VMG 1927

The VMG 1927 is a light machine gun designed by Heinrich Vollmer in 1927.

VMG 1927 / MV 31
Type	Light machine gun
Place of origin	Germany
Production history
Designer	Heinrich Vollmer
Designed	1927
Specifications
Mass	11.48 kg[1]
Length	1550 mm[1]
Barrel length	717 mm[1]
Cartridge	8×57mm IS
Caliber	8 mm
Action	short recoil[1]
Feed system	50[citation needed] Round Drum Magazine
Sights	Iron sights

In 1916 Heinrich Vollmer began working on a design of a light machine gun. At the end the weapon was known as an MG Vollmer, later also as VMG 1927.^[2]

It consisted of only 78 parts while the standard MG of those days, the MG 08/15 consisted of 383 parts.^[3] It operated on the principle of short recoil with a rotary locking mechanism for the bolt, carried by helical grooves.^[1] It was fed from a small drum magazine underneath the receiver.

In 1927 Vollmer also obtained a patent covering the breech mechanism of the weapon.^[2] Later on, Vollmer co-developed the gun with Mauser Werke as the MV 31 (Mauser-Vollmer 1931). It was offered to the German ordnance board (Inspektion für Waffen und Gerät - IWG) but, after testing, it was not adopted for service. This gun had a quick-change barrel and used a drum magazine.^[2]

Two examples are known to exist, one is at the Wehrtechnische Studiensammlung Koblenz and the other at the Vojenský historický ústav Praha.