Now this is a photo I never expected to see!  My good friend Trev Weston sent in this photo taken at a British (military?) range in Kent, UK. You can see Maxim machine guns, Vickers Mk I machine guns and, in the foreground, a British Army L7A2 GPMG (FN MAG).

In 1897 the British firm Vickers, Sons & Company, purchased Maxim Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company and was renamed Vickers, Sons & Maxim. The company improved on the Maxim designs they acquired and developed the Vickers Mk.I machine gun. Vickers was bought and sold over the years and no longer exists in name. In 2004 the last company to bear the Vickers name was purchased and folded into defense giant BAE Systems.

The Vickers machine gun remains in service with the Indian, Pakistani, and Nepalese armed forces. I don’t know of any users of the original Maxim gun. The FN MAG is, of course, one of the world’s most popular General Purpose Machine Guns.