Everyone talks about the AKM being the most reliable firearm ever invented, but it is nice to see other designs coming to the forefront of reliability every now and again. In this case, I present a pair of Browning machine guns.

Granted, this is no indication that every Browning out there is extremely reliable. In fact, I would rather state the reverse, and I know many machine gunners out there can vouch for this, in that the fifty caliber M2 certainly isn’t the most reliable thing in the world. Knowing how to properly headspace and time the the gun is an almost lost art, it has a large number of small parts that need to be assembled in very specific ways or else operation can break them, or it won’t happen at all. I personally have been the recipient of an unreliable M2 because the gunner hadn’t properly headspaced and timed it before a patrol in Helmand, and we thus had a nonfunctioning M2 while taking fire. Not the best of situations.

Regardless, the first story is from 2011 and is about an RAF Spitfire that crashed in Ireland in 1941 and was recently dug up, remarkably preserved because of a peat bog.  The second came online days ago in Anniston Army Deport and is a receiver that had been in constant Army service for over 90 years, without going through a single overhaul of any of its parts. Now granted, the thing might have sat in a wearhouse for the entire time, but 90 years is a long time, a world war, Korea, Vietnam, and all the training that took place in between. In both stories, the Browning machine guns were deemed to be fully functional (they had to swap some parts out in the RAF crash).

From Anniston in Alabama-

In more than 90 years of existence, the receiver with serial number 324 has never been overhauled.

“Looking at the receiver, for its age, it looks good as new and it gauges better than most of the other weapons,” said John Clark, a small arms repair leader.

Despite the fact that the weapon still meets most specifications, it may be destined for the scrap yard.

Modifications made to the weapon in the field mean part of the receiver would have to be removed through welding and replaced with new metal, a process which usually means the receiver is scrap.

“I’d rather put this one on display than send it to the scrap yard,” said Clark, adding the weapon’s age makes it appealing as a historical artifact.

Currently, the 389th M2 is on display in the Small Arms Repair Facility. There is an approval process the older weapon would have to go through in order to be similarly displayed. Clark and Jeff Bonner, the Weapons Division chief, are researching and beginning that process.

And from the Spitfire crash, the entire movie is on the link I provided above, but I can’t share it on here because it is from the BBC-

We had hoped for one Browning .303 in reasonable condition – we got six, in great shape, with belts containing hundreds of gleaming .303 rounds. The Irish soldiers then stepped in. This was a cache of heavy weapons, however historic they might be.

Next came fuselage, twisted but in huge pieces, over a meter across, still painted in wartime colors, with neat stencils of the plane’s ID and the iconic RAF bullseye-style roundel.

Despite hitting the ground at well over 300mph the artifacts were incredibly well-preserved. The wheel under the Spitfire’s tail emerged fully inflated, the paper service manual, a first aid kit with bandages and dressings, the instrument panel, the harness that Wolfe had torn off as he hurled himself out of the cockpit and my highlight – Wolfe’s leather flying helmet.

…

Thanks to a “wild idea” from Lt Colonel Dave Sexton, ordnance technical officer in the Irish army, it was decided an attempt would be made to fire one of the Browning guns that had spent 70 years in the bog.

His team painstakingly cleaned the weapons and straightened pieces bent by the impact. Finally, on Tuesday we were able to stand on an old British Army range just north of Athlone for the big day.

The Browning .303 machine guns looked as good as new. Soil conditions were perfect for preservation. Beneath the peat there had been a layer of clay. Clay is anaerobic, it forms an airtight seal around all the parts, so there is no oxygen, which limits corrosion.

Had they been in sandy soil, which lets in water and air, the metal would have been heavily corroded.

The Irish specialists had chosen the best preserved body and added parts from all six guns, like the breech block and the spring, to assemble one that they thought would fire. They made the decision to use modern bullets, to reduce the risk of jamming.

Wearing helmet, ear protection and body armor I crouched in a trench a meter away from the Browning, which I would operate remotely.

Every part of the gun, to the tiniest pin, had been under a peat bog for 70 years, to the month.

This Spitfire had seen service during Britain’s darkest days and is reliably credited with shooting down a German bomber off the Norfolk coast in early 1941. The Irish had found large amounts of carbon inside the weapon, evidence of heavy use.

I turned the handle of the remote firing mechanism. The Browning roared, the belt of ammunition disappeared, the spent shell cases were spat out and the muzzle flash stood out sharply against a grey sky.