What's it like to shoot an M2?

[oldgrunt]

I was born in 1963. We lived then in northern Virginia. VA had recently changed their law and no longer had capital punishment. There was an escaped murderer/rapist on the loose from Norton penitentiary. We lived on the edge of the last 900 acres or so of undeveloped land in that area, just south of the capital beltway, I-495. One of my dad's friends was a Korean war vet. He had a "bringback" M2. My mom carried it as she was pregnant with me, and had to walk my two sisters up the block to the nearest neighbors house. The neighborhood ladies would gather at a certain house and spend the day together until the men got home that evening. The local police sgt instructed the ladies to shoot to kill this mongrel, and call him personally and he would take care of it. I have never fired an M2, but I guess I was up close with one for a while anyway!
FWIW, I found the M3A1 greasegun to be quite easy to shoot. Our mechanics typically had them in mechanized units into the early 1990s. One day just south of the DMZ in the ROK some friends and I got to shoot a few thousand rounds with these. We were infantry, but got them from our HHC armorer for the day. Other than the CAR-15, and later, the M4, I have no frame of reference to compare. But like all full autos, I have to agree that proper firing technique is key to maintaining rounds on target. One can get quite good with them.

[imarangemaster]

Speaking on Korean War bring-backs.... I mentioned this before several years ago, but when I was a cop in Ridgefield, (a small town in SW Washington State, on the way from nowhere, to nowhere) 1979 to 1981, I had a call to a house about tools stolen from a garage. I was chatting with the victim, a Korean War vet. He showed me his bring-back M2 Carbine that was stashed in the garage. It had a little surface rust patina, but was oiled and ready to go with a 30 round magazine. It still had the happy switch. I told him not keep it stashed, and not to show it off to anybody, especially cops!