I heard where WWII stocks of .50 are being pulled out of storage and used due to a shortage of .50 cal ammo. However, the gun looks to be rusted as well.
Here's the photo.
Posted on 03/02/2006 8:07:19 PM PST by fso301
Can someone comment on this picture of this M2 and it's ammo?
I heard where WWII stocks of .50 are being pulled out of storage and used due to a shortage of .50 cal ammo. However, the gun looks to be rusted as well.
Here's the photo.
It is rust
It's not rust, it's a specialized iron oxide coating.
~ Blue Jays ~
Some Gunner's Mate Chief is falling down on his job. I never saw any weapon in that condition in the whole time I was in the Navy.
The belt clips around the cases are steel, and could have left rust dust on the cases. The cases themselves have not rusted.
The rust doesn't look like it will hurt the gun but you never know without being able to actually inspect the piece.
If I was in charge of this crew they would be holding their asses and wondering how they lost a piece of it after I reamed them out!
Thats some gundeckin' gunners mates on that boat.
I've fired them before, but I would'nt wanna shoot that one unless I had to.
Sorry, I fat fingered the previous reply. What I mean to ask was if that is rust I see on the gun, links and ammo (the brass looks corroded).
That's some nasty stuff. The gunner is looking at some brass in his gonads after a misfire. I wonder if he knows how to set headspace and timing.....
Actually I am surprised they released it for publication.
CHINFO is going to get his butt chewed.
Ping. Comments?
As a former operator of one of these, the M2 appears to be fairly clean. I'd say it has too much oil, but maybe that's a navy thing. That much oil would attract a tremendous amount of dirt. It's not uncommon for the metal components to be different shades as they are commonly replaced. As for the ammo, I probably wouldn't have loaded that box of .50API into MY M2, but I can say that as a WWII machine gun design that just doesn't get any better, it will likely still shoot. The rust below the barrel is actually on the gun mount, not the gun.
The Feedtray cover and barrel look good.
The mount... Not being Navy, it it unfamilar. That appears to be a special iron 4 coating.
The ammo: OMG!
Maybe the photographer found it somewhere?
Click on the link to the high-res photo, and you'll change your mind. The brass and the copper(?) jackets on the bullets have that distinctive blue corrosion on them.
The gun itself looks pretty beat up, too.
yeah- i just realized that's probably an army pic- sorry- i saw all the stuff in the background and immediately thought it was on a ship or something. embarrased!
I'm flabbergasted that the weapon could be in such condition. Where are the officers?
Its justa little sand and rust. Spray it full of silicone or graphite grease, set your head space at 2 or 3 (maybe 4)clicks and that MaDuece will ROCK and ROLL!!
well I believe that the ammo itself is still vaccum-sealed.
That is certainly rust on the weapon and I believe that's rust on the clips as well.
The rust is on the mount. The heat shroud for the barrel looks ok.
I looked at the hi-res and the M2 actually looks okay. I was always pretty anal about keeping the M2's on my Abrams tanks clean. This one is allright. Probably never even been shot.
Dunno... but I am willing to bet dollars to donuts right now that that weapon is no-longer in that condition.
Someone up the chain of command has seen that pic by now and started the s**t rolling downhill.
That squidly on the gun is not going to be smiling for a few days to come.
Bank on that.
well, the ammo is stored in metal cans with a rubber gasket to seal the lid. But we all know that a rubber seal from WWII won't keep that ammo air tight.
All are corroded. The corrosion on the steel portions is commonly called rust. The bluish colored powdering corrosion on the casing and projectile is typical of copper alloys (brass) corroding.
3 basic oxides of iron (rust)
Ferric oxide Fe2 O3 (red)
Ferrous oxide FeO (black)
Iron oxide Fe3 O4 (black)
We used that corroded ammo problem (salt water spray environment) as a nifty excuse to test fire the guns every day. We broke out clean ammo every day. We'd use up the old stuff on fun "mad minutes."
If you look closely, you will see that the weapon itself if very nicely oiled.
I'm afraid to say, this is a navy problem, not the young marine standing there!
051012-N-2984R-005 Norfolk, Va. (Oct. 12, 2005) - Draftsman 2nd Class Arturo Chavez stands a force security watch with a .50 caliber machine gun on the fantail of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) as the ship prepares to get underway from Naval Station Norfolk. Truman will be conducting carrier qualifications and sustainment training with embarked Carrier Air Wing Three (CVW-3) off the East Coast of the United States. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate Airman Ricardo J. Reyes (RELEASED)
It looks as if this ammo has been outdoors for quite awhile. Really poor condition. Other than that, it's a party mix. Some crunchy, some sweet.
I can't tell by the exact scale of the photo, but unless there's some severe distortion of perspective, that ammo looks bigger than .50 caliber to me. How do we verify the age and accuracy of the photo and news reporting? Do news reporters actually know what a real .50 cal. looks like. Maybe that's a .25 mm or .40 mm cannon shell.
blue or green corrosion is typical on copper and brass, especially if its been exposed to salt water. The rust I was refering to appears to be rust dust that came off the beltand was left on the casing
I'm sorry, but those rounds look much larger than 50 caliber.
it's a .50
Great minds think alike! I just said the same thing.
Imagine putting a round that size into a Barrett. Doesn't compute.
you have a Barrett? there's obviously a wide angle lens here.
Not rust on the weapon itself. On the mount, yes.
But they have corroded. You can see the green patina that corroded develops after some time exposed to the elements.
The gunner should be on a least an article 15 for have corroded ammo and links rusted and brass corrode. In combat that weapon would probably have a malfunction within the first or second burst of ten rounds each.
Where are the officers in charge of this idiot maning that BMG?
It's a squid, not a Jarhead, manning the gun. Still, lousy shape for the mount to be in and the ammo looks damn scary.
No GMC worth his salt would ever let a mount deteriorate into that state.
To heck with the officers, that ain't the Soviet Navy. Where are the Chiefs?
Of course every land based Navy flight line I was ever on, or saw photos of, was a mess compared to Air Force ones. Most especially Air National Guard facilities. You can usually eat off the hanger floor there.
That's a sailor, not a Marine. Draftsman 2nd Class Arturo Chavez according to the caption. If he was a Marine, LadyX would personally be out there chewing on him, and Texas Cowboy would be haunting his a$$.
This one case I blew up and circled (see that black dot in the center) looks like a case failure waiting to happen..
Looks like rust to me, especially on the recoil absorbers.
It may just be the angle of the photo, but those look more like 20mm rounds than a 50cal Browning Machine Gun rounds. Plus, notice the three different colors on the "bullets." Does the Navy have a 20 mm gun other than the phalanx?
Of course if an armorer handed me ammo that looked like that I'd find some way to crap in his messkit.
L
That picture is bizarre. The gun itself appears to be well maintained, but the mount is corroding and that ammo should have gone over the side, not into the gun. It must be the perspective that makes the rounds look so big, but no lense made them look that ugly. I always figured squids didn't know anything about guns, but I was mistaken.
They don't know anything about ammo.
The rusty spot appears to be on the gun mount and not on the Ma Deuce.
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