Reproduction FG 42 Rifles Primed to Hit US Market

For all military surplus firearm collectors, here comes some big news: SMG Guns, the American manufacturer/assembler of high quality working reproductions of World War II era light machineguns and submachineguns in semi-automatic form, is on the verge of sending out their first batch of repro FG 42 rifles.

SMG Guns just received approval from the ATF in April for the manufacture of the rifles. As of the time of this writing, the first production batch should either be on their way to buyers or just on the verge of being sent out. Check out their website here and the info about the FG 42 project in particular here.

Long considered an nigh-untouchable item in the milsurp collecting community due to their scarcity and price (not to mention their NFA status), SMG Guns aims to make these curios of history available to a wider market. At about $5,000 a pop, however, you probably won’t be seeing them at your local sporting goods store any time soon. That price is better than the tens of thousands of dollars that select fire World War II era rifles ask for, however.

The FG 42, full German name Fallschirmjägergewehr 42, was a select fire battle rifle designed specifically for Nazi Germany’s paratrooper forces. Its side-mounted magazine and use of optics make it notable among World War II small arms. Despite the high interest of collectors and historians, most evidence seems to suggest that it was a somewhat lackluster service weapon. The FG 42’s legacy lives on in the American M60 machinegun, which used some of its features.

Matt Korovesis

I've been a history and gun enthusiast since I was a kid. I love to shoot just about anything, from silenced bolt-action .22s to fully automatic heavy machine guns, and I love even more when I get to write about them. My main interests are modern small arms and the military small arms of World War II and prior conflicts, with a particular focus on Russian and Finnish firearms. Reading about guns like the Mosin-Nagant rifle in books and on the internet got me interested in collecting, shooting, and writing about them, and I hope to do the same for others through my work.

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