Madsen LMG
- Category
- Machine Gun
- Barrel
- 584 mm
- Weight, empty
- 9.07 kg
- Introduced
- 1902
About
What it is, and why it matters
The Madsen LMG is a Danish recoil-operated light machine gun designed in the late 1890s by Julius A. Rasmussen and Theodor Schouboe and adopted by the Royal Danish Army in 1902 as the Rekylgevær M/1903. Widely regarded as the world's first practical light machine gun, it predated the Lewis Gun by more than a decade and pioneered the squad-automatic-weapon concept. It works on an unusual long-recoil principle derived from the Martini-Henry falling-block action: the barrel and a pivoting breechblock recoil together, after which the block swings on a transverse axis to eject the spent case while a separate rammer feeds a fresh round from the distinctive top-mounted curved box magazine. The gun weighs roughly 9.07 kg empty, measures 1,143 mm overall with a 584 mm finned air-cooled barrel, and cycles at about 450 rounds per minute from 25, 30, or 40-round magazines. Dansk Industri Syndikat famously offered the Madsen in virtually any military cartridge a customer requested, and it was sold to over 34 nations across every inhabited continent.
The Madsen is arguably the longest-serving automatic firearm design ever fielded - Brazilian military police in Rio de Janeiro were still carrying 8mm Madsens on daily patrol nearly a century after the weapon's 1902 adoption. Its mechanism is so improbably intricate that historian Ian Hogg described it as 'a mechanism that ought not to work at all, and yet does, and keeps on working.' Dansk Industri Syndikat salesmen reputedly promised they would build a Madsen for any cartridge a customer brought them.
This entry covers the Madsen LMG as a family. The Madsen's mechanism is uniquely complex - it has no conventional reciprocating bolt, instead relying on a sequence of cam-and-lever operations descended from the Martini-Henry, making it effectively a self-loading Martini firing from a magazine. Despite the complexity it proved extremely durable, with some examples serving for over fifty years; Rio de Janeiro's military police carried 8mm Madsens on patrol into the late 1990s and 2000s. The low top-mounted curved magazine was later echoed by the Bren gun.
Specification
Everything measured
IdentityWhat it is, who built it and when.
- Manufacturer
- Dansk Rekyl Riffel Syndikat / Dansk Industri Syndikat
- Category
- Machine Gun
- Country
- Denmark
- Status
- Out of production
- Produced
- 1902 to 1955
DimensionsAs issued, without a magazine or an optic.
- Barrel
- 584 mm
- Overall length
- 1143 mm
- Weight, empty
- 9.07 kg
ActionHow it cycles, what trips it, and what feeds it.
- Action
- Long recoil
- Firing mechanism
- Hammer fired
- Trigger
- Full auto only
- Capacity
- 30
- Magazine
- Detachable box
MaterialsEach swatch is the material itself, not a colour chosen to stand for it.
- Frame
- Steel
- Barrel
- Steel
- Stock
- Wood
- Finish
- Blued
BallisticsFrom the service cartridge, not a handload.
- Muzzle velocity
- 870 m/s
- Muzzle energy
- 4334 J
- Effective range
- 800 m
- Maximum range
- 2000 m
- Rate of fire
- 450 rpm
Trajectory
What the round does downrange
Solved from the muzzle figures and the bullet. The dashed rule is the effective range on the record, and the crosses are the steps the solver returned.
No load solved for this record yetThe flight path is computed from a cartridge and a bullet. This record has no ammunition filed against its chambering, so there is nothing to solve.
Features
What it has
What the record lists as fitted, drawn from the catalogue.
Top mounted curved box magazine
Quick change barrel
Integral bipod
Wood shoulder stock
Pistol grip
Iron sights tangent leaf
Air cooled finned barrel
Recoiling barrel long recoil
Swinging breech block
Carrying handle
Standing
How it compares
Each figure against the firearms of the same type and cartridge that record it, or of the same type where that cartridge has too few. Positions are read to the nearest tenth.
| Measurement | This firearm | Median | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empty weightAmong 261 machine guns | 9.07 kg | 10.50 kg | Lighter than about 60% |
| Overall lengthAmong 260 machine guns | 1143 mm | 1156 mm | Near the median |
| Barrel lengthAmong 257 machine guns | 584 mm | 605 mm | Shorter than about 60% |
| Magazine capacityAmong 222 machine guns | 30 | 50 | Holds fewer rounds than about 60% |
Answers
Questions about the Madsen LMG
How much does the Madsen LMG weigh?
The Madsen LMG weighs 9.07 kg (20.00 lb) empty.
What caliber is the Madsen LMG?
The Madsen LMG is chambered in 8x58mmR Danish Krag, .30-06 Springfield, .303 British, 6.5x55mm Swedish, and 7.92x57mm Mauser.
How many rounds does the Madsen LMG hold?
The Madsen LMG holds 30 rounds, fed from a detachable box magazine.
How long is the Madsen LMG?
The Madsen LMG is 1143 mm (45.0 in) long overall, with a 584 mm (23.0 in) barrel.
Who makes the Madsen LMG?
The Madsen LMG is made by Dansk Rekyl Riffel Syndikat / Dansk Industri Syndikat (Denmark). It was designed by Julius A. Rasmussen and Theodor Schouboe.
When was the Madsen LMG introduced?
The Madsen LMG was introduced in 1902 and discontinued in 1955.
How does the Madsen LMG operate?
The Madsen LMG uses a long recoil action, and its firing mechanism is hammer fired.
Compatibility
Which parts fit this firearm
Studio
Every part that mounts on this, resolved
Not a list the maker typed out: the answer comes from the mounts this firearm exposes and the interface each part needs, so it stays right when either one changes.
- Every part that mounts on any firearm in the catalogue
- Interface standards, platforms and fit overrides
- The same answers through the API and the MCP server
Requires a signed-in GunSpec account on the Studio plan. The answer is computed per part, so it is not part of the public record.
Provenance
What the record holds
Every figure above was taken from one of these pages. The confidence reflects how much of the record came from a page a claim can be checked against.
In service
- Royal Danish Army
- 1902
- Imperial Russian Army
- 1904
- Brazilian Army
- 1908
- Portuguese Army
- 1908
- Finnish Defence Forces
- 1918
- Rio de Janeiro Military Police
- Brazil
- Nazi Germany (captured)
- 1940
Provenance
Confidence in this record
78%
Stockists
Where to buy
Offers link straight to the shop. GunSpec never takes the order.
No shop has listed this firearm yet
Stock and prices come from the shops themselves. If you sell this firearm, you can list it and it appears here.
List a firearmMCP
Ask an assistant about it
The same record, reached the way a person asks for it rather than the way a program does.
Ask GunSpec
Works with
Point an MCP client at GunSpec and it answers from the catalogue rather than from memory. A free key covers the read tools.
API
The call that returns this record
The same fields, in the same units, from the same endpoint the page reads.
curl --request GET \ --url 'https://api.gunspec.io/v1/firearms/madsen-lmg' \ --header 'X-API-Key: your_key'{ "id": "madsen-lmg", "name": "Madsen LMG", "manufacturer": { "id": "dansk-industri-syndikat", "name": "Dansk Rekyl Riffel Syndikat / Dansk Industri Syndikat", "countryCode": "DK", "foundedYear": 1896, "website": null, "logoUrl": null, "description": null, "status": null, "defunctYear": null, "stateOwned": null, "makesFirearms": null, "parentId": null, "predecessorId": null, "createdAt": "2026-04-26 23:12:00", "updatedAt": "2026-04-26 23:12:00", "version": "a6b761e89dd9a8725e4b9a74b1fd4002295146f177a2b8659707c4894bbb52bc" }, "category": { "id": "machine-gun", "name": "Machine Gun", "description": "Fully automatic firearms for sustained fire" }, "country_of_origin": "DK", "year_introduced": 1902, "barrel_length_mm": 584, "weight_empty_g": 9070, "action_type": "long_recoil"}