Original Item: Barrels are in good condition, show minor pitting and markings vary.
The Maschinengewehr Patent Schwarzlose M.07/12 was a medium machine-gun, used as a standard issue firearm in the Austro-Hungarian Army throughout World War I. It was also used by the Dutch, Greek and Hungarian armies during World War II. It was also routinely issued to Italian colonial troops, alongside the Steyr-Mannlicher M1895 rifle.
The Schwarzlose M.07 was a water-cooled, belt-fed weapon designed by a German named Andreas Wilhelm Schwarzlose. It was usually mounted on a tripod and looked broadly similar to the family of Maxim-derived machine-guns such as the British Vickers and the German Maschinengewehr 08. The Schwarzlose, however, was of simpler design and featured an unusual, delayed blowback mechanism which contained only a single spring. The initial variants of the M.07/12 had a cyclic rate of about 400 rounds/m, but this was later increased to 580 rounds/m during World War I by fitting the mechanism with a stronger spring. The Schwarzlose was a robust and reliable weapon in its intended role as an infantry weapon, but unlike the highly adaptable Maxim-derived machine guns, met with less success when it was used in roles it had not been designed for. The simplicity of its design however, made the weapon very inexpensive to manufacture.