Ma Deuce questions

[tslex]

I didn't serve in the military but had the opportunity, in my prior career, to fire and/or ride in and/or fly in and/or handle a lot ordnance, materiel and equipment. But I never had the chance to fire an M2. For a project I'm working on, I need to gather some information about the venerable .50 cal M2 heavy machine gun.

I'm not looking for info to be found in the manuals, but would rather like to throw some questions at someone with experience firing the thing. I'm looking for first hand impressions and experience, the "feel" of the weapon, good and bad traits, what it smells like, what's the noise like on the operator's end, etc. etc.

If you had occasion to fire the weapon in earnest, and would be confortable answering questions about that, that would be great. But if what you have -- or are willing to share -- are peacetime and training experience, that will also be very helpful and you'll have my gratitude.

If you think you'd be willing to answer a longish list of questions, please PM me and I'll send the questions your way.

Thanks.

[rkba_net]

I was a Small Arms Repairer in the Army and have lots of experience the the M2HB... you can send your ?'s to...

gio@rkba.net

[tslex]

Excellent, and thanks.

Questions are on the computer at home, so I'll e-mail tonight.

[JWP]

my biggest impression of shooting a dual mount at knob creek was "how in h*** do you charge these things" felt like 100 lb spring on charging handle on each side

the cyclic isn't that high but mount shook a lot [tripod on ground with extender to raise to standing position for shooting]

not me shooting but a quad destroied a car in seconds there [like 15]

i shoot a serbu and the smell is m2ish but m2 is like 100x lol

HTH

[RenegadeGlocker]

Thread Hijack:

Speaking of Dual Deuces, anyone see the Sgt. Rock Buildup on TRUCKS! where he is going to install Dual Deuces in the bed of the pickup?


http://www.truckstv.com/

[MrMurphy]

You don't shoot the Deuce.

You push the butterfly down and hold on for dear life! :)



As a guy back from Iraq answered a teammate of mine on "how do you aim one from a moving vehicle with all the shaking?"

His answer: "You hit the trigger, and start moving the tracers towards what you want to destroy.... and hope like hell no friendlies are in the way!" It's an area suppression weapon.

[JWP]

c hathcock used m2 with 8x unertl twelescope to do a documented 2500 yd kill of vc in vietnam - held long range record for that till recently a longer range shot hit some iraq insurgent - shot by canadian sniper

[mattb]

I was the armorer for a NG unit. Never fired in earnest; just in training. I've fired the M2 from a ring mount on a 5 ton truck. The thing that stands out most for me is the way the muzzle blast/heat caused a highly visible blur to form around the muzzle when a round went off; that and the way all the grass in front of the truck was blown down for several feet away from the bumper. Recoil caused the whole truck to shake. From a noise perspective, the first time I ever heard a .50 cal go off, I was firing a burst from an M60 in the prone position about 50 feet down the line from where the M2 was located; I stopped firing and literally said, "What the h*^L was that?" When stripping it down for maintenance or cleaning, I couldn't get over how beefy the internals were. Everything feels solid. If I remember correctly, the barrel alone weighs more than an M60 w/tripod. If you want to PM me with more questions, feel free; I'll answer as much as I can.