To: Rockpile
As far as the M 85s go, they seemed to have a lot of feed trouble. The M2s in the M48s seemed to be more reliable from what I recall. Also, the M85 sights in our turrets seemed to mess up a lot; maybe they weren't saltwater proofed enough. The setup for the M85 MG in the commander's cupola of an M48A5 or M60 tank was pretty miserable; when we could, we'd sctrounge an M2 off a headquarters compant track or truck, and mount that externally to the *Chrysler gun mount* welded to the outside of the turret. Even an M60 with a 300-round belt was an improvement over the M2HB TTin the cupola, which had only 50 rounds in the spool provided for it, and the cable-operated charging handle of which frequently frayed until it broke through at the worst possible time. Neither could the M85 quick-change barrel be swapped out when cupola mounted, though an experimental setup to use an M85 as a coax was tested for the M48, and that could be changed inside under armor. The 3000-round amnmo belt for it was a considerable improvement as well.
49 posted on
01/31/2004 6:17:06 PM PST by
archy
(Angiloj! Mia kusenveturilo estas plena da angiloj!)
To: archy
It's 25mm too ?
53 posted on
01/31/2004 6:31:39 PM PST by
serurier
(We come here for the freedom of the world)
To: archy
I wasn't a crewman myself but got to shoot the M85 from the P7 amtrac---pause for pleasant recollection of 50 cal shootin' memory, aahhhh--- anyway I never knew that the ammo was different. Do you know WHAT about M85 rounds varied from M2s?
54 posted on
01/31/2004 6:40:58 PM PST by
Rockpile
To: archy; Rockpile
. . . the cable-operated charging handle of which frequently frayed until it broke through at the worst possible time . . And when it broke, what did your elbow hit? Nothing like catching a radio knob in the funny bone at 0200 on a frosty November morning.
65 posted on
01/31/2004 7:58:30 PM PST by
Cannoneer No. 4
(The road to Glory cannot be followed with too much baggage.)
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