Vickers

[P. J. Heck]

Just last week got a Navy and a Vickers. The Vickers appears to be the original finish and lots of it. I have seen the refinished ones which tend to be dullish blue, where this one has a definite sheen. Clean bright bore, #6202. I only vaugely remember discussions about coarse checkering on the Vickers grips, these are really strange and are in equaly excellent condition as the rest of the gun. First Vickers I have ever had. The inside of the grips have what appears to be a British Broadarrow proof. same ones as on my Vickers machine gun and my Lewis machine gun. Both from the same era. The angle of the checkering makes the little diamonds much longer and somewhat bigger than the DWM/Mauser ones. Do these sound like originals or???? I know of the Dutch/Indonesian rebuilds, this gun has no barrel date and no sign of ever having a brass plate. Would the Dutch have put a British Broadarrow on a replacement grip panel???????? Any comment would be appreciated.