Marstars Semi 1919 30 cal Browning

I've heard that some of them had problems with rivets loosening after a few thousand rounds on the new semi-auto receiver plate. other guys reported no problems. In any event, it would be a warranty issue that Marstar would back up with their ironclad guarantee if such a thing ever occurred on a gun you bought from them.
 
some had problems that made them not work but as stated above once contacted marstar supplied replacement parts at NO cost to the user

not marstars fault as they did not build them just sell them
 
The rivets which hold my sight base on have worked loose, but who stops shooting long enough to use the sights? I use the sights to get on target, and after that just watch the dust cloud, moving it over to whatever target I want to hit.

As received, the guns usually have some bugs to be worked out, but once those have been solved, it's one of the coolest guns available to the shooter in Canada today. Non restricted, and those 250 round belts can't be beat.
 
They were a good buy a few years ago when there was lots of 7.62NATO sloshing around. But now there doesn't seem to be more than a few odd boxes for sale.

I fired one about 4 years ago. The biggest help was a homemade linking tool. Imagine a wooden tray with grooves for each round and it link, and an aluminum presser bar to shove them all together. Simple in principle and design.
 
maple_leaf_eh said:
They were a good buy a few years ago when there was lots of 7.62NATO sloshing around. But now there doesn't seem to be more than a few odd boxes for sale.
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They are an even better buy now that there is the 8mm X 63 ammo, already on belts, located at Marstar. Cheap like Borsch, and very reliable once you work out the chamber. Ammo is less than $90 a thousand if you fill the belts, but the better deal is to buy the ammo at $130 a thou on belts, and then sell the belts for $25 each after you empty them. End cost is $30 a thou (not including shipping and taxes). That means it is almost as cheap to shoot as .22 cal.

I never could get mine to work reliably with the 7.62. That was most disheartening....I was ready to sell the thing. Didn't matter if I used cloth belts, Izzy metal links, or USGI links. The same belts that would slide through Russ's gun wouldn't work a hoot through mine. But once I got the 8mm thing sorted, I have had just one stoppage out of several thousands of rounds, and that was a missing primer.

Now I drive to the local Wildlife range, park the Jeep where one of the shooting benches is missing, fold down the windshield, and fire the gun off the sidemount until the floor is full of cases. Some of the young PPCLI guys gave it a try on a hot summer day: Do not wear shorts when brass is going to land on your legs.
 
I have some cold weather issues with mine...But other than that it works fine....I broke the lock frame pin...At the last Battle of the bulge....

They are fun...almost as fun as shooting a 50bmg at a tank:50cal:

Russ...
 
Hey Russ....big difference between "at a tank" and "hitting the tank". I never did see it blow up.

For the pin problem, you can just use a roll pin for a temporary. The lock frame will be held in place by the breech locking cam and the pistol grip.
I have a pin for you if you make it to the Wolverine shoot at the end of the month.
 
Hey Rob....I shoot "at" lots of things....Most times I miss...But the shooting part is the fun part to me....If I hit it, That's just bonus:D

Russ...
 
stencollector said:
They are an even better buy now that there is the 8mm X 63 ammo, already on belts, located at Marstar. Cheap like Borsch, and very reliable once you work out the chamber. Ammo is less than $90 a thousand if you fill the belts, but the better deal is to buy the ammo at $130 a thou on belts, and then sell the belts for $25 each after you empty them. End cost is $30 a thou (not including shipping and taxes). That means it is almost as cheap to shoot as .22 cal.

I never could get mine to work reliably with the 7.62. That was most disheartening....I was ready to sell the thing. Didn't matter if I used cloth belts, Izzy metal links, or USGI links. The same belts that would slide through Russ's gun wouldn't work a hoot through mine. But once I got the 8mm thing sorted, I have had just one stoppage out of several thousands of rounds, and that was a missing primer.

Now I drive to the local Wildlife range, park the Jeep where one of the shooting benches is missing, fold down the windshield, and fire the gun off the sidemount until the floor is full of cases. Some of the young PPCLI guys gave it a try on a hot summer day: Do not wear shorts when brass is going to land on your legs.
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my 1919 works well with .308 but stocks are running low.So,how does one convert to 8mmSwedish from Marstar?
 
First you will need one of the 8mm barrels. FNC1 on this board had some listed, so unless you know a legal way to get one out of the US, get it from him.

Next you will have to have the barrel chamber reamed out to 8mm swede instead of the 8X57 that it is presently in. A few guys have the reamers here in Canada so you will have to sweet talk them. Otherwise, Clymer in the US will sell you one for 2 or 3 hundred dollars.

Then, you will have to open up the T slot in the face of the bolt of the gun. I just ran some valve lapping compound on an empty case with a drill, until the 8mm would slip right down the T slot without dragging.

Last, the front cartridge spacer has to be removed from the gun, and ideally you should install an origional cartridge stop stud onto the right sideplate.

At this point, you should be ready to shoot. Ooops, almost forgot. Remove the bushing that it built in to the barrel bearing (or flash hider) so the opening is 3/4" . This will reduce some of the recoil on the gun. 7.62 has an opening of .650, 30-06 has an opening of .716", so the 8mm, being a hotter cartridge, should be larger yet.
 
Klunk said:
FOR A CHAMBER REAMER?


hOLY fUNK
Are they really that much?....suddenly its not such a good deal
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That is the worst case scenario. But even at that price, the total cost is about what you will pay for 1500 rounds of .308. Now you will be able to shoot lots of 8mm for cheap.

SARCO in the US actually has/had the 8X63 barrels available last year. Because that ammo is impossible to find in the US, they kind of were not fully forthcoming in their adds for the barrels, calling them 8mm barrels made to swedish standards. Buyers in the US weren't happy.
 
sarco will also NOT ship the barrels here as the gov says its a MG part I tried to order some 1919 parts (althrough they can a did ship ar15 a1 stocks..)

I also found i had to dremmel the front of my feed tray a wee bit as the 8x63 is longer then 30.06 my T slot was 100% ok as is the 8x63 fell right through

if your poping your top cover you need to open up the barrel bushing like stencollector i found approx 3/4 inc to cycle 100% without beating the hell out of the gun

the shipping on the ammo is the big killer order 10,000 rnds +
 
contact148 said:
I also found i had to dremmel the front of my feed tray a wee bit as the 8x63 is longer then 30.06 my T slot was 100% ok as is the 8x63 fell right through.
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The CF solution on its MG C1 7.62 M1919A4 conversion was to fit two little spring ball bearings into the feed slot on the breech block. The idea is the round is held in place until the next round is cycled from the feed tray by the extractor, back and down, then the extractor cams up to grab the next round as the bolt closes. The gunner strips that round off the bolt face with a screwdriver when clearing.

We never had a lot of ammunition to fire with the C1s, so I can't really say if it was a completely workable technique. We had more trouble learning how much oil to keep inside slopping around inside the guns.
 
I believe contact was talking about removing the metal from the trunnion where the bullets feed in while still on the belt. I didn't have to do this myself, so it may be one of the varibles between some of the guns.
The ball bearing thing was part of the C5A1 conversion. In my experiance, the C5A1 worked fairly flawlessly compared to the earlier C1 version.

Contact: If you were blowing your top cover open, you might want to check the condition of your buffer discs in the handle. They could turn to dust with abuse.
The top cover opening was actually a problem with the C1 as well. It was addressed with the installation of a new style latch and modified top cover. I have the new style latch on mine, and it works fine with the old cover.

I had 22,000 rounds brought in in one shot for mine. Shipping was $400.
 
Mine had certain issues that needed to be sorted out. Although not purchased from Marstar, they replaced a bolt whose semi-sear was over machined and sloppy. The 30-06 barrel that I received was heavily erroded (anybody want to trade a newish .308 for 30-06?)

Here's a picture if the difference between the C5 bolt vs. the standard 1919A4

1919a4%20bolts.jpg


Here's a pic of yours truly (aka: Fat bastard)

1919a4.jpg
 
Stencollector i was popping top covers when running a 30.06 barrel bushing since i opened up a izzy 308 to 3/4 all was ok

onebarfly is that a mini 1919???:):50cal:
 
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