This video shows a recently performed trial of a Browning .303″ calibre machine gun from a crashed Spitfire Mk. II that was found buried in a peat bog in highlands of Donegal, Ireland. An excavation at the site uncovered large, remarkably preserved chunks of the airplane and six of its eight Browning machine guns.

Thanks to a “wild idea” from Lt Colonel Dave Sexton, ordnance technical officer in the Irish army, it was decided an attempt would be made to check if one of the Browning guns that had spent 70 years in the bog could be fired. After a thorough cleanup and adjustment of a few minor bent parts, the gun was taken to an old British Army range just north of Athlone for the trial day.

For full story of the Donegal Spitfire, see this previous article.