Posted on 04/29/2017 9:01:09 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Marine Corps Systems Command is equipping Marines with the updated M2A1 .50-caliber machine gun, increasing Marines survivability and lethality on the battlefield.
The M2A1 is an upgrade to the legacy M2 machine gun currently used by Marines across the Corps. The updated M2A1 is easier and safer to use due to three major changes: a quick-change barrel, fixed headspace and timing, and a flash hider that reduces the weapons signature by 95 percent at night, according to a recent Marine Corps Systems Command press release.
M2s are the most reliable heavy machine gun, said Maj. Harry Thompson, team lead for General Purpose Weapons at MCSC. The improved M2A1 makes Marines more lethal because theyre able to get rounds down range quicker. Marines will have better mobility because of the fixed headspace and timingits much quicker to move the gun from position to position and put it back into action. Because theyre less exposed, Marines will have better survivability too.
The current M2 requires Marines to manually set headspace and timing before firing, after assembly, and after required barrel changes when the barrel becomes extremely hot from high volumes of fire. Headspace is the distance between the face of the bolt and the base of the cartridge case when it is fully seated in the chamber. Timing is the adjustment of the gun so that firing takes place when the recoiling parts are in the correct position for firing.
(Excerpt) Read more at kitup.military.com ...
Ma Deuce is recognized worldwide as the best heavy MG in the world. Improving the best is like putting sprinkles on an ice cream sundae.
FTA: a flash hider that reduces the weapons signature by 95 percent at night
I bet the gunners are real happy about that!
There is but one God. And John MOSES Browning is his Prophet.
Should have been done 50 years ago.
Should have fielded the MG42 instead of the M60.
The issue would have been whether that crazy high rate of fire would have really been effective in an expeditionary environment.
A Man Duece tossing His Junk Around..!
Can’t you get Arrested for That?
Yes.
Most certainly.
You mean you had to adjust the headspace and timing every time you changed a barrel? What a wretched pain in the ass!
CC
OR like the 7.62X54 soviet or .303 British. Reloaders hate rimmed cartridges.
CC
What ever happened to water cooled machine guns.
I realize that they weigh substantially more than a modern air cooled MG but for a defensive fixed position that should not matter.
Headspace just requires screwing the barrel all the way in, then backing off three clicks and then sticking the gauge between the breech face and the barrel. if it's too loose, tighten one click, if it's too tight to fit, unscrew a click.
Easy-Peasey.
I reload a great deal. Will not touch rimmed cartridges. Seen to many good reloaders have serious issues - some very bad - with them.
Nope, not aware of the manual of arms for the ma deuce. The stuff I work on is somewhat smaller.
CC
Just reacting to your statement.. You shouldn't consider it a "pain in the ass" if you did it often enough. - duck simple.
What, by the way is a "manual of arms" with a .50? How does one do "Present Arms" for example?
I've fired the .50 in combat and over half a million rounds in training/training others, but I'll have to defer to you if you really have carried one on the drill field.
Okay, proper care and feeding.
CC
“....but I’ll have to defer to you if you really have carried one on the drill field. “
lol...I just happened to hump one from the truck to the tripod - about 25 feet - last weekend. Pickle splitter.
Most fun training I ever had was firing an M2 from the right front window of a CH-46D helicopter back in '68. I was a "grunt" sergeant in an air wing training squadron in Tustin California and we used to take 4-5 students up to do firing training in the wilds of Camp Pendleton. We had just-returned-from-combat instructor pilots and they were wildmen, so we flew crazy corkscrew inserts and low-level passes, firing at whatever they told us to fire at. Their favorite trick was to have me train the gun as far forward as possible and level and then hold the trigger down while they "strafed" like a fighter plane.
Hard to believe that I got paid for that stuff!
In the 1960s I was a part of the American contingent for the retirement parade for German General Hepp, finally calling it quits after 50 years service with Reichswehr, Wehrmacht and Bundeswehr. I got to wear multiple hats, including interpreter for our battalion commander and playing tank commander [no gunner needed, no blank 105 salute rounds being available] and elevating the main gun and commander's cupola .50 to full elevation to Event Control radio command Achtung, präsentiert das Gewehr [attention, present rifle] as we passed by the reviewing stand in a 3-tank frontal attack wedge formation.Both our 105mm main gun [M60A1 tank] and the M85 .50 roofgun had rifled barrels, so I guess it was a rifle salute of a sort....
It would be kind of neat to see some bodybuilding moose try to do Queen Ann's Drill with an M2, though. He'd have to be awfully tall for that barrel to clear the ground during the rifle-spin/twirl....FANCY, one rifle spin, HUP!
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