The Maschinengewehr 34 GPMG (MG34) was developed in 1934 as the standard infantry support machine gun and remained in service throughout WWII due to the insatiable desire for such weapons and the later MG42 not being produced in enough numbers.

The MG34 could be fed by a 50 round belt, 75 round drum with a rate of fire at 800-900 rounds per minute and could be fitted with a simple bipod or tripod for AA use or mounted on a Laffette in the sustained fire role.

This barrel set from ABER provides two MG34 barrels that consist of the outer perforated cooling jacket and inner barrel incorporating the muzzle section and flash suppressor and can be fitted to any available plastic or resin MG34 receiver.

There is also two small etched frets with the barrel fittings such as the foresight, AA sight mounting and the underside bipod attachments and ABER gives you two of each part other than the AA ring sight allowing for any mishaps or loss during assembly as the parts are quite small.

Brass Barrel parts x 2

Etched parts x 2

The only cleanup needed is some residual burs on the inside of the cooling jacket holes and by using the barrel section as a plunger you can pass this through the jacket to remove the fine burs. You may have to push the barrel through a few times to clear the residue completely but it is easily done and you are ready to assembly the barrel.

The barrel itself has nice details and features a fully hollowed out flash suppressor with very thin sides as well as the small indented notches around the suppressor housing and the hex retaining bracket at the back of the muzzle section. There is a small detail omission in that and the flat sides to the flash suppressor base are not present with this being rounded but other than that the detail is good.

With the cooling jacket the holes match photos of the real jacket very well including the holes around the receiver end and ridges for the AA sight mounting and bipod attachments. Another small omission is the two small flat sections either side of the jacket just in front of the bipod attachment and you could add these with a small file which is made easier by the jacket being separate.

Close up of barrel parts.

Main barrel parts fitted together

Muzzle with thin flash suppressor
and additional small barrle fittings .

Image of actual barrel showing the details omitted from the barrel and jacket,
the flat sides to the barrel housing and the flat sides to the flash suppressor base.

After fitting the barrel into the cooling jacket it is very easy to fit this to any available MG34 receiver by drilling a small hole and inserting the barrel pin, nothing could be easier and you can then add the small etched details, this is easier after the barrel is attached to the receiver both for handing and for aligning the fittings correctly.

The AA sight mounting has to be bent around on itself with a separate lower section and these fit together around the cooling jacket nicely but care will be needed as the parts are quire small and fiddely when fitting. The AA mounting is slightly too tall when compared to photos but not overly so and the foresight is bent at right angles and added to the front of the barrel ensuring it is aligned correctly.

Added under the barrel is the forward bipod attachment bracket and the rear bipod leg support and again these parts have to be bent to shape before addign to the jacket and care is needed as they are very small and easy to lose. Thankfully the duplicate parts provided come in handy of you do lose a part to the dreaded "ping" while handing with tweezers.

The AA ring sight can be added if you wish but again take care as this is very thin and can be damaged quite easily and it would be best to add this last if you were going to use this sight.

Assembled barrel with AA sight fitted added to Dragon Gen2 MG34 receiver

Assembled barrel with bipod added without the AA sight

Conclusion:

This is a nicely machined MG34 barrel with some very good details but there are a couple of detail omissions as mentioned above that let it down a little but the additional etched fititngs add good definition rather than using the plastic kit parts as with other barrels.

The effect of the smaller details included on the barrel make for a very good appearance and getting the two barrels in the set is a nice bonus.

Highly recommended 8/10.

See a comparison review of the three available MG34 7.92mm barrel sets.

Thanks to ABER for the review sets.
carry the full range of ABER update sets and barrels.