Wonder how much a new barrel costs?
My dad used to tell me they had to whiz on their Browning machine gun barrels to keep it from melting—because the Chi-Coms, in Korea, just kept running down the hills (mostly unarmed—until the guy with the rifle dropped. Then it was the job of the unarmed guy to pick it up and keep running at you).
Wow, I bet he shot about a thousand dollars worth of ammo in a little less than a minute.
With the M16A2, you had a three-round burst. However, I preferred to keep it single-shot because I could actually get more rounds out that way.
Short, controlled bursts.
But that’s nowhere near as fun as this looked.
Darwin missed an opportunity. Given the pressure involved, heating a barrel until it enters a plastic state is not a very smart thing to do.
Expensive fun given the cost of ammo.
When Browning’s first machine gun was tested, the Navy had stated they wanted a machine gun capable of sweeping the decks of enemy ships for five minutes.
Browning prepared the gun himself. Enough linked ammo was ready for a five minute test. It was conducted in the Colt factory’s basement.
After five minutes of continuous firing, everyone was in shock. The noise was so intense that people thought it might have awakened the ghost of Samuel Colt.
This was before 1900.
Looks like he was shooting at an indoor gun range. So, hey! It’s a rental!
Ma Duces were glowing also during the Korean War at Inchon.
I hope that started as a shot-out barrel, because it sure ended as one.