British WWI Hotchkiss .303 Portative Machine Guns for sale. The Hotchkiss Portative was a variant of the Hotchkiss medium machine gun designed for use in the LMG role. It used the same long-stroke gas system and interrupted-thread locking system as the earlier Hotchkiss, but had the feed system inverted to save space and the gun significantly lightened. Developed in 1907, it was one of the early light machine guns available on the market, and purchased by several countries. They were used by the US (in .30-06, designated the M1909 Benet-Mercie), Great Britain, Belgium, Sweden, Mexico, and others.