The Furrer M25 was a Swiss light machine gun designed by Adolf Furrer and produced by W+F Bern. It was adopted by the Swiss Army in 1925 as the Lmg 25 (Leichtes Maschinengewehr 1925).
History[]
After World War I, many new and advanced weapons were being developed in Europe and Switzerland, not wishing to lag behind, decided to update its military arsenal. Switzerland's state small arms arsenal, Waffenfabrik Bern, developed a new lightweight machine gun under the direction of Colonel Adolf Furrer. The resultant weapon was the M25. It was trialed by the Swiss Army and formally adopted in 1925. Production ceased in 1946 and the weapon was made obsolete in 1957 upon the introduction of the StGw 57 assault rifle, but it remained in limited service until 1970.
The M25 served as the basis for Furrer's MP41 submachine gun, which was also adopted by the Swiss Army in 1941 but proved to be unsuccessful.
Design[]
The M25's toggle-lock system.
The Furrer M25 was a recoil-operated light machine gun that utilized a complex side-facing toggle-lock mechanism based on that of the Luger. Unlike the Luger, however, the Furrer toggle-joint consisted of three "arms" rather than two, all connected to each other via rotating pivots. When the gun fired, the recoil would cause the bolt to slide back and push the "arms" into a folded position, upon which they would hit the return spring and unfold themselves back into a straight configuration, forcing the bolt back forward towards the breech.
The M25 was fed from the right side of the receiver and ejected from the left. It was made to a high standard but was very expensive and complex to produce.
Gallery[]
