I recently added this DEACTIVATED M2 Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun (BMG) to my collection. Eventually I will display in on my late war M63 mount, but I have some work to do to it first. It's an original gun with thick reproduction side plates and can never be made into a functioning weapon. It is a WWII gun that was probably turned over to the Israeli's and had a round explode inside it at some point. Today a friend was able to pull one exploded casing out of the barrel, and is still working on the remains of a second casing.
Visually it looks nice, but it came to me with the "guts" stripped out of it and many small parts missing. so I am thinking about trying to replace several of the missing or damaged parts so that it displays as complete as possible. Some of the larger parts like the rear slide assembly and the rear sight assembly are present, but I am thinking of upgrading them to nicer examples.
I've already found several of the parts I need on specialized dealer sites and GunBroker, but many are priced too high or just not available, so if any of you have spare parts laying around for this weapon that you don't know what to do with, please let me know what you have and maybe it is something I need.
This is the M63 mount I recently acquired as well. It came with the "Frankenstein" display gun that was made by some company out of Boca Raton Florida many years ago, but since it is not an original example, I've already sold that to a friend and bought the M2 above.
I guess I put this thread in the wrong location somehow, I did not mean for it to be in the reference section, but rather in the Firearms & Ordnance forum. If a moderator can move this, it would be appreciated.
WWIIBuff1945, let's just say that I paid well above $2,000, but I did get the seller to come down several hundred dollars from where he started. Since parts sets for these are starting around $6,000, I think I did OK, even though it is a bit of a skeleton and has some damage.
I'll post better pictures in a week or two when I get the barrel back from my friend.
I guess I put this thread in the wrong location somehow, I did not mean for it to be in the reference section, but rather in the Firearms & Ordnance forum. If a moderator can move this, it would be appreciated.
WWIIBuff1945, let's just say that I paid well above $2,000, but I did get the seller to come down several hundred dollars from where he started. Since parts sets for these are starting around $6,000, I think I did OK, even though it is a bit of a skeleton and has some damage.
I'll post better pictures in a week or two when I get the barrel back from my friend.
I appreciate all the information Msn, and yes, because of where I live, I have a lot of restrictions. I did place an order with Sarco last night for about 25 parts, plus bought another 2 on GunBroker, and have about 5 more to buy elsewhere. I am not trying to make the gun operational, or anything like that, but I want it to display as complete as possible, and would like the charging handle to function as realistically as possible.
I appreciate the referral to Marstar as well. I will reach out to them for some of the missing parts. I also need to two pins to attach the M2 to the M63 mount.
My friend and I spent some time working on my M2 today. As you can see in the picture, my deactivated display gun (closest to camera) is pretty stripped down compared to my friends complete deactivated display gun (mine has no "guts" in it). I have a lot of parts on order, plus there will be a little bit of repairs and modifications that need to be done to make it look nice, and allow for the blank rounds to sit nicely.
My rear slide assembly (on the right) definitely needs some work to make it look as nice as the one from my friends deactivated display gun on the left.
Looks great, You sure got a great deal. I hope to find another m2 for my m4 high speed tractor. I let my nephew have my m2 for his m3A1 halftrack. I got most of my parts from sarco years ago. If ok post more pictures, when you got it completed. I am also a ww2 buff.
Looks great, You sure got a great deal. I hope to find another m2 for my m4 high speed tractor. I let my nephew have my m2 for his m3A1 halftrack. I got most of my parts from sarco years ago. If ok post more pictures, when you got it completed. I am also a ww2 buff.
What? Yall's family Christmas get together must be pretty interesting! Wish I had toys like that to get accessories for.
Oh, trying to get your tractor going at home?
Yeah, it's giving me a hard time though.
What's wrong, spark plugs or something?
No, can't find another machine gun for it.
Alright, so just something minor.
Nice looking project though. Definitely an awesome piece to have in the collection.
I will definitely post pictures as I make progress on the restoration. This is a WWII gun that was evidently given/sold to Israel. The sight on it has Hebrew markings. Evidently at some point a round got jammed into the barrel and the next round fired into the rear of the first one. This caused an internal explosion. Damage from that explosion is evident on the gun in a few places, but nothing too bad.
Here is one of the rounds that my friend removed from the barrel after a lot of lubricating and tapping into the rear of the cartridge. Another piece from the initial jammed round came out later after soaking in oil for a week.