German MG 42 Shoulder Pod

[Sentryduty]

A barrel disintegrated. Really, it was all good!

It's a good concept, 6 barrels running at max rate (6000) puts the individual firing rate down to 1000 Rpm/barrel, combined with air cooling from spinning does help things, running on low rate each barrel is thumping about 333 rpm.

So on the test to breakage, to the nearest 1000 (5000) or so where would you say the failure occurred?

[Peter Laidler]

I think it was up into the 40,000 round area. We had emptied one ammo bin and had to stop to reload the bin again with belts. Caught it on the video but it wasn't running on high speed/slow motion. Dillon was a great bloke and ready to listen to any sensible comments or suggestions. Including one to cross drill the rotor to vent off gas in the event of a miss feed causing a breech explosion (once for us). I seem to remember that a replacement set of barrels was very cheap and everything was so simple. Including stripping, cleaning and assembly. A great trial and some great people. I used to sit and wonder........ what are we still faffing around with GPMG's for!

[browningautorifle]

A barrel disintegrated.

And then you fixed it and went on...

what are we still faffing around with GPMG's for

Because they're mudroller friendly and man packable with manageable ammo.

[tankhunter]

I'm guessing it would be much like the SF kit buffers? Those are super...

Yes Jim, they are same 'working' section top halves. As used on Series Three Land rovers. The Principle is similar to the SF Tripod buffering action. It s just the yoke mounting section that is different, with the addition of the canvas bag underneath. used on Helicopters. I have had a few of them over the years.

---------- Post added at 01:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:02 AM ----------

I had got the idea that the U.K. did captured the spent cases/links but wasn't entirely sure of the reasons for it. I did wonder if there was some obscure security concern behind it such as the items being of some use to an enemy?

No that is not the reason why. you REALLY don't want Brass & link skidding about in an Aircraft of ANY type! In Helicopters, the gunner needs to manoeuvre about on his feet. Engaging different targets, & tracking them with the gun & mount combined. it would indeed be Dangerous, to be skidding about treading on Link etc, whilst attempting to manoeuvre!........

[Sentryduty]

and man packable with manageable ammo.

That is a very important point, a C9 LMG runs between 750-1000 rpm (normal vs adverse) and many gunners have a habit of running through ammo like a dog p*ssing up a fire hydrant, a weapon with 6 times the rate of fire would make consumption very rapid.

[browningautorifle]

many gunners have a habit of running through ammo

A Schnellbrand Kanone has no place in the hands of infantry. Leave them mounted on vehicles and air defence. They're invaluable but not for us. This ain't the movies...(Jesse-the-half-body Ventura in Preditor)

[Sentryduty]

A Schnellbrand Kanone has no place in the hands of infantry.

Precisely.

You know, here is a head scratcher.

Take one of these Dillion Miniguns, and mount it on a fixed SF rig suitable for the gun, use a fire control computer to program proper burst length and employ it like a GPMG.

Following the theory of machine gun fire, how does the beaten zone compare at 1800 metres? larger, smaller, dense, sparse, exactly the same? I wonder how it would "pattern" compared to a single barrel gun at such ranges.

How does the cone of fire look? How much additional spin drift does the round exhibit due to the rotation speed of the barrel, any?

It would be like man packing a TOW missile system around so not feasible, but I wonder how the shot density compares against the conventional single barrel GPMG.

[browningautorifle]

how does the beaten zone compare at 1800 metres?

I don't know...the rotation of the barrels is moot because it fires from one barrel at the bottom...I think it's as stable as any system as long as the mount is stable. They fire from extremely slow to all the ammo in one breath(that's the technical description) but the guys would crank-er up. Remember, they were originally for area anyway...not for producing "A close and accurate grouping of shots when fired from the" on and on... I guess that means we have to take one out and try it. Maybe Vincent has one we could give a spin(literally)...

[Flying10uk]

Does anyone have any information on a new to the British Armed Forces (Royal Navy?) 50cal machine gun, please? I don't think that it has anything to do with the Browning style of MG but is something relatively new? I believe that I saw/read some brief reference to it a while back but I don't know any further details.