Being just down the road from me, I popped down to Bisley on Sunday afternoon for the Vickers MG live fire demo to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the disbandment of the Machine Gun Corps.
16 guns, and 16,000 rounds of 303 ammo send down range in space of 40 mins or so drew quite a crowd in the end...
Chances of this happening again in the UK is probably remote, so glad I made the effort to see it.
Found this official video online of the hour or so's event.
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Just the thing for putting round holes in square heads.
Thanks for sharing the vid. We have now added too more videos to the YouTube channel covering this. One is a 360/VR video where you can move the camera angle and get some great views. It was placed in line with muzzles so see if you can spot the moment that the corks pop on the front of the guns. The second vid is an edited cut of the event with some interviews and explanation. If you can, please do support our work. We're entirely not-for-profit so everything gets invested in activities such as this.
If you’re free on Wednesday evening (8pm UK time) and want to find out more about how we planned and delivered the 16 #VickersMG shoot at Bisley on 3 July, then join me on a livestream chat.
A very staged event of course but by default here, that's the nature of the beast, especially in the UK.
It's a very evocative sight and sound, a Vickers MMG opening up. We used to set a Vickers gun up in a gun-pit, covered and almost out of sight on the field firing ranges at Salisbury Plain. It'd be on the first day of live firing for the current Sustained Firing course (the SF Course) when they'd set up the L7, MAG-58 GPMG's. Nice cold morning and once they'd set the guns up we would stop and uncover a Vickers or two and give a short history lesson of the effects of sustained and overhead fire as battle inoculation.
Then let them loose on fixed lines at the 'enemy front line' or 'observed enemy activity' a mile or so away. A great show with the steam meeting the early morning mist. Big cheer from the young SF crew and we'd let a few use up the last belt. Nice to see the 1:5 tracer go down the range and 10 tracer at the end of the belt.
A true history lesson. I wonder of they still do it. To be honest, the SF gun crews with their SF GPMG's were VERY good.
is probably remote, so glad I made the effort to see it.
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