In Defense of the Red Army

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by Tackleberry

It fired full auto until the magazine ran out, 1 shot hit not much.

The safety catch on the SLR could be "adapted" by removing the bent of metal that was put there to stop the selector switching to the full auto setting. Or at a push the FAL catch could fit, but why would anyone want to do it, unless firing blanks, is the question. The SLR barrel was not as heavy as the FN barrel, so it wouldn't take too many 20 round bursts, before accuracy would suffer. Plus the gas system would foul very quickly.

There is a reason for the GPMG being in service, almost the personal weapon of the Paras in the Falklands. In my opinion, the best General purpose 7.62x51mm machine gun.................................In the world.

There was a particular trick to it, if you placed the match in just the right spot, you could get it to fire only when you pulled the trigger. Otherwise it would work just as you said - full auto until you got to 'empty'.
Having said that though, I completely agree with you, automatic fire from a 7.62mmN rifle is not particularly good for anything except making noise and hitting passing birds.
As for the MAG58 being the best 7.62x51mm GPMG in the world, when you have countries even now converting from their own designs to the MAG* which is a design now 50 years old - then those Belgians must have done something right!


*On 10 December 2010 The French Direction Général de l'Armament (DGA) announced that after an international competition it had selected the MAG 58 to replace its aging fleet of AAT Mle F1 7.62 mm general purpose machine guns. Although primarily intended for use mounted on vehicles in service with the French army, kits to convert the vehicle mounted guns into guns for use in the dismounted role would also be supplied. In excess of 10,000 guns are to be supplied over the next few years with an initial order for 500 guns due for delivery in 2011
Snippet taken from here