this is the best, most amazing 'real deal' testing I have ever seen! It should be done with every armies firearms, not only to see the serious shortcoming of the weapon, but also how to unfuck it. Here's to Oz & the Owen!!!
The Owen gun's charging handle being located in a different isolated space negated the need for having any other holes in the bolt space which also coincidentaly prevented any dust to enter while the top loaded magazine with the open ejector at the bottom meant that any sand that entered eventually just got "sweeped" down there and out. Interesting.
My father was a Sargent in the Australian Army in the mid-50s and was involved in another series of tests of submachine guns. This time the Stirling and M3 were included. Again the Owen gun won the tests against all other guns.
The first prototype of the Owen gun was developed by Evelyn Owen in 1931, who finalised the design in 1938. Owen submitted the design to the Australian military, but was rejected, as they were waiting for the British Sten to finish development. After all if it is built by the British it must be better than something an Australian can build ( attitude of our politicians of the day,) By May 1940, Owen had enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force, and was set to deploy to the Middle East, but after speaking about his design to the manager of a local plant of Lysaght, who had an interest in the design, Owen was transferred to the Central Inventions Board. ItIn June 1941, Owen was discharged from the army and began to manufacture the Owen gun. After conducting tests in September that year, the Owen was found to be more accurate and reliable than competing designs such as the Sten and Thompson. "As your excellent little Historical movie shows ." It always bewildered me why we did not arm our African and European troops with the Owen rather than the inferior Sten. Even General Douglas MacArthur was considering arming his troops with the Owen. and a lot of Australian solders felt that the Owen saved their lives in the Jungle , Including my father. It eared the nickname Diggers Darling. ("Digger". Nickname for Aus troops derived from ww1 (They felt they were always digging so started calling each other digger) The Owen was used by the Australian army till 1971 A testimony of how good a weapon design it was. Thank you for showing this movie Well done.
LOL 4:18 The dude covered the magwell with his hand unlike all the others. To be fair, the owen is actually a great smg. Pretty overlooked nowadays, sucks you don't see it in video games either.
That's how the magazine was designed to be changed, acts as a guide for the next magazine in prone and low visibility, the advantage as a cover is an additional benefit. Each gun was operated as it would be in the field.
Thankyou for posting this film of the owen. Been wanting to see field test of the owen, fn good design and reliability. Be very happy to take the owen to war.
No, The spring and piston are in a chamber which is sealed at both ends which prevents the ingress of dust, mud and sand. There were major tests done on the Thompson, the Sten, the Owen and one other by the Canadian, US, British and Australian armies. The OMC won hands down against the rest, especially in terms of reliability, and maintenance.
I noticed that too. Guess the Canadians favored adoption of the Owen. Certainly not fair to all participants. I didn't like the way the Owen was treated in other tests. Mud test for example, the tester appeared to take care to avoid debris in the bolt cuts while other SMG's got dunked well into mud. Hmmmm.