[Old Yeller]

A 30 round magazine on a fully automated machine gun would empty in about 1 second, wouldn’t it?

[familyop]

"A 30 round magazine on a fully automated machine gun would empty in about 1 second, wouldn’t it?"

The rate of fire depends on the kind of weapon. Most true machine guns (like the M-60) start at about 3 rounds per quick trigger pull and release. In 3 seconds, they'll fire about 15 rounds. It's best for the barrel to avoid firing bursts much longer than that. Other machine guns will fire at much faster rates (e.g., the SAW).

A 30 round magazine in an M-16 will fire about the same way and at a not much different rate when fired in automatic mode. For most situations, full automatic fire is useless, and semi-auto, better, especially when used by very well trained men. Same with full auto--only a little better when used in very close situations but only by very well trained people. Pump or semi-auto shotguns are best used by most people with less training time required, unless long distances are likely.