically and logistically*, the claim is soldier's hyperbole. There is some claims of working barrels with over 200k rounds through them which seems possible given the properties of .303, the water cooked design of the gun, and very good gas management properties of the design though. I guess the point I was going for is that as long as you don't have to move it, the maxim still has some admirable properties for sustained fire that more modern guns don't.
*That's approaching 25 tons of bullets in 12h.
Logistics personnel of the time must have had a collective stroke when the venerable old lady was first introduced.
Much obliged, for this fun and interesting history lesson!
That's freaking crazy!! Bad ass video man.
People used to ask," do you miss the Army?" I always said, "only range fire." There is no substitute for the pleasure of belt fed ammunition.
Happiness is a belt fed weapon.
"any man can build a bridge but it takes an engineer to build a bridge that barely stands" is my favorite engineering quote and i was reminded of it when this mans said that the hard part of engineering something to work is engineering something to work simply. What a classic 😂
Rephrased another way, it's easy to come up with something people need, but it's difficult to come up with something they can afford.
Basically, it's easy to make something that works, but it's hard to make something work cheaply/within constraints. Like, you could build a really big wall, put a road on top if it, and call that a bridge, but that's incredibly expensive and a waste of resources. Meanwhile an Engineer can build a bridge that still get's the job of moving stuff over it, while being much more cheaper and faster to produce. Sure it might be easier to knock down or break due to weight issues, but hey, it's cheaper and you can put it anywhere, not to mention that those scenarios, are, or should be, rather rare.
One of your best videos, Brandon. It might be interesting to do a comparison on the "ancient" Maxim and the Browning .30 water cooled gun. Especially the difference between the actions.
There were several Bolt Action Rifles invited before the Russian M1891 Mosin Nagant like the M1841 Deyes Needle Gun, 1884 Remington Lee Rifle , Italian M1869 Vetali Vertali. M1889 Kraig - Jurgensen. M1895 Lee-Navy . The Italian M90 Carcano was invited the same year as the Mosin Nagant 1890.
He never said it was the first invented
Brandon really needs to get his hand on a Nagant revolver, that’ll make him the one man with a historically accurate WW1 russian loadout.
You say that like he almost definitely doesn’t already have one.
@@Slender_Man_186 the one youtuber with a historically accurate WW1 russian loadout
im pretty sure that the nagant m1895 revolver can have a silencer
@@brixenlang3207 it can
@@tobiasworner4970 i knew that a few years from now, thanks anyways.
im sure that the cylinder moves forward to seal some gas so a silencer works
What i find truly amazing is that the Maxim was originally intended to be used with BLACK POWDER, but could never sustain fire due to excessive fouling (as all attempts at repeating black powder arms tended to go). After smokeless came around and got widely distributed they tweaked the design to allow that higher pressures and bam. Maxim guns hit mainstream
It is said that Browning used long recoil operation in his famous semi auto shotgun in part becasue of the semi-smokeless perhaps available black power loadings of the day. Gas operated shotguns normally do not do well with such powders.
@@loquat44-40 the auto 5 is the only mainstream semi automatic firearm built to work with black power and smokeless with intent.
And his younger brother, Hudson Maxim, invented some smokeless powders (including the first adopted by the us) and explosives.
@@mikeweiby2813 I am not sure if invent is the right word. The French get the first credit for perfecting a smokeless for military rifle cartridges that was first used by the French military. The Maxims did refine develop later some smokeless powder.
' Later he joined his brother Hiram Stevens Maxim's workshop in the United Kingdom, where they both worked on the improvement of smokeless gunpowder.' wiki I am not sure if it was cordite they did or not.
the funny thing was that the Maxim actually ran for quite some number of rounds before the fouling caught up with it. I mean it did eventually seize the gun, but the number of rounds before coming to that point is insane. Some of his later patents were devices which would supposedly deal with the solid precipitates of the black powder's deflagration reaction (science-nerd speak for fouling). But with the invention of smokeless powder, these inventions became moot.
Also side note. For many, "repeating" refers to magazine loading or otherwise multi-shot manually-actuated firearms (magazine-fed bolt actions, lever actions, revolvers). where as what you are referring to would either be referred to as "self-loading" or "automatic" firearms where some force from the firing of the weapon (recoil impulse or gas pressure) actuates the breech assembly to retract, extract the fired round out of the chamber, eject the spent casing, and bring the next live round into the chamber and generally in the same motion seal the breech and make the firearm ready to fire the next round.
"One survivor, two survivors..... *gunshot* *gunshot*..... we dont do suvivors here" had me rolling lmao
SDI is awesome i graduated from their course in 2019! Loved the course. Shane i haven’t gotten a job where i live but it was awesome any way! Thanks for the awesome content Brandon!
Fun fact: Maxim invented one of the first methods for mass-producing lightbulb filaments, which is why he and Edison fought so much over the patent.
Sad Tesla noises
Forgot to mention that the phrase, "whole 9 yards" is from this gun's belt. It traditionally used a canvas belt that was 27ft (9 yards) long. So when a gunner (usually aircraft) fired a whole belt at a target, they gave them the whole 9 yards :)
Damn thats awesome.
Wasn’t that in reference to the an/m2 ?
@@offdeadeye88 That was the story when I heard it. M2s mounted on B-17s had 27ft belts.
Cool facts
Sorry it was from the belt length of the b17 bomber. The strafing run would give them the whole nine yards.
So cool. Thanks Brandon 💪
...thanx for showing the function & operation sequence...
The fact that the maxim is still in service pretty much embodies the saying of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
There is a story I've heard about what the British did when they finally removed their Vickers machine guns from Combat. (Vickers Machine Gun is a British licensed modified Maxim Machine gun made to be lighter) Supposedly they sat them down and fired them until the gun destroyed itself... except it never did. They had to stop the exercise because they ran out of ammunition before they could damage the gun through overuse.
Yeah, it has basically infinite barrel life
@@tedarcher9120 Of course it's going to slowly become a closer & closer range run..
@@tedarcher9120 the smoothbore Maxim
1963, the British army was getting rid of its .303 stocks because everyone was going over to 7.62 NATO.
A class of armourers decided to do it in the most fun way possible and endurance test their Vickers gun. They took breaks to replace the barrel after an hour and a half, refill water and check the feed but otherwise they ran it solid for 7 days and 5 million rounds with no notable defects or wear in the gun.
this video felt like an episode on a tv show and im here for it
Because Brandon keeps making fallout references in his videos I now really want him to get a hold of a Hecate II
It's amazing that Hiram Maxim was able to create such a reliable automatic weapon given the metallurgy of the time. Modern firearms manufacturers have trouble with heat treating on firing pins, etc. We tend to focus on the mechanical design of moving parts and their manufacture, but the material science was often the limiting factor when composite material was wood and steel was made with relatively poor process control.
Sir Hiram apprenticed in different technologies, as there were no trade schools at that time. To be able to combine metallurgy, physics, ergonomics, gunsmithing, blacksmithing and God knows what else is what separates him from many other inventors then, and now, IMHO. Even Edison was afraid of Maxim's intellect!-John in Texas
Not only that, but also made before smokeless powder. The original was a black powder gun. He was truly a genius.
It would be cool if we could have a water cooler ar15
@@TheAnnoyingBoss Maybe some crazy gunsmith can make one, or kel tec.
Cool stuff. I have a round from the maxim that dates back to the 2nd anglo boer war(1899-1902) Chambered in .577/450, aka the martini henry round!
a machine gun chambered in that beast of a round is a terrifying thought.
Aren't those super hard to find? The Martini-Henry rounds?
@@banjobill8420 definetly is. There was also the 'pom pom' Google that. Was wild as sin. Make sure to search 'pom pom gun boer war'
So it means there were Maxims shooting black powder ?!
@@alexis1052 maxims have shot everything at least once
Great video, I love it thanks 👍👍❤❤
Nice for whom the bell tolls riffs in the beginning, doesn't get much better than this
It's hard to imagine much more cool than the AK guy sitting on a sandbag wearing sandals shooting a Finnish 7.62x54(R) Maxim cool. Awesome video Brandon!
some widebody caveman flips!
2:08 - This is a modern "Tachanka" - a horse-drawn carriage with a machine gun mounted backwards, used most often during the Russian Civil War (1917 - 1922)
That carrige is Sokolov's carriage, or mount, which was used by Russian Imperial Army, I reckon already during Russo-Japanese war, but at least in 1st.WW - and it wasn't horse-drawn either.
Finnish mount was totally different: zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maxim_M_32-33_Mikkeli_2.JPG
By the look of that water jacket I would say that this gun is captured Russian one, and equipped with accelerator and snowcap in Finnish armory after that. Russian gun has originally slower rate of fire than this.
_>__2:08_
12:08
“Lord Tachanka”
@@Sauce_Sensei "Revolver Ocelot" -Revolver Ocelot
Chapaev's gun
Also. I’m not gonna lie! When you had the weapon disassembled/opened in the shop, and you were working the mechanism. I felt some thing. It was deep inside. And it was warm.
I don’t know how I feel about this. But I think I like it!!!
great song choice bro, thats one of my favourites
I'm related to Hiram Maxim the inventor or the first automatic receiver, Hiram Percy Maxim the inventory of the suppressor and car muffler, and Hudson Maxim who Edison said was the "most versatile man in America". I was able to trace the lineage from Hiram to my uncle Charlie Labay. Amazing when I see you talking about the Maxim gun, I get to see Ukraine using it, and it's in Enlisted which I've been getting into recently. I'm hoping to manufacture firearms when I can pay for licensing and some repairs to my metal shop. Might use the name.
Do it
@Sean still a good flex. Literally revolutionized warfare. Not many people can say they did that. Good or bad it’s still a major feat to accomplish
Hell yes!
We will watch your career with great interest
@@sasguerilla9119 second only to the atomic bomb, I'd say. Though the atomic bomb hasn't seen much combat use, it's completely changed modern diplomacy and therefore warfare. It's the only reason the Cold War was as "short" as it was. America would likely have continued proxy wars and even considered invasion of mainland territories like China or Russia, had it not been for the threat of nuclear warfare. The addition of atomic bombs has largely stalled large-scale modern warfare. Nobody is crazy enough to try and take over the world again because what if?
I think the machine gun is a bigger impact on modern combat than even the modern tank or airplane, solely because you can plan for and attempt to deal with tanks and airplanes. Air defense, radar, concealment. All viable defense mechanisms from airplanes. Tanks are usually used alongside infantry and are relatively easy to sneak in a round that can disable them; they're big targets. You can't easily figure out when a machine gunner will pin down your whole squad. You can't figure out how many there are or if they actually even see you or are just shooting near you. You can't just check because what if he was?
"but the founding fathers could have never predicted"
*SMACK*
The Maxim was invented closer to them than us!!!
You don't even need to use the Maxim as an example of why that argument is stupid. The volley gun, a predecessor to the Gatling gun (which were used in the American Civil War), was designed and used as far back as the 1300s.
But if you want something a little more man portable, there's the Kalthoff repeater, which was basically a 5-30 round lever action rifle, was designed and used in the mid- to late-1600s. And, of course, the Giardoni air rifle, which had a 20 round capacity, was designed _during_ the Revolutionary War, and was adopted into military service by the Austrian Empire _before_ the Constitution was even written.
I think the word "arms" is quite important because Im pretty sure it refers to the ability to wage war, not just the possession of weapons. But im from the Netherlands so what do I know😉
@@azoniarnl3362 How is it that you, a foreigner, can get that, but my own countrymen can't seem to figure it out? Maybe our education system really is as bad as they claim. XD
@@vicroc4
I'm sure education is part of the issue, but the bigger part is the targeted propaganda the antis use.
@@vicroc4 i think it's more the parenting and fear mongering, but education definitely plays a part, whether or not schools should be teaching firearm safety and possible interpretations of our constitution's amendments and what they imply, is a different story. i for one, believe that both would be way too controversial to implement in standardized educational programs.
7:42 no you did not just say that bruh xD Madlad
What a stunning, beautiful piece of engineering!
"Let me know if there are other machineguns you'd like to see in the future."
All of them.
But seriously, the WWII Polish home-made Błyskawica subgun. It's like a lexus-luty.
Problem is that Błyskawica was really scarce. Only Mors SMG is hard to find (about 50 made, survived less than 10).
Lol sounds similar to the US Stinger Machine Gun
During the 1960’s when the British were phasing out the .303 cartridge, they decided to dispose of some of their excess ammunition by firing a Vickers gun for as long as possible. If I recall correctly they ended up firing about 6 million rounds over a span of of seven days, only stopping to reload, change barrels, and swap gunners. There were no malfunctions during the entire test.
Maybe it was even Australia? Heard they tore guns down after and couldn’t find signs if significant wear!
Wow. Amateur gun nerd that I am, I'm -surprised- shocked that I never heard of this torture session!
'Who shall remember, passing through this gate,
The unheroic dead who fed the guns?"
This is the best video I've seen in a while.
Fun fact: in soviet union, maxims were officially withdrawn from service around mid-1980s, they were kept as an armament in bunkers because they are water-cooled and can provide longer sustained fire than pk/pkm
It makes sense
Who cares about the weight when it doesn't have to move?
I remember doing a primary school presentation on Maxim himself and it's now dawning on me just how much firearms have defined my life, and I'm welsh.
When I was in middle school one of my teachers let me do a presentation on how to make an MP40 out of paper. Was a good time
British?
@@whatdadogdoin9818 Wales is a country in the British Isles.
@@Fugels so yes. British
@@fruitmonger4277 I like to clarify because we aren't acknowledged much and are still thought of by some as part of England.
I think I have just found the coolest dude in the gun world. I love your videos bro, great stuff 🤘
Lol “POV:Your tribe has nature resources” 💀💀💀 That was an amazing and historically accurate joke
This level of ingenuity that sets a standard for years or even centuries to come has always been so fascinating to me. I mean, this machine gun is older than the first automobile.
Actually if you wanna be technical about it Nicholas Tugot invented a steam powered tractor in 1769. The first real steam powered car was invented in Great Britian in 1801 by Richard Trevithick(who also invented the first steam powered locomotive).
@@andrewstiegel9730 I'd say this is the first practical and usable machine gun, like how HelloChief was referencing to more reliable or mass-produced vehicles as opposed to one-off steam powered cars
The browning machine gun is effectively the same thing, even the long box look is the same
It’s actually still being used in the Ukraine war
@@lani6647 Их,сняли с концервации и вооружили пехоту Украины.Воинам нравится Максим за дальность и надежность.Русских фашистов и оккупантов убивает хорошо.Прошивает лёгкую бронируовоную технику,вместе с экипажем.ruclips.net/video/Iv-AICgB_HM/видео.html
Even with the insane power creep on some of the weapons today, the maxim is still usable. Goes to show how op it was when it was released in the black powder meta.
I read opinions from ukrainians fighting in the static trench war of donbass in 2014-2022 that this gun is still very much apreciated there for its ability for sustained fire from bunkers of the static frontline, in this role it was perfect though as soon as you have to start lugging it around it shows its loss of practicality. Some of that static fortified trenchline is still holding in south donbass i bet they are using the maxims there a lot. Still viable but situational
@@rozkaz661
There is a relatively famous picture from Ukraine where someone mounted two of these side by sides on a a mount with a red dot. It looked like it was on a vehicle like a truck bed or something.
It is just the fact it can work for A LONG time without any problems. As long as you pump in water and fed it ammo it will more or less precisely shoot into the general vicinity of the enemy, so it is excellent for defensive warfare.
"Power creep" and OP.. I think you're playing too many video games. Guns back then tended to shoot hotter cardrtidges from longer barrels.
@@gratefulguy4130 I'm glad you said that I came in here to find out what the fuck power creep is. Damn video Gamers would shit their pants if they ever fired a real firearm
Need a browning 1917a2 video after this, would love to see a internal comparison between the two cause they look so similar. From my understanding the browning is far lighter because of the simplicity of the firing mechanism. Thanks for another great video Brandon love the historic guns.
It's fascinating to hear how the water around the barrel influences the sound of it, especially in slow mo.
That gun was tested to see how long it could be shot out of. The answer: days (basically forever) as long as you refill the water, they ended the test I think 3-4 days in
That's so crazy no barrel changes or anything just keep the water topped off and your good
@@johno1544 With how well designed the Maxim was,, as long as you keep the barrel cooled, the gun would still function. The rifling might be worn to shit and make the gun far less accurate, but then again, the Maxim was more of a 'to whom this may concern' kinda weapon to begin with.
@@hewhoplugwalks Accuracy through volume
@@myusername3689 The best way of doing it
I have the book where that's written it's called The Grim Reaper by Roger Ford
Having taken apart a few firearms from the 1800s, I really appreciate the simplicity of modern guns, but there is no denying the fact that the beauty of watching all those moving parts work together is unmatched by anything I'm aware of that is made today.
H&K G11: "Am I a joke to you?"
@@FlyboyHelosim that's what I was thinking I hope they haven't seen the HK G11 or the FN P90
@@FlyboyHelosim Kraut space magic from the future doesn't count lol
It's pretty much like the difference beween a quartz watch and a mechanical one: yes the quartz is cheap, genius simple and precise; but it lacks all the beauty the complexity and the art of the mechanical movement
@@nelsondawson9706 I absolutely adore the P90 and not only because of Stargate.
Awesome. I love the term "Accuracy by volume"
“What are you gonna do with that thing, history me to death?” *proceeds get vaporized*
What’s interesting is that top American military leaders at the time when Maxim created this design, didn’t initially want any. Maxim had to move his sales pitch to Europe since they were more interested in them and were eager to adopt them for their infantry as well as colonial troops.
Waiting for this...
BurOrd wisdom strikes again.
Yes. Army Ordinance Board used to be complete idiots, no matter how of them you fired and replaced, another idiot would take the place of the competent one that was hired it during war time to fix things. They rejected many technological advances in the Civil War as well, which arguably prolonged the war and thus prolonged the suffering of both sides.
Someone supposedly said to Maxim, "If you want to make a fortune, figure out a way these Europeans can kill each other faster."
@@wolfehoffmann2697
Which is all the more humorous and tragic, given that of all the various parts and branches of the entire US military, Bureau of Ordnance has the worst track record for stupid, belated decisions.
The furthest in the rear, with the most time of any department, to chew on all available information and come to the right conclusions; yet somehow historically they almost always get it wrong. At least at first. It's a weird institutional stubbornness...
Eventually, the right weapons get fielded, but it most always starts out as a decision making process that hinders the ones actually doing the fighting first.
Maxim reportedly said that he was inspired to develop the gun after meeting an American in Vienna who told him: "Hang your chemistry and electricity! If you want to make a pile of money, invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each others' throats with greater facility."
I love how this man just casually shoots a historical machine gun in leather flip flops. A beautiful depiction of IDAF.
I was hoping to find a comment saying what I was thinking hahahaha
Same here
Brandon’s sponsorship be like* today’s video is sponsored by the Geneva convention, and what not to do when you take prisoners*
Keep the videos coming for our entertainment 👍👍
Fun Facts about a modernized and improved Maxim Machine Gun Variant: the Vickers
"In 1963 in Yorkshire, a class of British Army armorers put one Vickers gun through probably the most strenuous test ever given to an individual gun. The base had a stockpile of approximately 5 million rounds of Mk VII ammunition which was no longer approved for military use. They took a newly rebuilt Vickers gun, and proceeded to fire the entire stock of ammo through it over the course of seven days. They worked in pairs, switching off at 30 minute intervals, with a third man shoveling away spent brass. The gun was fired in 250-round solid bursts, and the worn out barrels were changed every hour and a half. At the end of the five million rounds, the gun was taken back into the shop for inspection. It was found to be within service spec in every dimension."
#akgnotificationsquad
That's fucking impressive.
"shoveling away spent brass"
Priceless imagery there!
Absolute unit of a machine gun.
Holy shit
@The One And Only Exotic Butters Id like to see _any_ other firearm do that. Thats INSANE.
Historical fact: During russian civil war russian Machno's anarchists (анархисты Махно) (Gulyaypole (Гуляйполе)) used maxims as Brandon in the end of the video. They're called it "tachanka" ("тачанка")
На самом деле, это киношный миф. Возможно, кто-то и отстреливался на ходу, но тачанки задуманы не для этого. На самом деле, во время конной атаки тачанки шли на флангах, останавливались, разворачивались и обеспечивали фланговым перекрёстным огнём поддержку наступающей конницы именно как неподвижные огневые точки. Если атака была неудачной, прикрывали отход. Если удачной - вновь разворачивались и снова ехали вперёд, повторяя предыдущий манёвр. У Глеба Таргонского был очень хороший разбор на тему тачанок. ruclips.net/video/NYM4JlBg9S0/видео.html
Да и тачанки юзали на пост Российско Имперском пространстве все. Хотя махновцы и были впереди планеты всей.
Another fun fact right now there is a fight not far from Gulyaypole (currently Ukraine) 🤷🏻♂️
LMG, MOUNTED AND LOADED
@@rkol Поддерживаю. Добавлю, что использовал не только Махно, но и почти все стороны конфликта, в т.ч. красные)
Where British soldiers penchant for drinking tea mid-battle comes from. They used this to heat water, replacing it with cold water and carried on firing. Hiram Maxim also invented the thing on the front of trains to push cattle off the tracks.
you're such an amazing guy that I subscribed to your official channel, despite the fact that I watch your videos translated into russian.
this is not about politics, but about a kind of popularization of history with WEAPONS!
EVEN MORE OLD WEAPONS
The Maxim is one of those things that you can point to as an invention that changed the course of human history. It's crazy that this weapon system came about in the 1880s and is still seeing limited use in Ukraine.
Not to mention Syria, The Philippines and Africa
@@travisdixon9974 makes sense. Colonial powers had them and all their variants and very reliable. Need to hold down a position without worrying about jamming? Maxim. Vickers. 08 German version. It has your back.
Maxim is now used to defend Bakhmut
Maxim also had a protptype flying machine that ran on train rails, it generated so much lift that it broke the rails, and he did this all before the wright brothers took flight
Love the shirt dude
The thing that impresses me most about the Maxim gun is that Maxim managed to make it work with black powder. THAT is a robust design.
Wait, so the ejection port is kept closed by a casing? If it is stuck in there reliably enough to prevent dirt entering even if the MG is rattled around on its carriage, it's some of the biggest gun designer flex I've seen yet
If nobodys posted this yet, when the british were phasing out this weapon in the 50s, they had a shitload of 303 left so said fuck it and fired this gun constantly for about a week nonstop, only stopping to fill it with water or feed it ammo. After they were done they stripped the entire gun, and found it was still in perfect working order. Just goes to show how maxim created a fantastic design
You're thinking of the Vickers in 1963. Swapping crews every half hour and barrels every hour and a half, they blew threw roughly 5 million rounds in a week and every part of the gun was found to still be within spec.
@@blaisetheginger The Vickers is just a British Maxim gun
@@blaisetheginger The Vickers is a Maxim.
And yes this story has been posted and reposted about a dozen times in the comments. Cool story though!
10:30 each student should tanks notes
And yeah It shows me as subscribed and yet doesn't notify me that there are new videos of you
I'd love to see one on the Browning 30 cal water cooled MG.
My grandfather was in WWI, he passed when I was young but I do have fond memories of him. We were told to never sneak up behind him. One day I saw him in the horse barn and came running up behind him. Next thing I knew I was on my back with his Cain at my neck. He didn't have a good time over there. Also would not allow rice in the house. After a chemical attack he had his dinner that had rice. The rice had absorbed the chemicals and he went down.
I'd like to see one of the Browning 50 cal water cooled MG.
That's actually a really cool story.
Never considered it, but yeah, rice be like that. Lol.
I'm sure he was a helluva fellow.
The poison was in the rice? Must have been ricin. Ba dum tsst
In 8th grade we had to do a project on the greatest modern inventions that changed society from 1850 to 1950.... people chose electricity the light bulb antibiotics sterilization.... I chose the maxim machine gun. More people have been impacted by this and many that are directly related to this amazing firearm
They definitely have been "impacted" by it for sure
Congrats man
The maxim saved lives advanced technology even further and is extraordinary
Guy: gets excited over an old machinegun.
The rest of humanity: a wheel is... how old again?
[Light bulb appears over Hiram Maxim's head]
Maxim: "Hold my beer, I want to try somethin' !"
One of those cool items you could pretty much showcase in a large amount of 20th or 21st century war films and it’d probably fit in some kind of way.
The Finnish snow cap model is the same other than the larger cap in the to allow for snow to be put into the cooling sleeve as Finnish has a colder climate
2:00 you are incorrect. According to the ATF: a stick is the oldest machine gun as you can hit multiple ppl with 1 swing.
I'm surprised they are even still legal!
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Sad but true! Also, stop giving the AFT ideas damnit!
@@JonesingUSAF gAyTF*
Fixed it for ya! :)
Hi Brandon! I watched this video only now as I only recently heard about your channel. Cool video. And nice MG. By some reason I think you shown us USSR-produced Maxim of WW2 period with wider waterhole on the reservoir than standard and non-russian waterholes. Generally water reservoir construction was different in different times, and MGs with such construction was produced in 1941-1944. Wider water hole was required to load snow to the resorvoir during winter if winter coolant for use below water freezing temperatures was unavaliable. Below 0 degrees celsius water had to be removed from reservoir after each use of MG - as ice (which had larger volume than water) could damage the reservoir - and filling of coolant reservoir with water was safe only a minute of so before combat - to avoid forming of the ice in the reservoir. So to keep MG constantly ready to fire reservoir was filled with snow (after combat meltwater was removed and new snow was put to the reservoir) if winter coolant (50/50 mix of water and glycerin ) which do not freeze in cold russian winter was not avaliable.
And some fun moment: such innovation as mobile Maxim MG was popular during Russian Civil War. MGs (typically Maxims) were mounted at back of horse-drawn carts and used as mobile firepower by all participants of the Civil war. These 'Tachanka' horse-drawn combat vehicles were first technicals in the world - just horse drawn unlike modern, car-based
Great video! If you haven't already, would love to see you review a Gatling(sp?) Gun. Always enjoy old westerns that featured that weapon, like The War Wagon staring John Wayne and Kirk Douglas. Thanks.