Shooting a Maxim 1910 Russian | Big Sandy Machine Gun Shoot

We’re on the range at Big Sandy Machine Gun Shoot and shooting the Maxim 1910 Russian, the standard Soviet machine gun in WWI & WWII. Kenton shares the uniqueness of this particular model of the Maxim 1910 Russian and why it differs from the earlier Maxim guns.

What is the Maxim gun and why was it important?

This really special Maxim model has on it something the earlier Maxims did not have and that is a giant cap. This very unique feature on a Russian Maxim is the snow hole and the Russians, in the wintertime, could pack snow in this gun as it is a water cooled. The gun itself is 7.62x54R (7.62x54mmR), which is still the current Soviet rifle caliber.

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This is a heavy gun and it is a Maxim all the way through, with a little more improvement than the World War I Maxim, the MG O8. The Maxim 1910 fires at a very low rate of fire, it is very controllable and has a wheel mount on it and Russian soldier machine gun crews would actually pull this behind them. It is extremely effective at long range and fires with all kinds of different Soviet ammunitions because the fusee spring can be adjusted to the right tension to fire different types of ammunition. Another unique feature is in the grips, you would screw off the grip and it would have an oil brush in it to oil the gun. You can fire the Maxim 1910 from a metal belt or it can fire from a canvas belt. This gun was a standard Soviet machine gun in World War I and World War II.

How much did the Maxim machine gun cost?

At that time, the price of the guns fluctuated based on their features and accessories, as each was custom-made. Generally, they ranged from £200 to £300, depending on the order volume. In 2015 US dollars, that equated to roughly $30,000 to $45,000 per gun. This was certainly not an inexpensive investment!

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