PD has Historic Great War Machine Gun Frozen in Limbo
A small town police department in Ohio has had a rare machine gun in its collection for years and wants to pass it on to a museum but can’t.
Sheffield Lake, Ohio (pop. 8,950) is about 35 miles west of Cleveland on the shores of Lake Erie. The town’s 12-officer police department has kept an old belt-fed machine gun in its basement since 1989.
Found during a welfare check, the circa 1918 Colt Vickers WWI aircraft machine gun was impounded because it was not legally registered with the ATF, and the agency has had it ever since.
The Colt Vickers in question. (Photo: Sheffield Lake PD)
And, while the department would be okay passing it on to a museum intact, that isn’t a thing right now.
Around 2022, SLPD contacted the ATF, which advised that it would have to be destroyed or demilitarized by cutting it, even if it were donated to a museum.
“Given its historical significance, that was not an option we were willing to pursue,” the SLPD noted.
Next they tried the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton.
“Because it is a federal institution, we were hopeful there might be a lawful avenue to preserve and transfer the firearm intact. Unfortunately, those discussions ultimately did not result in a transfer,” said the department.
They are currently trying to find a home for it with the Smithsonian and hope it works out.
“We don’t want to destroy it or cut it apart. This firearm has survived intact since approximately 1918. Everything still appears to function, and the components appear to be original,” said the department. “And since the Sheffield Lake Police Department has no plans for an armed aircraft anytime soon, our goal isn’t to use it. Our goal is to preserve it.”
What is the Colt Vickers?
Developed by Hiram Maxim about 1904, the 33-pound Vickers gun (not counting the weight of the tripod and ammo) was put into production at Kent, England, that year and, by 1915, was in low-rate licensed production at Colt in the U.S. With a relatively slow (450-550 rpm) rate of fire, the water-cooled gun was steady and reliable, especially in sustained fire, and is still encountered in Third World service.
Vickers ground machine guns seen at Camp Hancock, Augusta, Georgia, with officers of the 28th U.S. Infantry Division in January 1918. With water and tripod, the Vickers tipped the scales at over 90 pounds. (Photo: U.S. Army 111-SC-002670 via National Archives.)
Some 12,125 Colt Vickers Model of 1915 ground machine guns were produced, chambered in .30-06 Springfield, with 2,888 later converted into 28-pound forward-firing aircraft machine guns.
The conversion modified the water-filled cooling jacket with air-cooling slots and synchronized it to fire through the propeller without hitting it. One such Colt Vickers is seen here at the Fort Rucker Army Aviation Museum. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
Two such guns were mounted under a hump on the forward fuselage of the Snoopy-famous Sopwith Camel, one of the era’s best fighter aircraft, seen here at the Fort Rucker Army Aviation Museum. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
Used extensively by British and allied forces in the Great War, the Vickers was one of several aerial guns in service with American forces by 1918, but was all but extinct by WWII.
A close-up view of several types of machine guns used in the Great War by the US Army: an air-cut Vickers, an aviation Marlin-Rockwell M1895-18, and a Browning LMG. U.S. Army Ordnance Department photo, circa 1918, via the National Archives.
Still, it is nice to see that one of these historic guns, trapped in limbo, is at least treading water and is, for now, safe from the torch. Perhaps a future federal machine gun amnesty or further NFA reform could allow it to find a forever home, intact.