The latest addition to the locker is a big one:

It's a beaut, too: an Israeli-made Browning 1919A4 light machine gun, in .30 caliber (7.62x51). It's got a lot of newer parts, and has been completely re-parkerized. The trunion has almost no wear, there's not a weld in sight, and the tolerances are pretty good. I had to open the top cover with a rubber mallet the first time, in fact. The charging handle was pretty stiff, too. I'm going to need to take it apart and apply a generous helping of LSA to its guts with a shaving brush.

It's sitting on an M2 tripod of WWII vintage. The tripod has a brass id tag, but it was removed for repainting. The tripod's in very nice shape for being old.

Not shown is the T&E mechanism (well, it's shown; it's in the ziploc bag on the right, in the case by the manual). That mounts under the rear of the gun, just in front of the trigger/grip, and attaches to the traverse bar (the rod that runs between the rear legs of the tripod). It's a fairly complex device, and it's job is to raise/lower the muzzle, as well as move it left and right. This is done by using the adjusting knobs on the T&E itself (which are much like those on, say, a microscope), and/or moving the T&E across the traverse bar (which has gradations engraved on it).

The way it works is that once you get it all set up in a position, you sight the weapon in on one or more locations and then note the numbers on the T&E and traverse bar. That way, you can move between various targets without having to look down the sights; you're already zeroed in.

My uncle got one too (my friend Andy also owns one), so we were thinking of having a mini-competition next time we go on an overnight camp trip. We need to find a place that has some decent range, though. Then there's always the Big Sandy Machinegun Shoot, which was a hilariously good time back in October. It'll be a kick to go again as shooters and not observers.