There’s a reason they always had the biggest trooper haul ‘the pig’ M60 around. They were big, heavy and hard to control. Military removed the rock-n-roll selector and changed to 3 round burst for standard rifleman issue because full auto for a shoulder fired rifle was wildly inaccurate after a few rounds. Giving way to the term ‘spray and pray’. Would work ok for human wave attacks, but for single moving targets, not so much. Private MG ownership you could think was more for show than actual usability. IMO of course. In the 60’s the inaccuracy of full auto was evidenced by firing a full mag of tracer and getting the ‘aww crap’ effect when you realized only the first few rounds went anywhere near your aim point.
Well, that's not necessarily true. From 1975-1977, before I was promoted to Sergeant, I volunteered to carry the M60. I stand 5'6" (as much as I could stretch) and, at the time, weighed 135. I loved that old hog and learned/taught myself battalion/depot level maintenance procedures. Never had a breakdown or anything more than a ammo misfeed.
When I joined my Cav unit in 1975, I wanted to be sure that, if I had to, I had a weapon that could really reach out and touch someone. I qualified as an expert (badge and drop) on the M60 in 1976 on a qualification range at Graefenwoehr ... the only time that I'd ever seen a qualification for M60 in my 20 years in the Army.
So even we Munchkins appreciate good firepower when it's offered ...
Biggest trooper carried the Pig? Not so. In my early enlisted infantry days, I was an M60 gunner. 5’11/170 lbs of marathoner who used to run the 2 mile in 9:40 and do 115 PU/120 SU well into my 40s as an officer (well the run time dropped a bit I admit as I wore my knees out).
I carried the Pig for a year while stationed in W Germany 84-86, 3rd ID, 2/30 IN Wild Boars. Had no trouble humping it in full battle rattle with the squad.
Our biggest guy carried the Dragon plus his personal M16A1.
Everyone carried either LAWs, extra 762 ammo or a dragon missile, or mines or the demo kit or …. We all maxed out at about 120lbs of combat load.
This was prior to and just into our transition from M113s to M2 BFVs. Then the focus changed from dismounted operations to more mounted ops.
I carried the 60 for around 18 months, and I will agree that it was big and heavy, but it wasn't hard to control and could easily take down targets at 1000 yards when its bipod was used (which would have been the majority of the time). The training at the time stressed firing short bursts of 6-10 rounds, not long streams of continuous fire, to increase accuracy and preserve the barrel.