Has anyone here built a semi auto MG42 or Yugo M53 from a parts kit? These days I see people putting together 1919’s, RPD’s, etc. so I was wondering if we had any build experts here to know how difficult it is to do. A good buddy pointed out to me that prices on kits can be considerably less for some of the other ones and it would be a REALLY cool range toy for hosting new shooters, and of course to have handy in the event of a repeal on the 86 ban or an amnesty period. Any thoughts?
a young guy(18-19) over on canadiangunnutz, bought some mg42 reciever flats and managed to assemble a working semi auto mg42.
heres what he said about it
As for elaborating on the build, well I TIG welded and machined out the receiver from some raw stampings. It was tough making the barrel shroud, the sheet metal is very flimsy stuff to work with, especially without a jig of some sort. I machined out a barrel bushing for the end (booster assembly threads on). Next came machining a bolt extension (to turn it from open bolt to a closed bolt system, hammer fired). To fit in that, i drilled out the inside of the bolt, and made a really long firing pin out of drill rod on the lathe, then heat treated the tips. The firing pin spring was just a random spring i found that fit, but i suspect it may be too hard, so i will have to test that and basically modify it through trial and error. I modified the grip to use a FAL fire control group. Was going to go with an AR15 trigger/sear/hammer setup, but i had read that they are not always strong enough to properly dent some of those milsurp primers. Best be prepared to shoot any type of 8mm, don’t know when you might stumble across some at a gun show ! Last thing i did was install the parts into the receiver, and holy was that tough. Everything had to be welded in place with very little tolerance to spare. Bolt rails had to line up to camming section, which had to line up to the bore, which had to line up perfectly to the barrel bushing at the very front of the gun. With numerous parts depending on that exact alignment, including the barrel door and internal parts there. It’s taken me since september, and a few thousand bucks, but I think it was a great learning experience! It is one thing to just own guns, but it is a whole new amazing feeling to build them. I’m not talking about buying mix matched AR parts and merely assembling it (no doubt many people are proud of their AR creations) . You have a much greater sense of satisfaction when you machine and weld your own parts . Just brings it to a whole new level.
hope that helps