M-60 machine gun
I’ve always wanted a fully operational WWII Thompson and a BAR. I have a Garand. Note I didn’t say I need either of the others but They would be interesting to shoot. Only problem I have is the M1 comes out at the range and pretty soon I am surrounded by other shooters wanting to see and talk about it. I figure a Thompson or a BAR would be the same only worse. They would get my attention.
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.