850 rounds in 1 minute and 45 seconds with one squeeze of the trigger....

http://www.danerd.com/Show.php?vid=1405#

Geez Bernie:
I also can now see from the ancillary items how you guys keep yourselves entertained thru those long Canadian Winters!
BTW: I expect that barrel was ready for the scrap heap by the end of that run. I had a friend the flew helicopters armed with M60s in Vietnam and he told me it didn't take much to burn out a barrel. Cool though!
Jim

bernie...in flight...at 120knots we emptied an ammo box in about a minute...but on the ground...without the air cooling it...like in those pics...sitting on the ground...in 90degree heat...like say Ft. Benning for instance...the gun would start cooking off...meaning it would keep firing even if you took your finger off the butterfly triggers...we didn't have pistol grips so we could not hold ours Rambo style...they had butterfly triggers to be pulled from the back of the gun...ours were mounted on a pod...as opposed to the earlier ones that were mounted on a pungi cord...it turned out that the crewchiefs and gunners...when excited would shoot through the rotors...not good...so they mounted them on pods that had stops on them...to keep from self anihilation...smile...all in all a wonderful weapon...
BTW...we exchanged barrels almost every other day...those graphite barrels cost a fortune...but there was no alternative...never saw any cook offs in midair when the horizontal speed cooled them...on the ground I saw a guy loose three fingers attempting to pry open the feed tray after the gun jammed...he used his bowie knife to pry the tray open without waiting the recommended two minutes...at that moment the round went of and ripped his fingers off...also put a dent in his head and blackened his face...other than that he was in great shape...he didnt have to fly anymore...so as you can see...a great weapon...wish I had one...oh one more thing...if you held the feed tray of the M 60 next to a feedtray of the Germans M42 you could tell the were the exactly same weapon...just about twenty years apart in time...sorry about my rambling...brought back memories...Roland.

I would have thought that the barrel would have basically melted, that is a lot of rounds, and even in semi-auto I have made the unfortunate mistake of grabbing one of these *****es by the barrel after play time, hot is an understatement.

Impressive to say the least.

K

Kris...smile...have you ever heard of asbestos gloves?

Our unit had two .50's. Each had a spare barrel and two pairs of asbestos gloves. They were more like mittens as I remember.

Dave

Dave...we had one chopper that had a fifty mounted on one side...but the weight of the ammo made it kind of lopsided...and since the gun was mounted on the side the ship would have to make a complete 360 to bring it into action...the gunship guys had fun with it anyways...but on a slick it would have cut into our carrying capacity...so therefore I never got to shoot it...poor me...Roland.

I was in a radar repair outfit, so we did not to shoot them that often, but what a weapon. Fairly slow rate of fire compared to an M60, but very effective.

Dave

Talk about bringing back memories! Fun to shoot but still not as much fun as the MG-42. I do recall that shortly after the Viet Nam war ended, Marimont Muffler in Maine made some of these available to the public. Evidently Uncle Sam cancelled his contract with them while they still had some in inventory. The selling price was $1,800. Another one of my many opportunities missed!

The door gunners I flew with shot anything that moved in the 'free fire' zones. I always liked to watch them talk to themselves while going nuts and arcing the MG's all over the place. Except when the hot brass got between my flak jacket and my skin. I could dance pretty good then!

Mark

Roland, yes I was a seasoned gun guy and knew all about asbestos gloves It was actually a AR-15 I grabbed after about 100 rounds and I was just not thinking and grabbed the barrel. .

Im trying to get a mental Picture of Dave Hohaus with a .50 cal Browning, and remembering the hot brass flying around inside my neatly tucked in t-shirt. That is not fun, and you do dance trying to get it out. .

I dont know if you guy's ever saw one of those Mark-19'S? basically a fully automatic 40mm grenade launcher that fires I think 300 rpm, that is a site to behold.

Fun toys!

Chris...still laughing about the picture you conjured up in my mind...smile...like he said the 50 had a much slower rate of fire...maybe he danced in between the brass...smile...still a sight to see...Have a Happy New Years everybody...

PS...my gunner used to spend all evening taking the tracer rounds out of the belt and hooking them together...making the barrel even hotter than normal...gotto run and watch the Giants vs. the Raiders game...I need the Giants to loooooose...Johann...have a nice New Year

A guy I know went in on Omaha beach and was a B.A.R man, and on the way through Europe the colum he was in was pinned down by a sniper that was way out in a tree. So they roll up a vehicle with twin .50's and opened up on the guys position took out the sniper and took down his tree as well. .

A devastateing weapon.

Best,

Kris