| VMG 1927 / MV 31 | |
| Origin: | Germany |
| Type: | Light machine gun |
| Is Ranged: | YES |
| Designer: | Heinrich Vollmer |
| Design Date: | 1927 |
| Weight: | 11.48 kg |
| Length: | 1550 mm |
| Part Length: | 717 mm |
| Cartridge: | 8×57mm IS |
| Caliber: | 8 mm |
| Action: | short recoil[1] |
| Feed: | 50 Round Drum Magazine |
| Sights: | Iron sights |
The VMG 1927 is a light machine gun designed by Heinrich Vollmer in 1927.
In 1916 Heinrich Vollmer began working on a design of a light machine gun. At the end the weapon was known as a 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.