Reloading Guns

[John McKenzie]

[John McKenzie]

[Venturi]

Interesting topic, reloading by hand in-flight!

[54thAIB]

Hi John: Thanks very much for showing those additional pictures. As a modeler, these are excellent for reference details. That's very fine workamnship. I did think of a question about the Vickers you displayed.Would it have been typical for the aerial vickers to have the spade grip brackets left on the back of the receiver? Thanks again for posting those pictures. Bob

[John McKenzie]

[John McKenzie]

[John McKenzie]

Hi.54th AIB, Handles left on for above or the "padded" crash-pad (basicaly about 9" square of padded ply in place of screen ). Also sometimes one (usually L.H. is required to be left on for mounting any of the inter/sync. gears that opperate (like the Scarff-Dybovsky & Vickers "Challenger" ) on the rear (thumb) trigger,when the handle portion may be used to mount suitable brackets fo it. Otherwise the handles would be cut off in the field , but generally they would be purpose machined off at the factory to contract spec,. for specific use ie.later Sop. Se5 etc. Regards John McKenzie.

[54thAIB]

John: Thanks for the explanation and the additional picturres. This has definitely been an education. I'm pretty familiar with ground based MGs but their adaptation for aerial use makes them rarer and much more difficult to find examples of, let alone shoot or see in action. Thanks again. Bob

[Bob_Mackenzie]

Does anyone have any data on how long an observer would take to reload a Lewis?

[Dave83]

Hello what happen to the empty shells there are only fallen out on the down side of the plane or there getting collected maybe in the empty belt box ??

Regards David