Ma deuce, in for her 90 year makeover

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A Vickers would go even longer, just sayin' :neener:

"it looks good as new and it gauges better than most of the other weapons"
I have to ask, what does that say about the other weapons? :confused:

TCB
 
Lol, it would be tough to find a vickers with 90 years of service since they were taken out of military use in 1968. :p

I remember reading that the British military did fire 1,000,000 rounds total, nonstop except barrel changes, for hours out of a battery of vickers with no failures though...now that's impressive....burned through 100 barrels in one day if I remember right.
 
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WestKentucky said:
So why can't these be handed over to the CMP??? Sign me up on the waiting list. It's already in Anniston.
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Maybe this:
Modifications made to the weapon in the field mean part of the receiver would have to be removed through welding and replaced with new metal, a process which usually means the receiver is scrap.
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Best of Browning! Runner-ups are the 1911 pistol and the Winchester 94.

Honorable mention: Auto-5 shotgun.
 
In this day and age of disposable everything it's nice to see something as well designed and built as the M2 .50 caliber machine gun still in service nearly 94 years later.

Definitely needs to be in a museum somewhere as testimony to the truly brilliant design genius of John M. Browning and to a bygone era when we use to build things to last.
 
HexHead said:
How about the O/U shotgun? The Superposed was his last completed design.
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Awright, gotta give you that one. TWO honorable mentions. But that's all. Next thing you know, people will want to give cred for minor achievements like the BAR and the Colt Woodsman pistol.
 
The US Military has been trying to replace the M2 for many years now...and every few we get a news report that XM??? has been chosen to do the deed....then you don't hear anything more about it. Turns out they've not been able to build a gun lighter...that is as durable...so what were they trying to 'improve' again?

Modern engineers are SO arrogant sometimes...they think that THEY can build something much better than those primative guys back at the turn of the last century. But they don't seem to be able to grasp everything that was put into the old designs that keep them going now...like the 1911 for example. It flat plain works.:) Will be watching to see what the 'new' M2 refurb ends up being...hoping like heck they don't mess it up.
 
Generations, by now, of GI's have trusted that when you push down that paddle it says boomboomboomboom.

Nice work, JMB, wherever you are. Thanks. From all of us.
 
I love the M2. I have lots of trigger time on it. Nothing like lighting up a vehicle with one. The only thing I didn't like was humping it from the arms room up to the motor pool.
 
My son never leaves home without one.
(That's him behind the wheel, not behind the M2, but the whole crew cross-qualifies.)


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Tinpig
 
John Browning called the Auto-5 his greatest achievement.

I would put that one first, then the Ma Deuce and all of his other 128 firearm related patents.

A guy I used to work with who served as a Tanker/Tank Turret Mechanic during Desert Shield/Desert Storm told me they were ordered to have their Headspace and Timing Gauges with them at all times. He said his was tied to a bootlace inside one of his BDU pockets :).

Just my .02,
LeonCarr
 
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Oh, you tread heads and your whining!

Here are some words for you.

Light Infantry, M2 HB, Tripod, Ammo, patrol to point, long range ambush.

I would have loved only having to haul Ma Deuce from the arms room to the motor pool! We did break her down to receiver group, barrel, Tripod, and T&E mech and swapped out "toters" after people started falling down.

I did think the M2 was the pest "part" of the M-113A1 when Mech training though. After my miss commissioning, (why would you commission a prior service Enlisted Infantryman into Field Artillery?) I thought the fact that they slung an M-109A1 SP gun under a M2 HB sort of like a M203 under and M-16A1 was cool......then the other Red Legs spoiled it by saying I had it backwards.....

-kBob
 
The US CG boat armed with a .50 M2 Browning jogged my memory. My filed photo of the Patrol Boat Model 80 (Aquarius class) of the Swiss Lake Flotilla also has an .50 M2 Browning. When the Swiss "Navy" uses the M2, you know the M2 has to be a keeper.
 
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