The German Sturmgewehr is a rifle that needs no introduction. It is a rifle with a historical mystique that results in them being highly coveted among collectors, but they are fine weapons in their own right. In this video we do some shooting with an old MP43.

Transcript …

(gun cocking) (gun firing) (gun cocking) – [Voiceover] The German Sturmgewehr.

Few rifles seem to attract as much attention as this one.

Either due to its retro-industrial appearance or its association with Nazi Germany.

Where the forces of the Wehrmacht and the SS used it to devastating effect.

It ushered in the era of the assault rifle, and it inspired many post-war designs.

Originally designated as MPs or “machine pistols” due to firing a shortened version of eight millimeter mauser.

In 1944, a letter from the führer’s office declared that the name, Sturmgewehr, was more appropriate.

Thus you see these rifles stamped and STG44.

This example is an early MP43 stamped gun, made by Haenel, and is in decent, but not perfect condition.

After all these have been through a conflict.

And many have been seen across the world, including modern day Syria.

As stated, this is an MP43 stamped gun, and in my experience the earlier the production date, the higher quality these guns will be.

They feature a dust cover much like an M16/AR15 that you can close to protect the insides from dust and debris.

The magazine releases a lot like that found on the MP40.

And some say that the AR15/M16 found inspiration from this as well.

To set the rifle, on fire, press this lever down so that “F” is revealed.

However, to change the fire mode, “E” represents einzelfeuer or single shot.

And “D” represents dauerfeuer or multi-shot.

It is unusual that the safety mechanism and fire selector are two separate bits.

The charging handle is located on the left side of the gun, like a G3 or MP5 rifle.

These sights are a lot like a mauser 98, however they only adjust from 100 to 800 meters.

Interestingly the barrel is threaded for the attachment of a device called a krummlauf.

Which was designed to shoot around corners.

But enough chat, (gun cocked) let’s shoot this gun.

(gun firing in bursts) (gun cocked) (gun cocked) (automatic gun fire) (gun cocked) (gun firing) (gun cocked twice) (gun cocked) (gun fire) Making off-hand shots with the sturmgewehr at 100 meters is not too difficult as the trigger’s quite good and the sights are adequate.

On full auto it’s quite pleasant to shoot as well and the cyclic rate hovers around 450 to 480 rounds per minute, which is a very comfortable rate of fire.

(gun fire) (gun firing) (gun cocked) Taking the rifle back to 300 meters is where things get a little interesting.

I found three major ammunition manufacturers for this gun.

That’s going to be Hornady, PPU, and F&M out of Portugal. (gun cocked) And each one seems to produce vastly different points of impact.

So it makes it a little difficult and I actually had to mess with the sight elevation ladder quite a lot.

(gun firing) (gun click) (gun firing) Once I learned where to offset the sights this actually got a little bit easier.

It was frustrating at first but as soon as I realized that, I probably need to swap the front sight out with a different front sight post.

I kind of came to terms with it and the rifle suddenly was hitting where I wanted it to, but, we kind of all know why you guys came to see this video and we’re gonna give you guys hopefully what you want.

(gun firing) (gun cocked) Anyways, we hope you guys enjoyed that, big thanks Ventura Munitions providing the ammunition for this video.

Also if you like to see us take this gun apart, we do have a field strip up, so feel free to click the link in the end card or the description.

This is Alex with TFBTV, hope to see you next time.