Local Boy Saves Nation: The Australian Owen SMG
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The One submachine gun is one of the ugliest SMGs ever designed, and yet also one of the most beloved by its users. The original basis for the gun was a .22 rimfire submachine gun designed by 23-year-old Australian Evelyn Owen. That prototype was found by his neighbor Vincent Wardell after Owen left for military service. Wardell was the manager of Lysaght Works, an engineering firm, and thought that the gun might be the basis for a useful military SMG. As it turned out, he was right - it became the standard SMG of The Australian military through World War Two and the Korean War, and was one of the best such guns of that period. For more details on the history of the Owen, see my full article:
www.forgottenweapons.com/subm...
Thanks to Movie Armament Group in Toronto for giving me the opportunity to bring you this video! Check out MAG on Instagram: / moviearmamentsgroup
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“He goofed around building himself a full auto submachine gun” That kid was the master of goofing around clearly lmao
Kids in the old days were different, a friend of my dad’s built a rifle in metal work in Highschool and I can’t even put up a shelf.
Can confirm. My names owen and I goof around. Used to make napalm bombs as a kid.
Ah shit just got myself put on a watchlist.
@@ogc9649 ill join you on a watch list. I used to make and set off primary and secondary high explosives when I was 15/16. ALL IN GOOD FUN! Only thing that was harmed was the dirt
Sounds American
“Oops, our kid left his full auto machine gun lying around.”
Well sh*t I've done it again
Only rush B thats what happens when you only rush b, i told you we should try mid to a
Boys will be boys
"i dont care what the other kids moms are letting them do. you leave your SMG in the garage, not in this house!"
Oops turns out I'm an engineer and throw it into production to make a domestic smg 😆
Imagine waking up and seeing “new” gun in our arsenal and it’s your fucking homemade SMG
Evelyn Owen: what the fuck? Aussie: oh yeah, we got these last night. They're called Owen guns, coincidence huh? Owen: no I'm saying what the fuck because this was an old ass gun I made as a kid. why the fuck is it here I made it as a toy as a kid. Aussie: what now
Id be like, holy shit i did it
@@wolfie54321 Back in the day when they were all so, why you building an SMG? Oh because i'm bored, and this was allowed to carry on.
And the one you built is missing
@J Should and are seldom align
Mean schoolkids: "Haha your name is Evelyn!" Evelyn Owen:
Evelyn Waugh
The male name is pronounced Eevlyn.
*pump up kicks played in a distance*
Except he was Australian, so he was probably far more sensible and just gave them a thumping rather than becoming a school shooter... Buy yeah, you could still play Pumped Up Kicks but referencing a couple of different guns.
@@aymonfoxc1442 yeah righto buddy
Australia : where even the magazines are upside down
it wont work though we would actually need a gun with a traditional magazine under the weapon, or else the bullets will be dragged skyward, just like everything else hanging off the bottom of the planet down here!
do bullets also spin in the opposite direction?
So if they shot bullet straight front it fall down or fly up?
The Owen Gun works. Plus, if the magazine is upside down, the bullet will just fall into the place it gets fired from.
It actually feeds excellently because of it so long as it isn't fully loaded.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, did my kid forget his machine gun again?"
Looks a lot less ugly with the stock off. By reputation they climb a lot though at least it's straight up.
The bastard child of a sten lol
from my understanding, he took it to the beach to bang off a magazine or two before he went into the army, on the way home he met some mates who were going to the pub. he just dumped it at against the fence/shed at his parents home, in a bag he was carrying it in, as he was in a hurry to get to the pub. :D
@@whatnowstinky Most Australian thing I've heard today
Most American statement ever
Fools: _Laugh at magazine location._ Gravity: _Laughs back._
It came from the land down under, so it's actually on the right side.
@@worawatli8952 I was waiting for someone to make that joke.
Magazine: *blocks sights *
@@TheUnforgiven59 fuck it we'll just have the sights go around
@@TheUnforgiven59 sight's at an angle
I love the fact youtube just recommends this vid right after vanguard launches
Fr
Ik
IKR
Truee
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America: basic engineering Germany: advanced engineering Britain: plumber engineering Australia: *angery pipe*
Fan of brandon Herrera?
operator james perhaps :)
Soviet: "It looks like we just cobbled some stuff together, and we did, but this surprisingly works well!" engineering
Sten, Owen, and grease guns all function as angry pipes
Soviet: Durable engineering
There's a reason for the lack of drop safety. In Australia, if you let go of your firearm and it's not connected to your ground tether, it falls upward into the sun.
God dammit you made me choke on my pizza you glorious bastard
my gravity harness is running out
peepsbates 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
It’s because if you have your firearm the government takes it away
*Down Under starts playing*
So, at this point.. does Activision just send you checks in the mail for doing all their research for them?
They should.
Lol if Activision used Ian's channel for research the guns in their games would be accurate
Let's hope they let you get that 1.5% :D
@@gavincleland9010 and not have a drum mag and a scope on a fucken owen gun #not salty
@@theconvictedquokka 🤣 just try to imagine a drum ontop of this gun 😂
Evelyn was my great uncle. Still very proud even though I never met him.
I only found out about this gun a couple months ago. I was really surprised that it came from Wollongong. I'm sure my grandfather had one of these from his service in New Guinea, but he gave it in to authorities. I recall him getting it out when I was a kid. I think I asked if he had bullets to try it out. Probably why he got rid of it 😄.
I remember learning about the Owen gun at a military museum at Port Kembla Wollongong in the 90's. My dad used to go there for shooters club meetings. I remember someone there teaching me how to hold it for full auto firing. Not that i was ever going to get to fire it.
@@jasoncrosskey2669 That's a real shame. A valuable piece of Australian history was destroyed there.
Small world huh?
You should make me a full auto sub machine gun. I know you can do it. Its in your genes
The Australian government - shafting local manufacturers for almost 80 years!!
All governments- shafting all of us- forever
Except the majority of our guns have been made by Lithgow Arms since WWII
Nothings changed haha
Still doing it today.
No, the Australian Government formed under the 1986 Australia act by Bob Hawke and changed our constitution without a referendum and are currently still unlawful and sitting in treason and are a registered corporation of the USA. Before that they were know as the Commonwealth Parliament of Australia. Restore our 1901 constitution. Get rid of the Australian Government!
It makes me happy that the guys who found and refined it gave credit to the kid who made it instead of taking credit for his invention. Most people would do the opposite.
Fits better with thier advertising campaign...
It's probably a good idea not to screw over someone who makes guns for fun
@uncletigger are you joking? We call people like that "dogs". We're the only country that has a unique word for people who do shitty things
Looking at you Martin and Henry!!!
yeah idk where your from but i think most people would have given credit to the kid, plus as Ian said, they were using the "homegrown local boy invents nation saving machine gun" angle to force the governments hand.
"Oops our kid left his machine gun laying around" as an Australian with the kind of gun laws we have now, that's funny.
just make a machine gun lol
@@ScroolewseThe police would stop me before I even start lol
@@JZepfield yeah sure ;)
@@Scroolewse what use is a sub machine gun in Australia
Those gun laws have saved my life more than once. I had a meth head try shoot me with a crossbow once...I just bolted haha.
Aussie soldiers didn't think the Owen gun ugly, we adored them. Unlike the Thompson or Sten, they could be dropped in mud or sand and still work perfectly.
😂😂 sure bud
Yes that is true. My father who served in Borneo told me the same thing. Drop it in a swamp and it would still shoot perfectly.
@@danielevans8910 Was I incorrect in any way? Please instruct those who obviously lack your superior knowledge...
@@andrewstrongman305 he may be talking to the guy that said " sure bud"
@@idioticseagull3498 he _is_ the guy who said “sure bud”
They’re rare because we decided to melt them instead of recognising their historic value.
if you find your self in Perth the Fremantle military museum is an awesome guided tour with an excellent display of yes even firearms used in both world wars by all sides.
Terrible idea
Typical leftist ideas lol
Mark Charles Washington Why.? The guns in museum are welded shut those are the big ones and the shells are inert. The small firearms are treated much the same or if not welded firing pins taken out that such and there cartridges are also inert. One last thing there tied to a pedistool or something like that.
lmao damn leftists, we don't need to regain some of this scrap metal that we gathered in a rush for the war, we need a pile of old useless SMGS. when will the stupid lefties learn amirite.
Citizens: We developed this awesome machine gun, at own cost, to help the war effort! Government: Cool, first we're gonna ignore you, then we're gonna give you incorrect specifications, then we gonna pay you the bare minimum and then we will drag the payment for years. Patriotism at its finest.
Yea pretty much sums up the Australian government in general
The Australian government was told by the British government not to make it , I read it in the Australian shooters magazine quite a long time ago
@@neillh There is probably a lot a truth to that, wouldn't be surprised if the decision to put it into production was around the time that Curtin told Churchill where he could go and recalled the troops Europe and North Africa to defend Australia.
Patriotism/jingoism = CANCER It never ceases to amaze my how so many will defend all of the actions of their governments when the government wants little more than their money and maybe their body should they have the desire to go kill people elsewhere across the world. Stories like this only prove how governments give no fucks about their citizens, just keep sending those taxes in
@@RyTrapp0 this guy gets it
One thing i've noticed about SMG's, is that the simpler one's tend to be good.
Uzi, sten and grease gun are some of the best SMGs out there!
@@sovietsquirrel1315 do not forget the ppsh-41 or sumoi
@@chrystynec1496 Or the PPS-43
Owen in the Army: Hey this kinda reminds me of the stuff I would goof around with back home! Owen later: Wait a minute...
"he goofed around, building himself an automatic submachine gun." Goddamn, when I was a kid I could barely build a Lego set.
CEO OF GOOFING AROUND
We've deliberately developed things like X-Boxes and Legos instead of teaching kids to solder, weld, use machining tools, and so forth so that kids wouldn't do stuff like this when goofing around, and then we proceded to criminalize a whole heap of things that it used to be commonplace for kids to do for the same reason. Back in the day, a lot more kids lost eyes and fingers and such.
@@dancovington6633 Wait are you saying that kids losing eyes and fingers is good?
@@truereaper4572 that's.. I don't think that that's the point of what he was saying lol
Phobos Anomaly he was 17 though
"What even is this design? It looks like it was crafted by a little child!" Well... you see...
If you need a demonstration of why this gun was so beloved by Australian troops watch this kzhead.info/sun/fLOvc66AhKuvq6c/bejne.html No other gun would tolerate that sort of abuse and still function perfectly.
The AK family be like: Just want to say I am a huge fan
“Funny story actually…”
Well I mean, you know how kids are. You forget to buy them Legos and they make smgs instead.. wait your kids don't do that?
The story of this gun could make a really kick-ass movie.
Oiii write it ! Before someone else does. Honestly
Clearly, if Owen was an American, Hollywood would have made one by now.
My grandfather made these in Wollongong at his factory. I took a Chinese property developer there and told him the story. He was in tears recalling the Japanese terror (80yo). My grandfather was Walter Jervis (died 3 years ago). He was MD of Lysaght until 1987.
It ejects brass down under.
WHERE BEER FLOW AND MEN CHUNDER
@@MagronesBR2 can't you hear can't you hear that thunder?
agreed!!
its australian... it was made for european wor... so it ejects it up
😂 Good one! 😂
Japan: *Brandishes Type 100* Australia: "That's not a gun... This is a gun!"
I don't think it's ugly. It's a thing of beauty
@@Kevwadius It does look like a gun straight out of Mad Max, doesn't it?
THAT AINT NO GUN! **Packs some chewing tobacco and pulls out a M32 rotary grenade launcher** THIS IS A GUN!
@@Edax_Royeaux Back in 2004 a raid down in Melbourne turned up a heap of suppressed copies with bottom feeding magazines, they were manufacturing them themselves probably for sale to gangs.
You can definitely tell that there was a lot of inspiration taken from the type 100 in the design of the Owen gun.
this gun is literally the epitome of australia. its a thompson with an upside down mag
Ah but it rarely jammed and was reliable
How dare you call this hideous tube with a firing pin a Thompson?
This gun shits on the Thompson.
The Owen was issued to British troops in Malaya in the insurgency wars. Performed in the jungle much better than the Sten.
I have a sneaky suspicion that that gun holds the record for "ways to open a beer bottle".
The real reason for the later model cut-outs.
no need. all australians come with all the way to open a beer inbuilt.
The sights are on the right for a reason
I’m pretty sure the Israelis have got the Australians beat on that front
THE ULTIMATE GAMER is that a challenge 😂🍻
Top feed? WWII? Genuinely effective? Yes please mate!
"sight picture? just point the F*cking thing and shoot"
Using 45 degree offset sight before it was cool
*Bren*
Not just top feed - top feed with double feed magazine.
@@diamondflaw lol double stack and double feed is different. One is a design improvement, and the other is a malfunction.
As an Aussie and a veteran thanks for that. Much appreciated.
The ejection port also had a sliding cover to keep dirt out. It would fire after immersion in mud and water and was held in high regard by Australian troops in Vietnam.
"Oops our kid left his machine gun here" Also the fact a .455 submachine gun that presumably worked ever is pretty neat
I would like to see what the magazine for that would look like. It's gotta be the weirdest banana ever.
im pretty sure the owen uses 9mm but maybe you are talking about something else
@@bossplayerunit4563 if you watched the video, there is a point where the military was jerking the engineers around by having them redesign for random cartridges, including .455 Webley, and the video implies it was working with that cartridge.
Wasn't the Italian OVP or whatever in .455 at some point? Look it up, I'm unsure if the source is correct - but there is at least two sources saying that it was - at some point - chambered in .455 for whatever reason.
@@bubba200874426 I am pretty sure that that (test) version was NOT using the rimmed .455 Webley Mk2 or Mk6, but the .455 Webley Auto, which was also used in the M1911 "British Service Model". And the difference between that and .45ACP is rather that .455 Webley Auto is a bit slower with less recoil...
"Oops, our kid left his machine gun laying around." If only we could go back
love that im not the only jojo weeb in the comments
Aye man, miss the good old days of the TAS full auto club.
We can and probably will. Socialist societies tend to collapse.
Xeo Nespydonum Name 1 non-communist social democracy that has collapsed
yeah lol
Terrific review, thank you. I fired these when I was a teenager in the Australian Army Cadets back in the 1960’s; you would start your aim lower left and the gun would move to the top right. I always thought this was intended to straddle your adversary rather than aim straight for them. The guns were used in close fighting in Papua New Guneau and the 9mm slug effectively stopped the enemy in their tracks so they didn’t stumble into you with a bayonet. The simple design was a godsend in the mud and slime of jungle warfare.
The tragedy was they were replaced by an inferior weapon- the F1- that didn't have the Owen's reliability and resistance to jamming.
This video is going to start blowing up because of vanguard, thank you again the KZhead agaritham
Yep
Submachine guns WWII: America: Heavy, beautifully crafted, stopping power, big recoil and iconic design. Germany: Precision, practicality over craftsmanship, state-of-the-art engineering, easier and cheaper mass production. Australia: Local boy makes Mad Max-eskque fully automatic contraption out of pipes and spare shop metal, changes country's entire military history.
Some of the biggest issues with German weaponry was that it was craftsmanship over practicality which hindered mass production lol
It funny you picked out the Thompson for America considering there where so many more grease guns which sound exactly the way you described the Owen gun.
@@dizzygunner and funny thing is the the thompson was created by the irish Republic army
@@bigchief7900 is this a joke?
Certain Australian mechanics have become moderately famous in Australia for being able to fix just about anything with just about anything. I’ve also got a book about Aussie sappers in Vietnam who blew up a sabotaged bridge to get it in working order.
"Evelyn Owen got paid, he got out of the army..." Well the other guys didn't do so well, but I'm glad for Owen- "...turned into an alcoholic, had a failed lumber mill, then died" Oh
it happens
Evelyn Owen was presented with his own Owen Machine Carbine by Lysaghts when he left. The porkforce knew of this presentation piece, so staged a raid on Owen's home, confiscated it and charged him with being in possession of a machinegun. Cops here never change, except for the worse.
@@John-ww6li >when the cops still behave like it's a penal colony
@Johno Police? You mean the government sanctioned enemies of law abiding citizenry?
@@John-ww6li Fake news, records or it didn't happen
The reason the sites were on the right side of the gun was so the shooter had an eye on each sides of the magazine, eliminating any blind spots from your field of view. If the sites were on the left side of the gun, the magazine would create a blind spot in the shooter's vision. It was a deliberate design of the gun to have the sites on the right.
i had almost had a stroke reading this
@@justforever96 Sounds like a comment that someone just made up for the sake of saying something, and make out they knew something about them. How many have you used? I was trained on them, and used them. So stop making random comment up.
I always wondered why the sights were on the right side. When you look down the sights, does the magazine block your left eye from seeing what you’re aimed at? Because then you could shoot with both eyes open and not see double of the target and maintain good peripheral vision
On the off-chance someone sees this, I submit that the magazine placement came first, necessitating the offset sights, but here's the twist: Imagine this gun on the shoulder of a right-handed shooter. Now think about which eye would be positioned to use those sights, namely, the right eye. It also allows the shooter to get something of a cheek-weld on the stock whilst aiming. Now, put it on the right side: what happens to this arrangement? A: To get the dominant eye to the sight, you lose that weld, not to mention the stable, compact firing position, since you have to hold the gun more to the outside of your stance. My final point is to say that I'm in no way claiming that all those things were intended during design and development. They went with the design and massaged it into something that worked, there was no checklist at the beginning to cover all those things. That's how design and development work, and now I'm starting to wonder if that sight position might have some advantages over the traditional one. Hmm...
That makes sense, however unlikely I it sounds.
The ugliest submachine gun ever conceived by humankind, he clearly hasn’t seen Vanguards gun editor yet
Oh no we must protect Ian from that heresy
@@TragicTester034 Owen gun is especially cursed dude, what you can do to it is beyond heresy
@@blueshellhater1845 I know I’m on vanguard now
Well I mean, this video came out before vanguard so..
@@Linak47 Don’t think to hard about a joke on the internet:)
Evelyn Owens was from Wollongong, NSW my hometown. The Owens SMG aka “The Diggers Darling” was produced at the Lysaght’s Works (now known as BHP) steel works located at Port Kembla, NSW (which is still active today) & Newcastle, NSW (which sadly was shut down). His neighbour Vincent Wardell who was the manager of large steel products at the port Kembla steel works found the .22 calibre prototype hidden in a sugar sack in the backyard & was so impressed with it’s simple design he arranged for Owens to be transferred to the Army Inventions Board to continue working on it. The SMG was super reliable, had a service life of over 20 years, was used in 5 seperate conflicts from WWII to the Rhodesian Bush War & was used by the armed forces of 8 different countries including America during Vietnam. There might be a few new ones floating around somewhere because in 2004 Australian police raided an underground (illegal) weapons factory located in Melbourne & seized several copies of the SMG with bottom feeding magazines including several versions with integrated silencers. Not bad for a SMG that was designed by a 24 year old kid & cost around $30 Australian to make.
It takes more than just likes to get a comment seen, so I replied although I have nothing to add.
@@redonk1740 Agreed.
That’s fucken awesome I used to live in Dubbo, dad and my family used to travel by there when dad has to do a job or two there.
Thanks Darth. I also read that in an Australian military history book. I'm glad Ian covered it.
to be fare an engineering mind like that would probably be working an arm manufacturing officially today becoz u cant legal knock this up in ur shed.
Americans have Florida Man, the Australians have Local Boy.
Oh we have Florida Man over here as well, we just call 'em Queenslanders.
@@StaffordMagnus in Queensland we call them either Victorians New South Welsh or Tasmanian. We can't decide whose idiocy entertains us more. Typical rivalry but I always wondered why WA SA and NT seem to miss out.
@@jarlnieminen4307 because no one lives here in SA and NT
@@jarlnieminen4307 I dunno man, looking at newspaper headlines I reckon that the NT is the most batshit crazy place in the country.
Actually we have the trolly man
I've honestly always found the Owen gun to be very visually satisfying
"LOOK after her well! " he said, as he handed her to me, "and she'll never let you down when you're in trouble. Study her and get to know her ways - after you've lived with her for a while, you'll find she's your best friend." The phrase sounded vaguely familiar; they'd told me the same thing about a rifle, long and slim and deadly, when I first joined up, and then about a Tommy gun, short and squat and ugly, and now they were saying it about this-this bit of wood and iron, roughly painted yellow and green and about as substantial-looking as the fairy off the top of the Christmas-tree. Well ... It all began years ago, in Port Kembla in New South Wales, when a young plasterboard manufacturer, working in a tin shed in his spare time, dreamed up out of the years of experience he'd gained as a hobbyist gun-maker something which he thought would be just the thing in case there was a war. So he laboured lovingly to perfect his design, roughed out a working model and submitted his baby to the Army. But that was before the war and, as the Navy, Army, Air and Munitions journal of the day succinctly puts it, "its merit was not immediately recognized". A masterpiece of understatement! Evelyn Owen, the inventor, was on his final leave before going overseas in the A.I.F. when he was recalled to demonstrate the weapon he had offered years before. She passed the most gruelling tests with flying colours, and rightly claimed superiority over the American Tommy gun, the German Bergmann used by the vaunted Nazi paratroopers, and the British Sten. During those tests handfuls of sand were thrown over the gun to simulate desert conditions, and it continued to fire when the Thompson and the Sten jammed; when buried in a heap of sand the Owen gun was the only one of the three to continue firing; when plunged into a tub of water it fired more evenly than either of the other types. In its final tests, submerged in a mud-bath, it continued to operate after the others had stopped. She had only three movable parts as opposed to twenty in a Tommy gun, and if she only had a shanghai range, so what? A man needed pretty good eyes to see more than fifty yards in the jungles that were to become her stamping ground! You could knock her to pieces-and what comically rough pieces they were!-in a matter of seconds, and slap her together again as quickly, jam a mag on her and she'd fire until hell froze over. And the cost of her -a mere six pounds against the sixty the Government paid for every one of the boat-loads of Tommy guns that found their way into the jungly islands up north. So you dropped your tacky little Owen in the river? You could drop nine more before you lost the price of one Thompson! They gave her to me before I left Townsville for the Islands-Owen gun No. 213821. She was covered in grease and packed in a flimsy cardboard carton like a child's Meccano set. She was in pieces, but a little booklet in the carton gave me the good word and in no time I had her assembled. She seemed toy-like and light after the wicked-looking and beefy Tommy gun they'd just taken from me, but she nestled in the crook of my arm with her pea-shooter barrel and ragged-looking compensator poking out at the world like a pugnacious little snout; somehow, I'd already half-overcome the skepticism implanted by the sergeant's words. Best friend ... She was all of that. In a couple of weeks of hard training I learned all about her, how she kicked, when she sulked, why she smoked, and what, if anything (other than an earthquake), would make her jam. I fired her in the rain and the heat and the mud and the dust, quick and slow, hot and cold, at tins, trees and cardboard Japs who bobbed out of the scrub at the tug of a cord. I knew her inside out and respected her, and after a while., she got to know me, and she'd do just about anything but come to my whistle. She never left my side after that-during the day she rode comfortably on my hip, and at night she slept with her muzzle awake across two forked sticks by my bed, her fighting nose pointed towards danger, just where I could lean out and give her the office to spit her ugly little slugs out at about six hundred per. And when the war finished and the time came for me to hand her into whatever oblivion of grease and uselessness overtakes weapons in peace time, I looked for the last time at her paintless barrel, worn woodwork and dauntless snout, cocky as ever, and there was a lump in my throat. Well, perhaps I was a little sentimental; but there was many another like me who hated to part with his Owen and who'd still like to shake the hand that first fashioned the matchless little fighter that did so much towards winning the war for us in the South-West Pacific. Evelyn Owen died on I April '49 in the Wollongong District Hospital after a short illness. He was thirty-five years of age.
"Finally we can bring the fight to the emus!"
We don't like to mention the Emus :(
sad that this is all that's known of out beautiful country
@@damonjenkins2185 it's not often a country has a war with birds and loses.
@@SlavicCeleryemus are the least of out worries with 100 types of snake, Gympie Gympie plant, and cassowaries to worry about. we lost the emu war because we started the cassowary war, couldn't get the priorities right with out flightless birds - edit
Damon Jenkins I had no idea what a gympie gympie was and had to look it up. Seriously, wtf is up with that island? Do you have anything there that doesn't try to kill or maim everything it comes in to contact with?
5:57 "just falls out bown the bottom of the gun" Don't you mean down under the gun
Plot twist: since they're in Australia the spent case is actually falling upwards.
Don't forget your sunglasses and cool walk away with that pun.
Can you hear that thunder? You better run, you better take cover!
@@lewisirwin5363 Finally a bloody brilliant Men at Work quote!
@@lewisirwin5363 *epic wind instrument noises*
In my High School days and as a young teenager, I was a member of the Army Cadets and fired many different weapons including this Owen Sub Machine gun. It was a fantastic weapon. You could submerge it completely under mud - pull it up and out of the mud and continue firing - simple and very effective design - fantastic!
KZhead knew I was playing vanguard
Kids in the rest of the world: Plays with lego Kids in Australia: Builds guns
come again?
You never know when those Emus gonn come back. Best prepare for total war.
@@stunseed8385 Take out the Kangaroos, there's even more then Emu's and Koalas combined
@Honestly Brutal no, you can buy guns here just not anything semi automatic
@Honestly Brutal we still have rifles, shotguns, if you join a shooting club we can get handguns too just no one really wants handguns here because there not exactly usable for hunting so most people just have a few rifles and shotguns, we just cant have semi autos anymore, when the semi auto ban came into effect most people were really happy because the government paid the owners who handed in the semi autos and fully autos more than they were worth so we all went and used that money to buy new much higher quality rifles and shotguns..
As a proud Australian, I can assure you I’ve been waiting for this.
and a hd version of the t2 video that even cares to mention the AAA guns
😎
Are you proud of your gun laws? lol
@@chrispeterson1247 Some of us are working on those laws. An uphill battle.
Chris, happy with them, no I think there could be some restrictions lifted but there’s some common misconceptions about what we’re able to access. Proud of them, yes. They’ve helped reduce crimes and we’ve haven’t had a fire arms massacre since the port Arthur shooting which bought them in.
The magazine being on top of the gun would enable the operator to get really low in the prone position. That had to be a big bonus to the troops using it.
Thanks Vanguard
Russians: we make the crudest weapons ever conceivable! Australians: hold my beer
smonyboy For the win, best comment yet!
smonyboy literally
I didn't know Fosters qualified as beer... ;)
@@MosoKaiser Hold my fuckin VB mate.
Except an Aussie would *probably* hold on to his beer... ;)
As for why the sights are on that side of the gun, you have to remember everything in Australia is upside down and backwards so it makes sense with that in mind
I thought it was because Australian's fired it left handed leaving the right hand free for other uses.
That's also why the magazine is on top of the gun
My father served in New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies with the Australian Army during WW2 - and he loved his Owen Gun. It was reliable, accurate and handy in the confined quarters of jungle fighting, where almost all the action was at close range. However, you had to treat it with respect, and not drop or throw it to the ground (11:38). This was vividly demonstrated to Dad at the end of a patrol when another bloke in his platoon tossed his own Owen on the ground, when the round up the spout discharged - the round travelled up Dad's shirt sleeve, popping out the shoulder of his shirt, leaving a long burn along the entire length of his arm - the scar was visible for the rest of Dad's life. Needless to say, Dad wasn't impressed by the other bloke's action, as the training for the Owen covered exactly why you shouldn't do this. There was a brief yet intense non-verbal exchange of views between Dad and the bloke, which ended with the bloke unconscious on the ground with a broken nose and two black eyes. When the incident came to light the following day, Dad avoided a charge (unusually for him), while the offending bloke was transferred to a rear echelon unit where he didn't get to carry a firearm. So the Owen Gun, while it was a terrific SMG for fighting in the jungle, wasn't perfect.
Here comes the vanguard boys
Mp 40: I'm the best SMG of the war Owen Gun: *Laughs in Australian*
suomi laughs in Finnish
Nambu type 100 cries in Japanese. (I know it was really flawed but I like that weapon)
Ivan would like to have word with you. And he have PPS-43 in hand
@@leterrierdinari2861 Type 100 is kinda a good design, but the cartridge is like a .380
Oom Karl with his Swedish K would have a word with you.
"Oh. We apologise sir, our son left his machine gun lying around". Australia needs a rewind time.
Luminite someone get will smith over here
Yes, let's give guns to all the ethic gangs. That'll solve our all our problems, so we can become America's little deputy sheriff!
Back when they had balls before the Left took them lol
@@grubbybum3614 this implies that the gangs are even following the law in the first place. Literally all of our crime inundated cities are extremely heavy on gun regulation; guess what? Virtually all of the gangs have guns. Your blind trust in corrupt governments to use the law to justly fight criminality is naivety at its worst.
@@Gogglesofkrome crime inundated cities? Wtf you on about? These comments are about Australia.
“Despite the fact that it looks like some industrial accident” 😂
Every year, when a new call of duty comes out, I get tons of recommended videos from Ian for guns in that game, coincidence?
When we put 5 of these on a Bob Semple Tank we'll have completed the ANZAC Infinity gauntlet. The only snap will likely be the bulldozer's transmission going, but it counts in my books.
fuckin aye mate
why not put them on the AC-1 Sentinel?
Swap out two of those respectively for a Charlton gun and the rather startling gunport from the Sentinel tank, and you've got yourself a deal.
@@WarmasterDeath That's what I thought.
Bob Semple Tank stops for nothing (but transmission issues)
"No particular complaints about the lack of a drop-safety." I guess Australians are smart enough not to drop their guns.
They were taught to carry, handle and treat their weapons with the utmost respect. There's nothing available in the deep jungles of the Pacific Islands to repair or replace 😮
AJ 1978 shit, I dropped my rifle. Let me activate my super handy Australian telekinesis powers and ummm... not drop my rifle.
That’s because Aussies don’t run
if any aussie drops their weapon they instantly create a black hole and vegemite is spawned, we soon figured out how to not drop them
they dont need drop safety since any dropped gun will just fall into the sun
These days in Australia, if the cops think your thinking about guns your underarrest.
Yeh ya get ya door kicked in for a gel blaster these days
“Your underarrest”. That’s the bigger issue.
Tell that to the over three million registered firearms owners in Australia
@@neilhamill318 imagine following the mandates of strangers Imagine complying Just get a gun don’t register that’s for slaves
@@neilhamill318 i used to be one of the 4 million at one stage Neil, i remember one of my mates had a visit from the flatfoots wanting there mandatory cheak of his security arrangements, he wasnt home, so they asked his wife if they could cheak his gun safe, she complied getting the keys and opening the safe for them, he was charge with giving an unlicenced person access to his firearms and had his licence revoked and his guns confiscated. Tell that to your over three million registered firearm owner's, they may learn something.
Excellent vid! Well done! At the time the Owen was introduced, Australia was facing a possible invasion by the Japanese with only poorly prepared and provisioned reservists (Choccos) available to defend against them in New Guinea - hence the legendary Kokoda Track. Add to this that Australia's war manufacturing was in its infancy and relied heavily on the UK for supply which resulted in delay after delay in receiving not only STENs , but aircraft as well. In fact, Churchill had given up on helping Australia in preference to victory in Europe and was refusing to allow Australian soldiers from North Africa to return - a whole other discussion! Therefore, Australia needed an immediate answer to the shortage of infantry weapons, however, both the STEN and Thompson were woefully unreliable in jungle environments. Experience in New Guinea exposed the Thompson's weaknesses in needing to be constantly stripped down due to frequent stoppages caused by incessant mud ingress during the tropical fighting of New Guinea. The Owen was designed and manufactured with that experience and environment in mind and rigorously tested by dropping the weapon in water and mud then after literally shaking any excess off, used immediately without cleaning by then pressing the trigger! The reason why anyone who used it loving it was because it never failed! My research indicates that the reason why the sights were placed on the right was because the weapon was small enough to allow the shooter to aim along the right while resting their cheek over the top THEN lay the weapon over on its left (appropriate for right handed use) to change the mag without clogging the sights with mud while keeping one's head and limbs low and out of the line of fire.
I've only ever seen these painted camo, wierd to see it black
This one is refinished and repainted, it was camo painted
@@zoranhome I watched the video too
They were mass produced with that camo paint job. Unusual to see it unpainted.
Black guns matter
They refurbished them in the 50's to try and standardize the various models and make them more military looking.That's probably where it lost it's finnned barrel.
"make it in .38 auto!" "No, make it in .45!" "No, make it in .455!" "No, make it in 9mm"
I want the .455 version
Welcome to commonwealth bureaucracy! :)
Reminded me of US trials. "Thank you all for coming. We liked some of your guns more than others. We wish you all luck at our next trial."
"Here, fill out this mountain of paperwork on why guns are bad and why you should feel bad about what you are doing. Also, we need a bunch of guns and we needed them yesterday. The queen sends her regards."
And the original was in .22 long rifle rimfire.
As soon as vanguard drops I get this in my recommended wtf
KZhead algorithm knows what game I started playing
The only machine gun I have ever had the opportunity to use. I was 8 years old and I shredded a termite mound. Never forget it.
should've saved it for the meat ants like i did
That's the best way to get rid of termites, lol.
Yep certainly was a nice weapon to fire. Much more controllable than a Thompson
@@xmm-cf5eg I sorta doubt it was very effective....
They were still being used when I was with the Australian Army in Malaya in 1967. I also got to use one. As I recall they climbed right and high a little.
So you're telling me even the guns in Australia are upside down
wait, do Americans and europeans put the pistol grips on the top? weird.
Daynon Corcoran bruh u just copied top comment
Australians are made of anti matter.
@Vegimite Sushi he wrote this 1 month >before< topcomment
the gun is so australian that even the mag is upside down
Bro why does this man’s videos always pop up on recommended when new call of duty guns come it’s especially gonna happen since vanguard got all theses weird old guns in it
New call of duty gun New forgotten weapons recommendations
You usually keep one side of weapon clear of pointy sticky bits for carrying on the back. The charging handle was already sticking out on the right. My best guess
Could be the reason we were looking for.
Or as a righty you cant the thing so the mag is at more like a diagonal and the sights are at 12 o clock, ie gangster style.
Also most Australians are left handed, lol
Maybe Owen was a lefty and They never bothered to change it. Or it was intended as a conventional bottom feed and they made it upside down because it's Australia, which put the sights on the wrong side.
It's a southern hemisphere thing, like water swirling the other way round when it goes down the plughole.
"It was well liked everywhere" Well excluding the people on the receiving end lol
"Motherfuckers just came up from a giant pit of mud, how the hell are they firing?!" -Some Japanese soldier after getting shot by it.
"Him no good." Relatable quote from an Indian that was on the receiving end of a Colt 45 peacemaker.
I can't be the only one who got this video recommend after vanguard.
Of course right when I start using this in vangaurd I get this video recommended..
A friend of mine who was in the Australian army, served in the pacific, he told me that US troops liked the Owen so much they would swap 2 Thompson's for 1 Owen gun.
That's actually true. I'm not too sure about the exchange rate you mentioned but the boots on the ground, American soldier, fighting in the Pacific was very keen on getting an Owen Gun.
I mean the Tommy gun was too heavy and quite uncontrollable, the later M1s were especially jumpy
Thompson was prone to jamming in wet jungle climates
We trading guns like pokemon cards now?
@@kickasspeanuts back in the day
This story has all the classic elements for an Australian film. Heart Vs faceless bureaucracy, truimph into tragedy. If you're unsure of what I am talking about watch The Castle.
Tell him he’s dfreaming
Or suffer in ya jocks.
It really does. Something like 'The Manhattan Project' or 'The Wind Rises' (about the development of the Mitsubishi Zero), crossed with 'Gallipoli' or 'Breaker Morant' or 'The Odd Angry Shot'. "OWEN: The Farmkid who saved the Brisbane Line" or something. Then again, it'd have to be independent; In the current climate, I can't see an Aussie movie that treats DIY gunsmithing as positive, getting funding or support from the studios.
Wonder what they're asking for one of these?
Great idea! Write it before someone else does !!
I got this thing gold the other day
“He looked at it and went ‘Huh, this is an unusual homemade machinegun”
Growing up in Australia I also grew up knowing this gun as part of Australias history. I never saw it as "ugly" but quite a sophisticated looking and modern weapon which has a reputation better than the Sten and Thompson
The Thompson wasn't bad, just over engineered for an SMG which made it rather bad for jungle fighting. In Urban and European areas? Good weapon to have. The Owen is just that much better because it could operate in the Jungle. That alone wins it the acclaim that is due.
Two days ago i said to my girlfriend "man i wish Ian would do a video on the Owen SMG" ..And here we are. Thank you Ian.
Thank your girlfriend. She may have abilities of which you are unaware.
What were her thoughts? Quite layered, I presume?
Did you have to blow her back up in the meantime?
@@andrewwaterman9240 heheh, abilities
Cam Bear You two may have actually literally manifested this episode. I’m not even joking. Our thoughts are frequencies that can affect our reality on a much deeper level.
This is the fourth time I’m getting recommended of vanguard guns of call of duty
Perfect example of *"function over form"*
As an Australian I love this gun. I really feel like it captures the Australian spirit, especially of its era. Nothing fancy, endurance is everything, and gets the bloody job done. Worth noting our population was barely over 7 million in WW2. New York City in 1940 had the same population as all of Australia. Yet we still stood up & made a name for ourselves everywhere we went. (I'm not military, so don't take 'we' as me taking credit for the service & sacrifice of others)
@@christopherbertoli7322 lol your country is nearly the size of one state, Alaska.
@@vincivedivicilextalionas4036 mate alaska is 1,717,856 km2 Australia is 7.692 million km²
@@christopherbertoli7322 fucking facts ay
@@christopherbertoli7322 FUCK OFF we're FULL. Australia is the driest continent on earth. There's barely enough water for the current population, let alone the 100 million africans you want to import.
@@christopherbertoli7322 that's cause all of the outback is basically uninhabitable unless you truck out water. 99% of the population is concentrated within a few hundred kilometers from the coasts. There is still plenty of room though.
11:25 (Heavy Australian accent):"Well, don't drop the bloody thing, ya Pelican!" ;)
When guns were returned to armouries, many received the 1956 FTR (factory thorough repair) which included blocking the safe position on the selector, and added a radial sleeve at the rear of the receiver so it could lock the cocking handle to the rear. Guns remarked as Mk. 1/3 or 2/3.
We would say "ya wombat" actually.
Yes. Don’t drop it!
legitimately how an Australian would deal with that situation
No one says pelican ...
POV this video in your recomendation after playing Vanguard:🗿
They apparently were notable for being capable of continued fire under drenching and debris / sand whatever; due to the protected nature of the working sections as described in the video. An old guy I worked with in ship building in the '80s, had been in NGuinea, I think Kokoda. He said users (usually NCOs) were 'marked men' as the Japanese were keen to eliminate them as soon as possible.
The army rebuffing them was like bureaucrats everywhere. It's always the same story - if they didn't come up with the idea they don't want it.
A French Australian designed the first ever mechanised troop carrier/ light tank in the 1910’s. But British high command “lost the design”
I wonder how many conservative bureaucrats have saved taxpayers from technological pipe dreams. If only some of that inertia had stopped the F-35 from sucking up hundreds of billions of public dollars!
Burzynski cured cancer but FDA wont approve it since he has the patent. Big pharma won't benefit so all FDA does for 40 years is try to shut him down. Meanwhile people keep dying on chemo etc. It's ALL about the MONEY and who gets it, my friends. kzhead.info/sun/pLWEkaeMm6SjfZs/bejne.html
@@kitwalker2968 Health insurance companies (ESPECIALLY in Europe where the health insurance company is also the government) would push just as hard if not harder in the opposite direction if this actually worked. You think Britain or Germany wouldn't want to save hundreds of millions a year straight out of their own budgets, hospital profit margins be damned? What about Kaiser Permanente here in the U.S.? If the cure, well, cures, he should speak to THEM and not just headbutt the FDA for half a lifetime - but it doesn't, which is why he commissioned a conspiracy documentary instead of actually submitting it. If you can't give me a damn good argument as to why he wouldn't just send the drug over to a country with a vested economic interest in curing people if it works so perfectly, please reconsider that entire 2 hour video.
@@TooFewSecrets Your logic sounds reasonable however I think the hand of big pharma regards cancer is global. It is in nobody's interest except the patients to cure cancer, treat yes, cure no. You're assertions are based on the widely held belief that someone of influence may want to cure cancer to make people well again in a world where money is king and greed keeps it that way.
"he liked to tinker w/ masculine things like bombs" what a dude, casually messing around w/ bombs like that
like normal kids, in other words.
@@clasdauskas can blow my arm off for $5 but it's worth the boom 😂
Lol reminds of what happened to a few kids near where I live in Aus, they where trying to make smoke grenades out of gold balls and ended up blowing their hands to bits.
@@mojowwwav4357 wtf kind of smoke bomb were they trying to make 😂
@@dunno6442 I think the issue was that they used to much gun powder or some other ingredient that made it go off.
Thanks for this. I'm an Aussie and I learned more about the Owen from you then I have here in Oz. Lysaght was a steel mill company.
During jungle training at Canungra, I was issued with an Owen SMG....as a school cadet in 1957. Thus Owen had a safety slide which could block the cocking handle when loaded. We could immerse the weapon on mud....slide the safety slide back......and the Owen would fire the entire magazine without a stoppage. Amazing weapon. Loved it. Les Griffiths
Interesting additional fact, the top mounted magazine is also less likely to snag on branches, bushes etc that made up the jungles in SE Asia. Aussie troops loved it in the dense rain forests
Gravity feeding plus recoil jostling in the mud of PNG is the reason why US forces traded their tommy guns for an owens gun If and when possible When you shoot you want it to work XD *Click* *Click* *Japanese bloke bayonets you*
@@azmanabdula A lower profile shooting in a prone position.
@@kitwalker2968 Yes exactly Which is why they used the BAR for so long Well done Seriously at such close range it doesn't matter that the sight iron is on the side, not to mention no one that used it cared Even at a distance
I realised this the other day, a under mag is harder to make and more complicated, side mounted tends to be a bit of a pain and it’s not really ideal for jungle combat, and a top mag is kinda more durable and reliable, ideal for the conditions, even with the drawbacks 🤷♂️
@@azmanabdula 1: The US never adopted the Owen gun, they used the M3 'grease gun. 2 The observation regarding the drawbacks of bottom-feeding magazines whilst prone was a valid one. For example, the BAR, (bottom mag) had a 20 round capacity, whilst the bren gun (top mag) held 30.
Hold on. Can we just take a second to imagine a full auto 455 webly LMG?
@@justforever96 There are pistol caliber LMG's. The Italians tried them out in WWI
Webley ... w e b l e y
@@georgewhitworth9742or the Czechs in WW2, or the swedes rather recently
thankyou. your knowledge and effort is appreciated.
The KNIL (Dutch Colonial Army) used Owen SMGs extensively during our post-colonial war in Indonesia (1945 - 1949). They were good guns!
Australian public: "we need a submachine gun" Australian military: *sniff*... "Whatareyatalkinabeet"
CLARENCE
"Ya don't undastand leslie, we need a submachine gun for close quartarse combat. Previous military doctrine is outdated, rifles are cumbersome and overcompensate and the sten is a buncha bollocks" "Shut the fuck up Clarence"
Silly kent
what a beautiful show
"abeet" is Kiwi, Aussies say "abowt"
I,ve seen period footage of this weapon being submerged in mud pulled out cocked and fired then reloaded and fired again it,s an awesome bit of Aussie kit
I know right? Looks like the main place for any issues is the trigger assembly, so simple otherwise. SMH
It's like a cool Hi-Point.
kzhead.info/sun/ZZeGZqyXqZeZaZE/bejne.html
That makes sense, actually. The mud can’t reach the important bits. Might be an intentional choice, given the jungles they’d be used in.
@@wimmeraparanormal6581 Ta mate thats the one
Vanguard recommends this.
Great stuff, as always. Fascinating, and thanks for pointing out unique features that make weapons more reliable or manufacturable or shootable.