1919 A4 Forums banner

Short barreled 1919A4 at the Creek.

4K views 12 replies 4 participants last post by  Mr Sid 
#1 ·
At the Creek last week, there was a gun on the line that my buddy and myself took some time to identify.
It sounded much louder, deeper and with a slower ROF than a Ma Deuce, obviously it grabbed our attention and we finally learned that it was a 1919A4, with a very short barrel, firing 7.62x54R.
The gentleman firing it (unfortunately I've forgotten his name because I'm old) was kind enough to chat awhile and let us know its story.
It seems that Troy was involved (surprise!) so we had a chat with him and he just happened to have a shortened shroud and a pair of barrels to suit in 54R.
I've had his 54R conversion for some time but hadn't fitted it yet, so although it was Saturday and my toy budget had already been destroyed by this time, Troy gave me such a great deal that it took another hit, food is so over rated and I could do with losing a few pounds.
Anyhoo, I got my lazy butt into gear today and bolted it all together, but it will be next weekend before I get to try it out, weather permitting.
I'd like to hear from anyone who has tried this and what their thoughts are?
Pics and videos would be nice.
 
#2 ·
Haven't changed over to 54R yet, but I have been running a semi auto short barreled 8mm for many years now. :D

I'm pretty sure you will totally enjoy the results of your caliber and short barrel configuration......;)

An old video of the gun when using springs and slides for simulated F/A fire was legal......system has long since been dismantled and removed. :(

 
#5 ·
Thanks for posting, nice set up you have there!
The ROF of yours appears to be about the same as normal, whereas the the one we saw at the Creek was much slower, what is the barrel length of yours and are you using a 30-06 booster?
If the weather holds I'm taking mine out tomorrow, so hopefully we'll have something to compare to.
 
#6 ·
The barrel is 14". I modified a .308 booster by opening the center hole to .675 and drilling 6 3/16" holes around the edge splayed outward at about a 45 degree angle for an additional flame enhancer effect. I might be able to go slightly larger with the 3/16" holes to slow it down slightly.
 
#8 ·
Took baby out this afternoon and she ran quite well.
A few little feeding issues but all easily fixable, for the first time running it in 54R I'm very pleased.
The flashes and concussions were incredible and the ROF was slower than normal, not by much however, similar to what yours did bartomark.
Noticed a few cases with cracks in the neck and several with a good dent in the primer but no bang, guess that's why they were 17 cents a round.
The big killer is that my nice new super fast memory card placed in the camcorder for the occasion turned out to be flaky!
So no pics or video, oh well, next time.
 
#11 ·
Thanks, yeah, I was quite pleased with it.
I'd made a few modifications to the feed path all of which seemed successful but we still had an odd stoppage or two, each of which were easily fixed by re-charging as shown by the one in the video.
I'm fairly convinced that the problem is with rounds being difficult to extract from the links, so in future I'll make sure they're lubed well and not seated as deeply.
 
#13 ·
Thanks for the pic, that's a nice little fireball.
There is another advantage to the short barrel in that weight is much reduced so the gun is a lot easier to handle, as the pic also illustrates.
A buddy has a F/A 1919A4 and now he's thinking of going to a short barrel, although he intends to keep it in .308, anyone had any experience with that?
My next move is to open up the booster to slow the ROF, but I appreciate that it can adversely affect cycling so a little at a time.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top