Notes: The Madsen is considered a remarkable weapon; some say the most remarkable thing about it was that it worked at all. It was probably the first light machinegun ever produced in quantity, and the same weapon continued to be built, with only minor variations, for over 50 years. It was never officially adopted by the military, police, or paramilitary forces of any country – yet there isn’t a corner of the world where is did not serve or in some cases, still serves. The Madsen used an extremely complicated operation, an automatic form of the Peabody-Martini hinged-block action. This is great for blot-action rifles, but in a machinegun, requires a separate rammer and a very powerful extractor. The operation was, in essence, partially long recoil and partially short recoil. It was, in spite of itself, very successful, the Madsen produced in at least 34 countries and used in close to 100 conflicts worldwide. It was even captured from Viet Cong troops during the American involvement in Vietnam as late as the 1970s. It was chambered for, at one point or another, at least 5 different cartridges.