Restored P-51D Mustang with Real Browning M2 .50cal Machine Guns

thefirearmblog.com ^ | 10/21/2014 | Ray I

[rktman]

Ever since I was a kid I’ve been fascinated with WWII warbirds, my favorite being the P-51 Mustang. The North American P-51 Mustangs were armed with six .50 caliber M2 Browning machine guns, a good amount of firepower for the day. If you’ve been to airshows around the US I’m sure you’ve seen a P-51 at least once, but there’s something different about Ron Fagen’s P-51 Mustang named Twilight Tear. His actually has six functioning M2 Browning machine guns, kind of, read on.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

Need to send a few to the Kurds fighting ISIS. They could put them to good use.

[Dead Corpse]

The M2 is still a formidable weapon and slightly updated versions are still in use today.

An M-16 will make you run for cover.
An M60 will make you wish you had thicker cover.
An M2 says screw you AND your cover...

[Lurker]

I’d love to see an operations P-38 myself. Always loved that plane.

[98ZJ USMC]

I'm an F4U man myself, but the -51 is a beauty. One counselor I had in college (early-mid 80s) was a -47 driver. He had Thunderbolt artwork on the walls, a stained glass P-47 ornament, etc, etc. Not knowing this, of course, when I walked in there, I gawked at all of his memorabilia. Noticing, my rubbernecking, he announced: "Oh, I was Jug driver."

I have absolutely no recollection of what the hell I went to see him for. He regaled me in some stories and we talked warbirds for about an hour and a half.

[2001convSVT]

A flight of P-51Ds would make mincemeat out of the ISIS fighters but I would prefer to send a couple spookies.

[wrench]

ISIS has manpads. It would be a waste to lose a bunch of stangs to those.

[Big Red Badger]

Good on Ya Mate!

[saleman]

We actually have a couple that fly into and out of our small airport. They flew on Sundays(my golf day) and it was pretty cool to see them flying around.

It is my understanding that most of the owners of Mustangs have at least 1 spare engine available. Or 2 or 3. It’s a rich mans game.

[Svartalfiar]

The M2 is still a formidable weapon and slightly updated versions are still in use today.

Actually, the M2 we use today only recently had an update requiring the first actual designator change in the weapon's history. (It's now the M2A1.) Every update since it was first introduced has been extremely minor modifications.

Main new stuff:
* Barrels are redone so instead of having to thread them/unthread a bit, it's a simple push and twist, similar to a BNC connector on a cable. We love it.
* Headspace/timing is gone. Now you have HS/T set by the armorer, so barrels are matched to a weapon. If your M2 doesn't fire right, you can't really fix it. Gotta send it in. If you accidentally throw all the barrels from a couple M2s in a pile cause you're an idiot from HHT, you no longer know which ones are matched to which M2, and have to send em in for HS/T. Impractical when you go to the range. Hopefully most deployed units are able to keep their stuff better matched, but you still have fewer field-expedient options no matter what. Great idea, until it doesn't work.