Hey,

Did they test the MG-3/Mg-42 too?

If I recall it had/has a high rate of fire, (ergo: potentially high consumption of ammo) but was much loved by it's users of WWII era.

Perhaps they had lighter fingers on the trigger?

Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, has conducted multiple tests throughout the years on various MGs for their use with the US Army. Questions of this sort should be directed to Dr. Atwater of the US Army Ordnance Museum. I know for a fact that by the time the M240G was adopted that the M240C (COAX) was already in use on our armored vehicles. The early M240s that the US Army had went to special units like the Green Berets (who already trained on the GPMG) and more in particular the US Ranger Battalions.

I had the privlage to fight against the rangers as OPFOR in about 1997 when they first brought the GPMG to the fight. And I'll admit that they did have ammunition problems with sustained fire. If I remember right the 240 gunners had about 100 rounds left after the engagement after going in with over 2000/ weapon.

Alot of the initial issues that the US Army had with the M240 such as the burning hands on the barrel and the gunk in the first belt. The burning hands was solved by the handgard over the barrel (much like the M249) and I have seen 100 rnd bags/ boxes for the initial engagement ammo being carried by the gunners (we actually had the same problem with the M60 and came up with some solutions through trial and error, mostly by Joe Snuffy in the field).

For the rate of fire question, yes the GPMG does have a high rate of fire. But I'm not to hot on going back to a Box ammo fed MG (although the russians have a very effective RPK). I don't like the idea to be changing 30 rd mags when I'm laying down suppressive fire (I like laying alot of lead on the area, but I'm an American, what did you expect?). I just like to continuously link belts together. (to each his own, this is preference). What the US has done with the M249 SAW, (and I don't really know if we did it with the M240 or not) is be able to select a higher or lower rate of fire. 1000 rpm to 750 rpm. But this includes adjusting the gas tube regulator.

Enjoying the debates, maybe we can bring up other systems. .30 cal? .50 cal? M249? M203 (and why hasn't the UK adapted it) MK 19? By the way, I do like the Bren, it served well, just don't think the 30rd box is the best for today.

Off the top of my head, the MG42 has a cyclic rate of fire in the 1200 rpm - a lot of ammo for the infantry to carry!
.50, good point, after the Falklands War it gets reintroduced because the GPMG even with a 7.62mm catridge didn't have enough power in SF mode.
M203 - widely used by SAS / SBS but here, we are going into the whole SA80 debate........It does seem strange that we don't just junk it & go & buy M16 (which works) or if we have to buy British (what about all of the FN kit?), H&K make guns that work...ooooooooooo I can see the post already !!!
Cheers

When i first saw the SA80 I liked it for it's size and teh 4x scope. Used to trade our cleaning kits with the brits because we have the hard 5.56 rod that worked better than theirs. I was a little leary on doing fast reloads with a rear mounted magazine. I have seen that the British Army has adapted the 5.56 M249 Variant as a squad automatic weapon to replace the long barreled SA80 (which I think was a waste anyway) I like the new German HK G36. But there is a 5.56mm G3 variant out there that I understand is very good as well. It also looks like that the US may adopt the HK XM8 as our next rifle.

I used to carry the M203 as a LT because not only did I have HE I could also fire flares, smoke, and CS gas. Nothing like a mini mortar team in your platoon.

..problem is though, if you are the mortar section, you have noone to blame if your rounds are off target !

Ah my old friend the Jimpy. I regret the withdrawal from COP of the LMG in favour of the GPMG but South Armagh called for heavier fire! After I left some of the PVCPs were fitted with 50 cal M2. We had the option in ARB of using the M203 but after a month most nco's let others carry it as the weight versus the chance to use it for real didnt balance out! I remember my last week in Cloghue Mountain with a GPMG and 5000 rds of 1 AP to 1 tracer. If only they'd taken us on it would have been fun. I used to keep my 50 rounds teaser or warmer belt clean by using the rattling drum box that no one else seemed to like or by adapting a waterbottle pouch for the purpose. No getting picked up by the RSM in COP!

Slightly OT, but I always wondered why they didn't make a 'carbine' version (in 5.56 or even commie 7.62mm short) of the squaddie-proof and relible L1A1 instead of wasting mega-bucks on a piece of junk that became the SA80.....

MAG or Jimpy basic design goes back to before the MG42. The action is essentially that of the WW 1 era M1918 BAR. Sort of flipped over to feed from the top and the box mag of the BAR replaced with essentially the belt feed mechanism of the MG42. FN had license built versions of the BAR so they were familiar with the action.

Mr Jarman,

The cunning Belgies did just that, scaling down the SLR and the MAG to make the FNC and MINIMI.

Unfortunately HMG got it into their heads that only a weapon designed and manufactured by a British company would do. Alas we've been out of the gun design business for quite a few years; hence the SA80 saga.

I dunno if the 5.56 FNC would have been the best choice of rifle, but whatever foreign design might have been chosen, British jobs etc could have been maintained simply by licenced manufacture. Like we had with the SLR and MAG.

By all accounts the British Army ended up buying the MINIMI anyway since the SA80 "heavy" version apparently doesn't lay down enough fire to make the squaddies happy.

Defence procurement - about the only thing it doesn't do is give the troops what they need.

Nice pics!! Better to have that one mounted up on the top-wing of an S.E.5a instead of a Lewis I suppose.

Excellent weapon!I still wouldn't want anything else covering me during a contact!(Except maybe an airstrike,but as we know we're talking fact not fantasy,every time I called for one it was never available!)Anyway the GPMGs a good gun,the mini-mi(Not the midget from Austen Powers)which is now being isued to the British Army is also a good gun but not a replacement of the gimpy because of its smaller caliber.

I was a section leader for 8 years during the Rhodesian bush war and nominated myself as the 2IC for the MAG, an absolutly brilliant weapon when you needed it in a fire fight and a pain in the backside when you did'nt. Being 2IC meant that the gunner was always close to me and I carried most of the spare belts, 50 round only, not joined. When the you know what hit the fan it was easy to control the gunner and his field/depth/rate of fire.Distribution of rounds was 5 ball 1 tracer. A great weapon and one of the reasons I am still around to this day.

GPMG is sold reliable and damn heavy, one of the best things about it is, everyone in the section cleans a part of it! (so I made sure I always grabbed the butt! lol) its cyclic rate, and the way it sprays the rounds down is good for keeping heads down, after all it is an area weapon and thats what its for, but I found it lacking in anbush, I think the germans got that bit right in WWII, the clever bastards realised that as soon as you start letting rip in an ambush the 1st thing the enemy does is go to ground, the mg34 & 42 were designed with this in mind, this is why they have such a high cyclic rate of fire, the idea being the nail as many dudes as possible before they get a chance to dive for cover!

as far as ammo consumption goes, I'll say this, its up to the firer to control that, sure some guns fire faster than others, but the bottom line is the guy with the finger on the trigger, after all winning the firefight is all about putting more rounds down than the enemy right?
as much as I have used the gimpy if i had a choice of gpmg's it would have to be the HK 21E, only 2/3's the weight, and can double as a sniper rifle, can pull a 7ft belt vertically, and can outshoot any other gpmg in the world, sorry guys gimpy is good, but the hk21e is far better

Chaps anyone got a picture of the G.P.M.G stripped for daily cleaning a bit strange.

Accordin 2 my point of view 'GPMG' has changed our way of handling ammo coz there is no u can stop it once u start the trigger.