Rio de Janeiro slum wars

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I think the pictures were taken a year or two ago. There is a video of the same para-military police in action, too. I

The Brazilian military apparently passed some on to the cops; some were captured from drug dealers; and some came from other odd sources. They've been converted to 7.62mm NATO.

The members of that force (if I recall the article and discussion correctly) are pretty well-funded; they have access to most modern weapons (belt-fed H&K, etc.) but like the Madsen for a few reasons:

-- it's controllable on full-auto, mostly due to weight and recoil operation
-- it's able to punch holes in cinder blocks and other slum building materials
-- it's very loud (they like to scare the drug dealers, I guess)
-- it's reliable

Here's a vid showing the Madsen in use:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qobInwK_VnQ

and another:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/428337...aniero_brazil/

They seem to be operating it with the recoil booster/flash hider removed from the muzzle.

I own a semi-auto conversion of a 1946 Madsen, in .30-06 and 8mm (they use the same magazines, thank goodness), and I can say that recoil is pretty light for full rifle-caliber weapon. Of course, carrying the beast around isn't so fun! I've put a canvas Sten gun handguard around the rear end of the barrel jacket.