The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Big Frank on April 07, 2024, 09:26:09 PM
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One of the machine guns I worked on in the army was the M240. No Bravo, Hotel, Lima or any other model designator. Just M240. It was nearly identical to the current M240C used in M1 tanks, but the Charlie model has been converted to right-hand feed. The ones we had were all left-hand feed like most single-feed machine guns, and the way most dual-feed machine guns are set up. The only other difference I see is that it has a Pic rail on the feed cover, like all the other versions available today. The M1 tank was already in use in Europe when I was in the army, but the units I supported all had M60A3 tanks, and stateside they still had the old M60A1 tanks, without laser rangefinders and tank thermal sight (TTS). They had optical rangefinders, and visible/IR spotlights mounted on them to see at night. One of my roommates in Germany worked on the laser/TTS, I worked on both machine guns, and my other 2 roommates worked on everything else inside the tank turret. AFAIK there was never an egress kit to put stocks or optics on the M240 used in M60 series tanks, probably because the M240B with a stock, etc. wasn't adopted yet. The M1 tanks then had the same M68 105mm gun as the M60 tanks. It was a licensed version of the British L7 with a different breech IIRC. If you look up M68 Wikipedia will tell you all about it.
Another job that people in Armament Section had was Fire Control Instrument Repair. There were a few of them, and they work on all kinds of fussy stuff, like night vision goggles, and anything that helped to orient a person or plot a trajectory. One guy said he wanted to be a fireman when ho signed up, but ended up in Fire Control instead. He was goofy enough I almost believed him. There were a few Small Arms Repairmen, 2 Laser/TTS Repairmen including the guy I know in Bay City, and a bunch of Tank Turret repairmen. We didn't have any Artillery Repairmen because there wasn't any artillery on post.
Ohio Ordnance Works make a semi-auto version of the M240 called M240-SLR, if you're into belt-fed semi-autos. It's only $15,135.85. That would make a nice addition to a collection for anyone who already has the Ohio Ordnance Works semi-auto M2 .50BMG and semi-auto BAR. The M240 I'm used to has a stubby pistol grip you can't even hang onto with one finger, but you should never need to hang onto it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M240_machine_gun
https://www.oowinc.com/exclusives/semi-auto/m240-slr/
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I just saw this Ohio Ordnance Works, Inc 240P-SLR Conversion Kit for sale at Detroit Ammo Co. for $2784.99. It's compatible with M240 Bravo, and includes an M4-style collapsible stock, removable lightweight bipod and a foregrip, due to the new bottom Picatinny rail.
https://detroitammoco.com/product/oow-m240p-conversion-kit-for-slr
I'm working on the next weapon post, but first I have to make an image in Paint to explain something.
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One guy said he wanted to be a fireman when ho signed up, but ended up in Fire Control instead.
I had made it clear I wanted to work on planes and when I got my orders in boot that I was going to be Fire Control I must have show the most horrible and shocked face as the TI lost it laughing. I was majorly relieved when he finally informed me that Fire Control had to do with ready-aim-fire, not with things burning. It comes from the Navy where they were controlling the firing of guns on a ship moving in three axis.
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When I took the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery), the guy at AFEES (Armed Forces Entry and Examination Station) Detroit who looked at my scores in all (10?) categories looked up at me and asked what I wanted to do in the army. I told him I wanted to be a gunsmith. He said they don't have gunsmiths in the army, they have have small arms repairmen. So I signed up for 4 years with my MOS guaranteed as 45B, small arms repairman. If you don't care what MOS you get, like cannon fodder, you could get your duty station guaranteed instead. But I wanted my JOB guaranteed, so I rolled the dice and took my chances on where. On my "dream sheet" I put down that I wanted to be stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, the home of the 4th Infantry Division and other smaller units, stateside. And for my overseas choice (anywhere outside CONUS, including Alaska and Hawaii) I picked Alaska. And instead of Colorado and Alaska, I got sent to Louisiana and Germany. Two strikes and I was ready to walk. ;)
I bet I wouldn't have felt sick from the heat and complained about the humidity every day if I was in Alaska. And I wouldn't have to put up with scorpions, black widow, brown recluse, and a couple other poisonous spiders, and all 4 types of venomous snakes in the U.S. crawling around, either. I think I mentioned before that Louisiana is one of only a few states that has rattlesnakes, cottonmouths (water moccasins), copperheads, and coral snakes (American cobras). That's 3 pit vipers with vasculotoxic venom that causes vascular endothelial damage and hemolysis, the rupturing of red blood cells, and 1 snake with a a potent neurotoxin that causes slurred speech, double vision, and muscular paralysis eventually leading to respiratory failure and death. When I die, I know I'm going to heaven because I already went to hell in 1980 and left there at the end of 1981.
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Okay, after sleeping with a splint on my right wrist, my carpal tunnel syndrome has calmed down enough for me to post this.
I was trained on, but never actually saw M73/M73A1/M219 machine guns after I left Aberdeen Proving Ground. I remember the stupid thing biting my finger. It was the only weapon I didn't troubleshoot and repair on my first attempt. I had to try again, then got it. I may have mentioned before, this thing I never worked on after that ruined my perfect record in Advanced Individual training (AIT). A'ight. The M73/219 in all its variation was considered a POS by nearly everyone, like a KelTec Craptastic Jamomatic. ;D One of my Platoon Leaders in Germany, a Chief Warrant Officer CW4 (or CW3, I can't remember which) said they had them in Vietnam and he liked it. And some people like the KelTec PMR30. ;)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M73_machine_gun
Wikipedia says, "The M73 suffered from numerous malfunctions and was prone to jamming. An improved M73E1 was eventually developed in 1970 with a simplified ejection system, being type classified as the Machine Gun, 7.62-MM, M73A1. In 1972, it was decided that this weapon was sufficiently different from its predecessor and was redesignated Machine Gun, 7.62-MM, M219. These weapons were eventually replaced by the M60E2 and M240 machine gun, and vehicles still in service using the M73 series were refitted with these weapons." But my sometimes questionable memory tells me the M219 was yet another improvement over the M73A1. Either way, it was the 3rd version, and they multiplied 73 x 3 to come up with 219, thus version 3 of the M73 became the M219. Do the math, I'm not kidding.
Here are the M60E2 machine gun, intended for co-axial use, with a really long gas tube extension. That was one of the options to replace the M219, before they were both replaced by the M240. And there was also an M60B, used in helicopters in the 1960s and 1970s, unmounted. And an M60C, used in fixed mounts in aircraft in the 1960s and 1970s, electrically fired and hydraulically charged. And there were other potential options to replace the M73 and M219. Here are weapons evaluated in 1974 for M73/M219 replacement.
"The M73 and M219 are 7.62 mm NATO caliber machine guns designed for tank use. It is no longer in use by NATO countries. They were used on the M48 Patton and M60 Patton MBT series (including the M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle), as well as the MBT-70 prototype vehicles, and on the M551 Sheridan Armored Reconnaissance / Airborne Assault Vehicle (AR/AAV). They were also used in a twin mount in the turret of the V-100 Commando (M706) light armored car during the Vietnam War.
Designed primarily as a coaxial machine gun by the Rock Island Arsenal and produced by General Electric, the M73 was developed as a replacement for the M1919A4E1, M1919A5, and M37 machine guns that continued to serve in the immediate post-World War II environment.
The Machine Gun, 7.62-MM, M73 was officially adopted in 1959. It is an air-cooled, recoil-operated machine gun, but also using cartridge gases to boost recoil. Though designed as a simplified alternative to the M1919 series, it is of almost identical weight. The weapon is fitted with a quick-change barrel, pull-chain charging assembly, and can be made to feed from the left or the right hand side (though the left-hand feed is more common).
An attempt to make the M73 useful as a flexible infantry gun saw the weapon fitted with sights and a pistol grip trigger as the Machine Gun, 7.62-MM, M73C. Equally unpopular, very few of these weapons were produced. Sources claim that it saw limited use in Vietnam."
Variants included:
M73 - Adopted in 1959.
M73C - Flexible infantry variant with sights and pistol grip. Concept development. Never entered service. Used a special tripod, the XM132. It was a standard M2 mount for the .30 cal. Browning M1919A4 with an adapter to fit the M73C.
M73A1/M219 - Developed in 1970 as an improved version with simplified ejection mechanism attempting to reduce chronic jamming. Redesignated in 1972 as the M219
Here it is compared to the M37, The Ultimate Improved Browning 1919. It's WAY shorter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlOIpRZTi5I
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The M73/M219 was mounted in tanks by its barrel bearing, rather than its receiver like any normal machine gun. That made barrel changes a lot easier, and the guns were also very easy to switch between left-hand and right-hand feed. What really made the M73 such a turd was its complicated cycle of operation. First of all this thing had a rammer, unlike a normal gun, and secondly it had complicated levers in it. When the empty case was extracted, it was swung backward and down 180 degrees, like the illustration I made. Then the backward case hit the ejector on the bottom of the gun. If you're wondering WTF?, join the crowd.
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The M73 was improved by completely eliminating 1 of the levers, and adding an ejector to the bottom of the feed tray, so the case extracted and was knocked out the bottom of the receiver.
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Not many guns have there operation improved by s**t-canning half of the working parts, but the M73 was no ordinary gun. It was a product of a U.S. government arsenal.
You know what twice as bad as an M73? TWO M73s!
Numb-nuts Gun Parts has several parts available for these pieces of crap, in case anyone actually bought one.
https://www.gunpartscorp.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=m73
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Now, if anyone asks you what looks like a small bread box with a barrel, and shoots belts of 7.62mm ammo, SOMETIMES, you know the answer. :)
And if you're asking, "What's a breadbox?", ask an old person. ;D
And if you ever have the displeasure of shooting one of these works of fart, get used to the word STOPPAGES!
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The M60 machine gun had these variants:
T161: The M60's developmental designation before it was type-classified in the 1950s.
M60: The basic model, type-classified in 1957.
M60E1: An improved variant that did not enter production. The primary difference was the handle fixed to the barrel and the removal of the gas cylinder and bipod from the barrel assembly.
M60E2: Used in vehicles as a coaxial machine gun; electrically fired.
M60B: Used in helicopters in the 1960s and 1970s; unmounted.
M60C: Used in fixed mounts in aircraft in the 1960s and 1970s; electrically fired and hydraulically charged.
M60D: Replaced the M60B; a pintle-mounted variant used especially in armament subsystem for helicopters, but also some other roles.
M60E3: An updated, lightweight variant adopted in the 1980s.
M60E4 (Mk 43 Mod 0/1): An improved variant of the 1990s that looks similar to the M60E3, but has many improvements. It has subvariants of its own and is also used by the U.S. Navy (as the Mk 43 Mod 0/1). The Mk 43 Mod 1 is a specialized variant with additions such as extra rails for mounting accessories.
M60E6: A lightened and improved variant of the M60E4.
The M60E6 machine gun was adopted by the Danish Army, designated as the LMG M/60 with C79 LMG Optic. The shoulder thing that goes up (not a barrel shroud) ;D is shaped different than what many of us are used to seeing on M60s. Although I never even saw most of those variants, I did work on the original M60, and the M60D which had Ma Deuce-style spade grips on the rear. Those were used on helicopters, including 2 at the shoulder windows of the CH-47 Chinook (S**thook), as well as 1 on the rear ramp which was fired from a prone position, or sitting with your legs danging out the back. With a weight of 23 pounds, compared to the M16A1 at 6.37 pounds unloaded, without magazine and sling, no one I knew ever wanted to be issued the M60. It was like carrying 3+ rifles all at the same time. The M16A1, BTW, weighed an ounce less that the M4 carbine with it's 5.5" shorter barrel and lightweight, collapsible stock, 6.43 lb empty, 7.75 lb with 30 rounds loaded magazine and sling.
The M60D shown is an old model with the stamped steel, "skeletonized" bipod base, which was soon replaced with the more robust casting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M60_machine_gun
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In Germany, we had a guy in our company I only saw a few times. he was on a contact team attached to an infantry company in Crailsheim, while the rest of us were based in Illesheim 60km NE of him. I think it was another company of 1/6 Infantry, which I also supported, and was called First in the Sheep, instead of 1st in 6th, after the news we heard one day out in the field. One guy in the 1/6 Infantry had a sheep that was his girlfriend, and he didn't want her fooling around with anyone else, so he locked her up in his wall locker. Eventually someone wondered what the horrible stench was coming from his room, and when they cut the lock off his locker they found out. :o :o :o Our battalion HQ was 30 clicks SE of us in Ansbach, and 50k ESE of Crailsheim. The 3 places formed a big triangle, and other companies in my battalion were spread out in a few other places, too. Stateside they crammed everyone together as close as possible, and in Germany we were spread out like peanut butter on a cracker.
Before I left Germany, "Little Davy D." at Crailsheim had a bunch of M60s that had chips on the bolt lugs and locking recesses. Apparently the unit armorer(s) never noticed and didn't bring them n for repair. When he found out how bad they were, and how many of them were bad, we had to check every one of them in our company and all the companies we supported. There were also problems with the operating rods on some of them, like the roller cracking and falling off, which also gouged out a groove on the op rod.
So I ended up replacing a lot of M60 Barrel Assemblies, Bolt Assemblies, and Op Rod Assemblies. IIRC the NSN (National Stock Number) for the 3 parts were as follows:
1005-00-608-5001 - Barrel Assy.
1005-00-608-5002 - Bolt Assy.
1005-00-608-5003 - Op Rod Assy.
They were 3 consecutively numbered parts, which I don't recall seeing anywhere else, but I usually didn't have to order 3 related parts at a time, and only 3 parts. The 1005 in the NSN identifies the Federal Supply Classification Group, denoting weapons (from 1 mm through 30 mm. The 00 or a 01 is the National Codification Bureau code for he United States of America. The last 7 digits are the Item Number, and 608 just happened to be 3 digits for the M60 parts I ordered so many of, which made that easy to remember. And the rest was as simple as 1, 2, 3, almost. If anyone wants to look up an M60 TM 23&P to check the accuracy of the numbers I listed, they're online. I personally haven't looked them up in 40 years, and I could be wrong. Also, a lot of numbers could have been changed due to updated parts, and everything switching to NATO Stock Numbers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_Stock_Number
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crailsheim
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illesheim
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansbach
We had a lot of M60s that were falling apart because the rivets in the middle (yellow arrow) were loose. They were all turned in to Depot for rebuild, and supposed to have new, improved rivets so they didn't fall apart again. These guns had a lot of use from the 1950s - 1980s, and some had loose rivets on the small piece at the back of the receiver (red arrow) too. Despite all the problems, I still like the M60. I just wouldn't want to carry one.
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And of course, I worked on the M16A1 rifle, but no other variants of it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M16_rifle
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I worked on the Smith & Wesson Model 10 six-shot, .38 Special, double-action revolver with fixed sights. The Smith & Wesson Model 10 was previously known as the Smith & Wesson Military & Police revolver. During my training at Aberdeen one of the instructors passed one around that had its side-plate removed so everyone could see how it worked when you squeezed the trigger, or cocked it and dropped the hammer. That was the extent of my training on it. IIRC that was a marine Gunnery sergeant (E-7, equal to an army Sergeant first class) we all called Gunny. I can't recall his name, but he also brought in an M24 sniper rifle for us to see one day. The army was still using M21s at that time. The marine corp was too small to have its own school so they trained with us at APG in Maryland, at the The US Army Ordnance and Chemical Center and School, USAOCC&S.
Helicopter crews were issued .38s and I only remember having one come in for repair when I was in Germany. The front sight was bent (or broken), so the barrel needed to be replaced. The whole time I was in the army, that was the only weapon out of thousands I worked on that I remember not being able to fix that didn't go to depot, Level 5 maintenance for complete rebuild or replacement. I was Level 3, direct support, and after I inspected it, that one had to go to Level 4, general support. That was a different company in my battalion that had the proper tools. Level 1 maintenance is crew/operator, and Level 2 is unit maintenance by armorers, who were usually supply clerks with some training on weapons. I can't remember if the .38 that came in was a 2" snub-nose, or a regular 4" barrel version. The army had both of them. I think pilots had snubbies in a flight-suit pocket, and crew chiefs carried the 4" in a holster, which was probably what came in that day. Other aircrew members may have been issued M1911As, but I don't know. I just know that some of the guys carried .38s. I supported Infantry, Armor, and Artillery at Fort Polk, half Infantry, and no Aviation. I never saw a revolver in use there. I supported Armor, Infantry, and Aviation in Germany, mostly Armor, and no Artillery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberdeen_Proving_Ground
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_%26_Wesson_Model_10
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M24_Sniper_Weapon_System
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M21_Sniper_Weapon_System
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A couple more things I worked on were the M29 81mm (3.2 inch) mortar and M30 4.2 inch (107mm) AKA the Four-deuce. The M29 was replaced by another 81mm in 1987, and the four-deuce was replaced by a 120mm mortar in 1991. The M29 weighed 52 pounds, was easily portable, and usually serviced by a crew of five. I think 2 of them were only carrying ammo. The M30 is a whole different story. It weighed 672 pounds!!! Due to this heavy weight, the mortar was most often mounted in a tracked mortar carrier of the M113 family, designated as the M106 mortar carrier. This vehicle mounted mortar was crewed by five people: the track commander (mortar sergeant/gun commander), gunner, assistant gunner, ammunition bearer and vehicle driver. Ground mounting of the mortar was time consuming and strenuous as a hole had to be dug for the base plate of the mortar to rest in, sandbags had to filled and placed around the base plate to stabilize it and to protect the exposed ammunition. Also, this decreased the accuracy of the weapon as the recoil from firing caused the base plate to shift in the ground. This movement also made the crew have to "lay" the gun back on the aiming stakes more often, causing a temporary lack of fire while the weapon was re-positioned and re-sighted back to its original reference point. I can't remember if the man-carried M30 had a crew of 9 or 13 or what, but it took a lot of people to carry different parts of it. At least 1 man to carry the standard, and maybe the sight in a box, 1 to carry the rotor, 2 to carry the baseplate, 2 to carry the bridge, and 2 to carry the cannon tube. And anyone who wasn't carrying parts of the mortar carried as much ammo as they could. The shells weighed 25 pounds apiece give or take a few pounds, depending on what kind they were. There was an M125 mortar carrier similar to M106, but with the 81 mm M29 mortar.
The M29 shells have fins like rockets and the charges are like packets of gunpowder clipped onto the rear. You clip on however many it takes to do the job. M30 shells are like bullets with square sheets of propellant stuck on the stem at the rear. You add or remove squares to adjust the range by 50 yards per square. The cannon (also referred to as the barrel) is a rifled tube 60 inches long with an inside diameter of 106.7 mm (4.2 inches) between lands. This rifling consists of 24 lands and 24 grooves of which the first 9 inches), as measured from the base inside the barrel, are straight. The twist increases to the right from zero at this point to one turn in 84 inches. It's the only thing I worked on, and maybe even saw, with gain twist rifling. The rounds have an expandable ring at the base, which expands into the rifling under the pressure of the firing charge. The M29 had its rifling on the outside of the tube. ;) The whole outside of it was threaded, except the last few inches at the bottom. It was a smoothbore since they were fin-stabilized projectiles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M29_mortar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M30_mortar#
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M106_mortar_carrier#
Here's a video of the ROK army shooting 60mm, 81mm, and 4.2" mortars. I didn't have anything to do with 60mm mortars but have seen different ways they were deployed. Including using your helmet as a baseplate, holding the mortar one-handed and firing it all by yourself. No bipod or anything, just Kentucky windage, and elevation. ;D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4oTWiORasM
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The mortar carriers didn't use all the same parts as the ground-mountings, which means there was more to work on. But it was usually M29 T&E mechs, and the same thing on M30 standards, but alsoother parts of the standard, and repacking the shocks, among other things. Plus the usual borescope and pullover gauge on both. Whether you were gauging a mortar, tank, or howitzer, you had to do the same thing with a clean cannon. Assemble the head of the gauge to the handles that are marked like rulers so you can check at certain depths, slide the moveable part out of the head until it was wider than the bore diameter, literally pull one handle over, hence the name, pull the gauge out and measure it with a verier caliper. There are also stops that clamp onto the handle to make sure you're at the right depth. We never had digital calipers or dial calipers, and if you never used a vernier caliper before it takes a little getting used to. Especially if you never used any kind of calipers before.
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M106 mortar carrier with four-deuce in action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KOvMK1JJu8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qutid8jBBp0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0En-nqXal4
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When I was outside working on my ATV I heard someone's mower suddenly stop like it hit an immovable object. I thought to myself, I recognize that sound. I'm familiar with stoppages. As as soon stoppages entered my mind, I thought about the M73/M219 machine guns and realized I never did finish this thread. It's weird how my mind works sometimes, but at least I finally remembered and will try to get around to posting more this weekend.