[copeab]

There was a recent episode of Lock And Load with R. Lee Ermey where he fired off a bunch of machine guns. A a couple of relevant observations.

1) He fired off 100 continuous rounds from a water-cooled and an air-cooled MG (but US WWII models, .30-cal). The water-cooled barrel went up 10-15 degrees F; the air-cooled barrel went up over 100 F. He showed the proper way to use the air-cooled MG -- tap of a short burst (3-4 rounds), then wait a second, then repeat the cycle. The barrel still got hotter than the water-cooled, but much less than it had under continuous fire.

2) He also fired a Bren and BAR. He considered the BAR more accurate (of it's two automatic settings, one is 2/3 the Bren, so it can be controlled better) but found he still had to change magazines more often (20 rnd for the BAR).