groupie writes:
>If you hold the gun butt snug to your shouldrer and pull back on it u're find the thin neck moves back into the buttstock thus allowing the recoil to be somewhat compensated for.<
Yes, I am familiar with this. Your initial description above was confusing, so I thought you meant something else. I've only fired a few rounds in the gun I own and it is interesting to shoot. Whether or not they are too fragile is not of paritular interest ot me, and I doubt of the wartime users. They were sufficiently durable to serve their purpose which is all that was needed. They served in a very limited role.
The Stoner LMG is another gun that is, in my opinion, some what similar to the spirit if the FG, and it is quite fragile. I've shot many rounds from both Cadillac and Knight Stoners, and have repaired quite a few as well with broken oprods, extractors, stocks and other ailments resulting from recreational firing. In my opinion the Stoner also served a very limited role for which it apparently was adequate, but from my experience with them, they are not very durable. In their specific, limited military use perhaps they were.
The current 2nd volume of "Death From Above" lists by serial number all the known FGs and the countries in which they are located, so from that list one can extract the number that are currently known in the US. The number of FGs in the US is in the low eighties if I recall, with most registered.
There are far "rarer" MGs in the US registry than FG 42s, some represented by only one or two known examples. An interesting aspect of the MG collecting world is that many MGs were only produced in small numbers, some very small, but 10,000 to 20,000 is not uncommon. If even 1% of these guns are in the US registry, it is clear that not only are the MGs 'rare" in the registry, but compared to many other types of collectible firearms, let's say Lugers for exmaple, very few were made. FGs have a mythical status in the MG collecitng world, making them more popular than other types of MGs of which fewer were manufactured and a smaller percentage available for collecting.
The FGs that Keilholz acquired are the ones the used to belong to Byron Vickery and include a couple of Swiss FGs from Ken's own collection. Ken has contributed quite a bit of interesting information to the book. The gun being offered for sale is described by Ken as belonging to a friend and the reserve has not been met at last count.
Bob
