All of the Star Wars guns, from 1975 onward, were made up from stocks of original guns held by Bapty’s, in Southall, UKicon.

Long ago, during the filming of the original first couple of movies, a LOT of pristine MG-15’s & MG-34’s got pretty well cut up and destroyed for making expedient props back when such guns were not highly valued. “Saving Private Ryan” changed all that and now original guns are pretty much valued too highly for movie use, “lifelike” replica model makers have taken up the slack.

I’ve rented out many originals in my collection for USAicon-based filming crews, it is staggering what the film rental market will bear for rental fees. Also, the gaming industry has been very lucrative over the years in their quest to sound record actual gun sounds for proper accuracy. A day or three at the range with their sound crew capturing authentic machine gun fire is very lucrative.
-TomH