With only a round in the chamber -- and no belt -- how "auto" would you expect a .50BMG to be?
TXnMA
Didn’t realize those were used as sniper weapons or that they had a semi automatic setting.
Keep in mind this is from Newsweak.
They know it’s a machine gun because it’s black. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t say it was an “AK-15”.
Carlos Hathcock did it in RVN way back when. The ground .50 shoots so slow it would not be hard to crank of single shots.
Often stuff like this was field improvisation. In Vietnam, Carlos Hathcock's most distant kill was hit with a shot from an M2 Browning. IIRC, the armorers had come up with a way to mount the Unertl 10X sniper rifle scope on the heavy machine gun, which I'm sure was a surprise to the enemy who thought himself well out of range.
Hathcock used them too on occasion
White Feather did it 1967 with crappy optics.
In 1967, Hathcock set the record for the longest sniper kill. He used an M2 .50 Cal Browning machine gun mounted with a telescopic sight at a range of 2,500 yd (2,286 m), killing a Vietcong guerrilla.[38] In 2002, this record was broken by Canadian snipers (Rob Furlong and Arron Perry) from the third battalion of Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry during the War in Afghanistan. Hathcock was one of several individuals to utilize the M2 Browning machine gun in the sniping role. This success led to the adoption of the .50 BMG cartridge as a viable sniper round. Sniper rifles have since been designed around and chambered in this caliber since the 1970s.
Per wiki.
“Didn’t realize those were used as sniper weapons or that they had a semi automatic setting.”
I think it’s unlikely that the sniper used a “machine gun.” More than likely it was the standard 50. sniper rifle. The media has, yet again, given us an incorrect story.
Mark Twain said, “A man who doesn’t read the newspaper is uninformed. A man who reads the newspaper is misinformed.”
General Dynamics designed a stabilized remote controlled setup for the 50 cal mounted on the Stryker. The number of rounds fired per kill with that gun went from 50 to three.
“Didn’t realize those were used as sniper weapons or that they had a semi automatic setting.”
I’m guessing it was not a “Ma Duce”, thinking a Barrett or something like that. Can’t rely on reporters to get the technicals right on something like this.
“Didn’t realize those were used as sniper weapons or that they had a semi automatic setting.”
I’m guessing it was not a “Ma Duce”, thinking a Barrett or something like that. Can’t rely on reporters to get the technicals right on something like this.
If you just load one round it becomes semi auto!!!
American sniper Carlos Hathcock used one in Vietnam and a captain in Korea the same thing.
An American sniper in Vietnam was doing that in the 1960’s
During the Vietnam War we had a .50 cal single shot mounted on our 106mm Recoiless Rifle as a spotting round. Hit the target with the .50 tracer round and pull the lanyard on the cannon, simple low tech but it worked.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDjeYePAU1s
With only a round in the chamber -- and no belt -- how "auto" would you expect a .50BMG to be?
TXnMA
Carlos Hathcock, USMC, Vietnam...