British Vickers Medium Machine Gun All-Brass Feed Block: Rare

Original Item: The original brass feed blocks made by Vickers Sons & Maxim for the Vickers Mk I water-cooled medium machine gun had a raised ramp that passed through the middle of the feedway, the purpose of which was to support the belt at the correct height as it passed through the feedway.   This ramp was part of the feed block casting.

It was quickly found that the brass belt ramp wore down very quickly with use, making the feed block unusable, so all brass feed blocks were recalled so a steel strip could be installed to replace the soft brass ramp.  The steel strip is riveted in place, and the rivets can be seen by looking on the bottom of the block.

Among the large number of Vickers components that were retrieved from the Nepalese ?time capsule? IMA has found a very few unmodified brass feed blocks.  All are marked D.P., for Drill Purpose (training). NOTE: We refer to these as the ?all-brass? feed block, but, of course, the moving parts are all steel.

For a very rare block marked V.S.M. (Vickers Sons & Maxim) choose "Special Hand Select" ($50 extra fee applies) and write "V.S.M Marked" in order comment field at checkout.