Some thread necromancy
 

How to deal with Machine guns and fire modes?
Here is a list for the MGs mentioned in the "Infantry Weapons of the World" of Ver.2. I've tried to figure out, what the weapons abilities are IRL:

BAR: special
The BAR has been produced in several countries and in several versions. Some of them were "full auto only", others had been made "selective".

AAT-52: ?
Bren L2A4: selective
RPK: selective

M249 SAW: full auto only
Colt M1895/1914: ?
DP: ?

DShK: full auto only
FMM 24/29: selective
HK-21: selective

KPV: ?
L86A1 LSW: selective
Lewis Mk I: full auto only

M214 6-Pac: full auto only
M2HB: selective
M60: full auto only

M134 Minigun: full auto only
Browning M1919A4: full auto only
MAG-58/GPMG: full auto only

MG-3: full auto only
MG-08: full auto only
MG-34: selective

MG-42: full auto only
PK(M) : full auto only
RPD: full auto only

Bren Mk II: selective
Browning M1917A1: full auto only
SG-43: ?

Stoner LMG: ?
Stoner M207: ?
Steyr AUG LMG: selective
From all that I've read, there is no selector, to switch from "single shot" to "full auto". You just pull the trigger. If you pull it slightly, you've got a single shot, if you pull it harder, you automatically get "full auto".

Vickers Mk I: ?
Vz-59 : full auto only


The "?" in the listing means: I don't know and had no info on the subject.

House rules (For Ver 2.2):
I let the players decide, if they want to use "Small Arms: Rifle" or "Autogun", when firing a light or medium MG.
Heavy MGs have to be fired using "Autogun".
If someone uses "Autogun" with a MG, whose RoF is "5", the character may fire single shots.
I don't allow to switch from "Single Shot" to "Burst" during an action.
Two exceptions: If a machine gunner with a MG (RoF: 5) uses "Autogun", he may fire his shots as he likes, combining "Single Shot" and "Burst" freely.
The Steyr AUG LMG may combine "Single Shot" and "Burst" as the shooter likes, because of the unique action of the weapon.

I hope, this listing will be useful for some of you. If someone has info on the weapons with uncertain info, please let me know. I'd like to complete this listing!

www.ludd.ltu.se/~antenna/

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Antenna

One of the classics, I've used against fellow reservists who have NVG (not very common in the reserve units), is to light up a IR chemlight in some bush a bit further away and then disappear from that location. Shows up pretty well through the NVG, but when you look with the naked eye, nothing. A rather useful distraction...:D

According to my father (who I must stress is not a military expert of any kind) to make the Bren gun spray the rounds in a burst and not just put them all through the same hole the designers had to loosen the fixing where the bipod attaches to the gun to make it move around a little, essentially making the Bren gun rock slightly on its bipod.

I have no idea whether this story is true or not however.

I've heard a similar anecdote. I think your dad might've been on the money, or close to it.

I've heard the same from British family members with time in service.

PS: Ohio Ordanace Works has created a select fire triger group for the FN MAG M-240.

Is this device in service with US forces? And do you know, since when it was produced? Could it be encountered in 2000 (I use the ver2.2 timeline)?

I don't think it's in use by the US military.

I've seen them for the past year or so among magazines directed at the Civilian NFA community. This leads me to speculate that they are ment for either Per '86 registered FN MAGs or Post '86 LEO M240 machineguns.

I'm guessing LEO as they would be in the market for such a modification.

I used to question why LEO would need a machinegun( case in Point the El Paso TX PD owns at least 1 M249). Then I looked in on what they are faceing in some parts of the country.

While the story may be apocryphal, the Bren Gun was exceedingly accurate. The Stoner 63 LMG was also very accurate and needed to have this 'loosened up a little'.
My father was the gunner in an Infantry Section at the start of his Australian Army career and he carried the Bren Gun until it was replaced by the M60. He was quite proud of the fact that he could put all rounds through a door or window with the Bren.

He stated that he and some of the other gunners disliked the M60 because it sprayed the rounds "all over the place". They latter came to accept that the idea of the machinegun was to but as many rounds into an area as possible rather than put them all through the same hole.

The L7A2 GPMG (FN MAG/M240 to heathens from other nations) has sort of a selective rate of fire, in that unless you adjust the gas regulator to the correct position for that particular barrel on that particular gun (known as balancing), your rate of fire will be either too high or too low.

This is quite a good description of how and why we do this: http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/Balancing_the_GPMG

Also, the .50 cal HMGs we use (which have a quick change barrel) can still be set to semi-automatic. It has been suggested that this is to be used for ranging shots, but a burst does the job just as well.

Both the Finnish 7.62 KvKK 62 (the now mostly retired light machinegun in 7.62x39) and PKM are, in skilled hands, capable of squeezing off single rounds. The KvKK is the easier one, though it has a very high rate of fire on cyclic. The PKM requires even lighter squeeze for single shots, but it's still feasible.

I never used the 60 in combat, but used correctly, it makes a decent ad hoc sniper rifle, when used with MILES. It's a good way to wake up sleepy or less-then-alert National Guardsmen and ROTC Cadets, since a MILES laser beam doesn't have a drop in it like bullets, you can tap someone at 700 meters with the right optics.

Can just about do that with iron sights and a steady hand.

It's rather easy to tell when I'm on a M60 as I fire in strings of double taps. I'm so used to fireing in short bursts with a faster fireing weapon that I end up double tapping my target repeatedly. I have to acctually think about holding down the trigger.

It's beyond infuriating how unwilling to govern themselves so many soldiers are. It's not just the enlisted men, either. At the MI school, I'd go out as OPFOR when one of the classes of new MI lieutenants was in the field. The only time I failed to walk into the perimeter unchallenged was December '95 when the West Point graduates stayed up all night singing Christmas carols. In the field.

Can't say how many times during training I woke up for my shift more-or-less after it was supposed to start. No one had awakened me. No one was awake. It's a bad feeling when you know the unit has its pants down in the field.

The most serious incident of this sort happened in Iraq. One of our guys, whom we nicknamed the Narcoleptic Ranger, fell asleep behind the machine gun in a watch tower overlooking Checkpoint 12 in the Green Zone. How often this had happened in the past, I can't say. However, a staff sergeant working for the battalion staff sergeant major had been making the rounds to check on the sentries and discovered the Narcoleptic Ranger and his supervisor asleep. The Narcoleptic Ranger was asleep on his feet. He had the gall to express dissatisfaction with receiving an Article 15. I'd have put him in jail, and I actually liked the guy (he had been in my fire team when we started training). I also never would have gone down with him on the gun.

My first line duty NCO said to me that the Rangers were nothing more than what the infantry ought to be. I asked why every unit wasn't more like the Rangers, then. He told me that getting grown men to live up to their commitments and responsibilities is very, very difficult--even in an all-volunteer Army. The years since then have only served to prove him right.

An M2HB range is huge fun, if one doesn't take the poor trigger control of so many of the gunners seriously. At the risk of pointing out the obvious, the cyclic rate of the Ma Deuce is pretty low. You have to concentrate on what you're doing to keep the butterfly down for 6-9 rounds. As many as half of the guys are out there firing 1-round bursts. Try hitting man-sized targets at 800 meters with a 1-round burst from an M2HB. On the other hand, it's surprisingly easy to knock down a man-sized target at the same range or closer with a 6-9 round burst from a tripod-mounted gun. The burst lasts a ridiculously long time if you've recently fired the M249, but things do happen downrange. I'm sad to say that I have a special talent for machine gunning. When I was a junior enlisted man, a couple of battalion commanders wanted me to gun on their tracks. (I'd gladly trade that now-useless native talent for better child care instincts.)

Alas,I can't afford the $500 for a belt of ammo for a MaDuce. For that much money I would much rather Burn out the barrel on Buzzgunner's HK21E. Of course now that I've said that he probably won't let me shoot it unless I bring my own barrel.:D