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TWN MG34 Jaming

Cryonics

Member
I recently purchased a semi auto TWN MG34 and right from the start she would stove pipe the spent cartridges. I tried just about eveything to fix the issue but to no avail. So far I changed the recoil spring, barrel, bolt assembly, and many other parts. I decided to take a high speed video of the problem and it seems to be something really silly and easy to fix. Basically the round is extracted, comes out, bounces off the trigger guard and goes back towards the front of the rifle into the ejection slot and then gets slamed back into the gun by the bolt assembly. It would seem that by adjusting the angle of the trigger guard so that the cartridge would bounce downwards instead of upwards would solve the problem. Unfortunately I tried attaching various things to the trigger guard to adjust the deflection but to no avail. You can see the high speed video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pTcqz5hdAk

If anyone could look at the video and offer some kind of suggestion as to what might be happening or a possible fix, would be greatly appreciated.
 
Hey, I can’t watch the vid at the moment, but I had a TNW MG34 as well. They are poorly regarded. Still fun when they work. Mine would not eject the casings and it would get caught up with a new round and disaster ensued. For everyone I’ve looked at, you need to look at ejection timing. The ejector rod rides that small cam plate. If it’s too short or wrong angle it screws it all up. You should be able to find NOS unfitted Rods somewhere in the US. In mine I needed to barely put a chamfer on the end of the new rod, as I suspect they have mounted the cam plate a bit too far back in their receiver.’ Once having a full length rod it worked perfectly. Could blast through a belt without stoppages. As you pull the bolt back, without spring, that rod should start to protrude from the bolt face just as the entire ejection port is visible, and fully out before you pass the end of the ejection port. Hope this helps. Also most tnw were purchased from a military training facility, and came with a 9mm booster cone. Get the proper 11mm cone. The 9mm is for blanks and too violent.
 
I ran an MG34 for years at reenactments and I'm an FFL/SOT. I completely agree with the first reply - your issue is the ejector or ejector plate.

Do you intend to fix it yourself or do you want to send it out? If you're planning on having someone else do the work, let us know where you're located. I know a few people who could check it out.
 
I got mine to run, but ideally for long term use, I’d have wanted to mod the receiver and move the plate a tiny bit forward. But I ended up selling to finance a collectible rifle. Haha
 
Hey, I can’t watch the vid at the moment, but I had a TNW MG34 as well. They are poorly regarded. Still fun when they work. Mine would not eject the casings and it would get caught up with a new round and disaster ensued. For everyone I’ve looked at, you need to look at ejection timing. The ejector rod rides that small cam plate. If it’s too short or wrong angle it screws it all up. You should be able to find NOS unfitted Rods somewhere in the US. In mine I needed to barely put a chamfer on the end of the new rod, as I suspect they have mounted the cam plate a bit too far back in their receiver.’ Once having a full length rod it worked perfectly. Could blast through a belt without stoppages. As you pull the bolt back, without spring, that rod should start to protrude from the bolt face just as the entire ejection port is visible, and fully out before you pass the end of the ejection port. Hope this helps. Also most tnw were purchased from a military training facility, and came with a 9mm booster cone. Get the proper 11mm cone. The 9mm is for blanks and too violent.

Thank you Canadian for the reply. I am not sure I understand what you mean by "finding NOS unfitted rods". Could you clarify.
 
I ran an MG34 for years at reenactments and I'm an FFL/SOT. I completely agree with the first reply - your issue is the ejector or ejector plate.

Do you intend to fix it yourself or do you want to send it out? If you're planning on having someone else do the work, let us know where you're located. I know a few people who could check it out.

I changed both the ejector and ejector plate and still with same results. What I do not understand is that if you look at the video it appears as if the casing actually ejects from the rifle, then bounces off the trigger guard and then shoots right back into the front of the gun to be lodged back into the barrel. It almost looks like if the trigger guard was angled differently the casing would bounce back to the ground instead of back into the ejection port. Very confused.
 
It still looks to me like late ejection. The little ejector plate is held on with tiny screws. You may be able to loosen them and adjust it slightly.

The ejector rods are maybe a bit tough to find NOS. I tried a bunch that had already been used and none worked. I don’t have mine anymore or I’d show you with photos.
 
I had one of these when they first came out. I never had this problem with mine but I have two friends that bought one later that did. We never really were able to get it to work right even with switching ejector plates and ejector pins. Both friends ended up getting rid of their TNW 34's in frustration.
On the mg42.us forum there was somebody there selling longer ejector pins. You could check there to see if they are still available or even post this question there for advice.
 
Tnw

Probably wouldn't matter, but what about checking your ejector/extractor spring, and the recoil spring, making sure they are correct length?
 
Probably wouldn't matter, but what about checking your ejector/extractor spring, and the recoil spring, making sure they are correct length?
Unfortunately I did try a different recoil spring and did change the extractror spring but did not help.
 
One of the other problems known ( 2 guns I know of) with the later tnw guns is the bolt pathway is too wide, the bolt will move slightly to far to the left side causing many issues with ejection, I know of people moving the elector plate inwards to solve the problem, they had to temporarily tack weld the plate in place to find the sweet spot then drill out larger with end mill and tap the receiver with a larger screw for the new holes more inward on receiver. Some of these guns will sporadically eject then not eject as the bolt is moving left and right in the receiver. These can be tough to get going 100%. I know of another guy who got one in the last year and his bolt wouldn’t even fit inside the receiver and it wasn’t operator error either!
 

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