Posted on 12/31/2004 3:00:06 AM PST by csvset
The Associated Press
MILFORD -- A fisherman found a heavy machine gun on the ice of a creek near Fort Riley, and Geary County sheriff's deputies later found two more.
The three Browning .50-caliber guns were all in working condition, Sheriff's Lt. Sandy Popovich said, but none was loaded.
Sheriff Jim Jensen said he didn't know how the guns got there, and the Army's Criminal Investigation Division is looking into the matter.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers owns the land, Jensen said, and soldiers from Fort Riley have used it for training. The guns were found in an area accessible to the public.
The guns were turned over to the Army.
Popovich said the fisherman found the first machine gun at about 9 a.m. Wednesday at Madison Creek, about two miles north of Milford.
He gave it to the Geary County Sheriff's Department, which searched the area and found a second gun under the ice and the third in the grass on the creek's bank.
Jeff Coverdale, a Fort Riley spokesman, said no missing weapons had been reported to his office.
Idiots giving orders was a real hazard back in the days of the draft. I wonder if stupidity like that still goes on?
Granted not all .50 calibre weapons are macine guns, the Browning M2 definately is. It has been in the US arsenal since before WWII.
Length: 61.42 inches (156 centimeters)
Weight:
Gun: 84 pounds (38 kilograms)
M3 Tripod (Complete): 44 pounds (19.98 kilograms)
Total: 128 pounds (58 kilograms)
Bore diameter: .50 inches (12.7mm)
Maximum effective range: 2000 meters with tripod mount
Maximum range: 4.22 miles (6.8 kilometers)
Cyclic rate of fire: 550 rounds per minute
Unit Replacement Cost: $14,002
Features: The Browning M2 .50 Caliber Machine Gun, Heavy barrel is an automatic, recoil operated, air-cooled machine gun with adjustable headspace and is crew transportable with limited amounts of ammunition over short distances. By repositioning some of the component parts, ammunition may be fed from either the left or right side. A disintegrating metallic link-belt is used to feed the ammunition into the weapon. This gun is has a back plate with spade grips, trigger, and bolt latch release. This gun may be mounted on ground mounts and most vehicles as an anti-personnel and anti-aircraft weapon. The gun is equipped with leaf-type rear sight, flash suppressor and a spare barrel assembly. Associated components are the M63 antiaircraft mount and the M3 tripod mount.
bump
The red outling on the white bars was used only from the end of June 1943 to the middle of September 1943. After that the outline was in blue so I would agree that it would probably be 1944.
Well sheeet fur ! Lookie what fell off the back of a truck !!
Note to thief ....improve on cache skills dumbass......
Imagne if Islamakazis had waded into the rose bowl parade with these mounted in a sand bagged bed of a dump truck.....
There will be plenty of blame and punishment to go around, particularly since it made the news.
In New Mexico we found a old lever action winchester 73 sticking out of a tree trunk with the stock and forend missing. Seems hundred years ago some pioneer, indian, cowboy etc leaned it against a sapling in the fork of the tree, left it for what ever reason and the tree grew up around it. Wood rotted off or was chewed off by deer and elk..... The rifle was about 6 ft up the tree trunk. It's on a friends ranch up near Lindrith NM....we left it per the ranchers request. I have seen these kind of lost and found rifles in two other places. One in a musem and one in Santa Fe NM in a store.
Great story!!
Carolyn
Gun + canal + South Florida ?
I hope there weren't any bodies associated with that weapon.
P-51
1944
Bet you were one heck of a "liberty risk" in your Marine Corps career, weren't you?
The M-2HB may sound better with those long, satisfying bursts but you and I both know that she would get really hot. That barrel would get steadily hotter until about round number 250, the flashes would get brighter and there'd be more concussion. Very soon after that, she starts cooking off and if you're not fast enough to break the belt or lift the feedcover, Bang! she pops a case out of battery or 'banana peels' the barrel.
That thick barrel really soaks up the heat and though it's supposed to be air cooled, it doesn't cool very quickly. The reason for the short bursts was to keep the barrels from eroding and from the major problems that come from from cookoffs. I used to have my students change barrels every 200 rounds/verify headspace and timing. The guns stay serviceable a lot longer that way!
Besides, a really expert gunner like yourself could nail the targets with short bursts... ;-)
Semper Fi!
I didn't hear of any, and in this area, you would have.
P-40 Warhawk?
Nope; P-47D..
How much would be left of the fish after a blast with a machine gun?
Makes a good tag, don't you think?
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