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Lewis Gun mag, ex Nepalese?
I have this Lewis gun mag, but not the gun, which I believe may be ex Gurkha/Nepalese army. It appears to be in relatedly good condition, for it's age, but other than that I don't know too much about it. I wondered if any members had any thoughts on this item, good or bad, please? Thanks for any information.
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Lewis (drums) panniers as they are more correctly called.....
First to clean up what might be a bit of confusion with Lewis panniers.
There are NO springs in the panniers to assist in feeding or to wind up.
The ONLY spring in the pannier is a hair pin spring that operates the pannier catch to hold the pannier on the gun.
The pannier does not require any spring tension to operate as the pawls and dogs in the gun itself advance the pannier which are operated by the cycling of the operating rod and a stud on the rear of the breech block.
Pictured you will find a Lewis pannier in the stages of being loaded:
The loading tool is inserted in the drum aluminum centre from the bottom
The loading tool disengages the pannier locking mechanism and allows the aluminum centre to be freely rotated in any direction. The inner and outer rotate independently except when locked if the loading tool is removed or the pannier is loaded with ammunition
You can load the pannier starting at any position one round at a time while rotating the hand loading tool handle in the centre of the drum.
47 rounds and you are done. 96/7 rounds if you are really lucky and have an aircraft drum.
If the drum is in gauge it is easily loaded..out of round a proper bit*h": almost impossible
There is also the ultra rare "rapid loader" which is not worth the price of scrap metal. Picture also attached.
The gauge used to check both the inner pins and outer rim of the pannier is shown.
The inner legs check the alignment of the inner pins and the outer hook checks the outer rim of the pannier. Also shown is a tool with a hole in one end to fit over the pins and a slot in the other to align the rim of the pannier by bending the rim to fit the gauge or the pins, whichever is required.
Drop a loaded drum on a hard surface and you have a few hours work ahead of you.
Any questions, just drop me a PM and I'll try and get back a bit more often than I have for the last while or those that have my home email always happy to discuss Lewis guns.