Abwehr Posted July 28, 2004 Report Share Posted July 28, 2004 I have seen several postings on e-bay for the disentegrating 7.5mm French Links that the sellers say will run in an MG42 or MG34. Has anyone tried these to see if they will run? I sure don't plan on trying them myself, but I was just wondering if they will work. I assume that if they do, it will be "hit or miss" with the gun that they would be run in. My gun will run the WWII belts great, but a couple of the post war Yugo (?) belts I have will sometimes hang-up. Any comments on the French links??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldFalGuy Posted November 27, 2004 Report Share Posted November 27, 2004 Seen the same ad for a good while and I can't give you an answer except that you can buy the german (post war) belts cheaper than the French ones on Egay. RTG.com has new and used belts in stock I believe. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amafrank Posted December 6, 2004 Report Share Posted December 6, 2004 http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/huh.gif Yes you can run the french 7.5mm AAT52 links in your MG42 but the real question is why??? You can get great belts cheap from RTG in Arizona and you won't be picking up links everywhere. The links are much more painful to load as well and can occasionally cause stoppages due to the much greater flexiblity of the belt. I bought a bunch of the links to run in my MG81 because it had a hard time with the MG34/42 belts. I did run a few of the link-belts through the '42 just out of curiosity and they did run. Links went everywhere.... http://www.machinegunbooks.com/forums/invboard1_1_2/upload/html/emoticons/blink.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abwehr Posted December 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2004 Thanks for the information on the French Links. I agree with both of you that it would not be the best idea to try and use them as they will problably hang up often. I use the WWII German belts in my MG42 and it runs fine. The post war Yugo belts run, but not 100% reliable; they tend to hang up about once per 50 rd belt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heckinohio Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 I know this is really late but the links you are describing are the ones I use in MG 81z which has two link exit chutes up and over the feed cover as the receivers are only about 1" apart and rate of fire is 1600 per minit per barrel. These are light and flexible. I have been told that they were exclusively for MG 81s which France was supposed to have gotten several of after WW 2, but apparently they work in other guns also. If you think a 1200 rpm MG 42 throws links everywhere, you should try two 1600 rpm receivers on one trigger group!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldFalGuy Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Hey Heck, The point we are trying to convey here is that RPM is a bit irrelevent since with the 34/42 belts there are NO links thrown anywhere since they do not come apart like other disentigrating(sp) link belts-in effect the 34/42 belts are like cloth blets just easier to load and repair. These French links are therefore inferior to 42 belt when used in either a 34 or a 42. I am sure they are inferior in your high speed gun as they weren't made for one another- another reason to stay away fromt hem. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amafrank Posted February 10, 2006 Report Share Posted February 10, 2006 Actually the "inferior" links he is using in his MG81 are french copies of the original WWII MG17/81 links used in the gun he is firing. They were made specifically to feed through the feed chutes that were used on these aircraft guns. The chutes took some pretty tight turns that the MG34/42 belts won't make it around. At the RPM that the MG81 runs it will not tolerate inferior anything. We timed my MG81 at 1830 rpm with romanian light ball ammo. The MG 81 won't run the 34/42 belts reliably because the tolerances on those belts are wider than on the french links. Some of the belts will run but you have to pick through them to find any that will. As to the french links running in the '42, they will and I had no problems other than having to load the links first and then pick them up when done..... Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abwehr Posted February 11, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2006 Frank, Thanks for the information! I had seen these links for sale and the seller stated they would run in the MG42, but had nothing to confirm they would run. It is good to know they will. Since my original post, I have purchased more WWII German Belts and I am good for a long time with them as my MG42 runs best with the WWII Belts over the post war Belts. I also have the change over parts to convert my MG42 to run as an MG3 with 7.62 NATO ammo. So far I have converted it one time and the M60 links run fine in this set-up. Again, thanks for the info! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldFalGuy Posted February 11, 2006 Report Share Posted February 11, 2006 I think those post war Yugo belts were a bit tight for 308 but post war german belts ought to be fine in 308, especially if one were to spray a bit of dri lube (Teflon orange can) ont he belts before loading them. I have done it on my 223 links and it helped my Shrike run very well since the used links we can buy have lost most if not all of thier original graphite coating. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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