A home made, crank-powered machine gun improvised out of a bolt-action Mauser Model 1895 by Evert van Niekerk, an Orange Free State Boer and self-taught amateur gunsmith. He joined one of the BSAP Rhodesian expeditionary columns during the Matabele War as an armorer, a role where he had to repair Maxim machine guns, which were the probable source of inspiration for his own backveld DIY MG. He built his DIY MG shortly after returning home from the Matabele War (I think he might have been from Harrismith, in the Free State). This would have been sometime between 1896 and 1899
His homemade MG, christened the "snel vuurer" or quick-firer, featured a custom extended magazine that was loaded from regular five-round 7x57 Mauser stripper clips. No one is quite sure how many rounds the extended mag could hold, but it's probably somewhere between 20 - 50. A water jacket provided barrel cooling, and a primitive collimator sight tube assisted with aiming. In the photo, you can see Van Niekerk in the foreground with a clip of cartridges, and the MG has the bolt pulled fully back in preparation for loading the next round. The MG was attached to a custom wooden "feldlafette" mount, which included an integral seat for the gunner and springs to reduce vibration from recoil. The mount's wooden elements were embellished with traditional Boer decorative carvings, the same style that would be found on Boer ox wagons.
Van Niekerk to the MG on commando during the 1899-1902 Boer War, where it was used in action on several occasions early in the war on the Western Front (ie northern Cape, southwestern Free State). It didn't get that many opportunities to prove its effectiveness in combat though, since it was not easily horse-portable and had to be transported to the battlefield by wagon. The clunky crank powered action probably resulted in poor stabilization, dispersion and accuracy against individual targets, so it was probably only good as an area of effect weapon against larger massed targets, which would have still been common at that early phase of the war. The high profile and inflexibility of the mount probably made it dangerous and clumsy to use in the kind of mobile warfare that it was employed in by the Free Staters, and it definitely would have performed better in the positional trench warfare experienced by Boers on other fronts of the war.
Its poor mobility resulted in the weapon's destruction, as during a running pursuit from a mounted British column, Van Niekerk and his Free State Commando had to abandon their cumbersome wagons. Not wanting the weapon to fall into British hands, the Boers destroyed it.
All that's left are the two pre-war photos. There used to be a really good South African shooting magazine article about the design and history of this contraption, but it has vanished from the internet so I put down my recollections of the article as best as I can remember them before I forget any more. Fortunately, or unfortunately, everything known about the weapon's function and design principles is guesswork derived from the two photos, so it's not like there was a whole lot known about the mechanical design to begin with.
