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.50 Cal Nostalgia
River Rat
Member Posts: 9,022 ✭
Any one here kinda sentimental for the .50 cal M2, and like me gets mushy whenever they see pictures from Iraq showing Ma Duece's distinctive silhouette on a tank or vehicle?
I have permanent ear damage from the dang thing, but they were amazingly reliable. Another timeless design from a great American hero: John M. Browning. Designed to shoot down canvas-and-wood airplanes at the end of WW One, it is still serving us well.
Did I kick loose any memories?
I have permanent ear damage from the dang thing, but they were amazingly reliable. Another timeless design from a great American hero: John M. Browning. Designed to shoot down canvas-and-wood airplanes at the end of WW One, it is still serving us well.
Did I kick loose any memories?
Comments
"num" several times fast, followed by "swish" several times fast. Repeat as necessary. Rgds, Joe (my .50 cal. sound experience was always at an angle to the line of fire, and once, underneath it.) I don't know what they sound like from behind the gun. J.
The main gun on the m60 tank ...105mm, watched one at Graf in Germany shooting up a VIP hard target (old tank filled with dirt) 3 rounds, one every 7 seconds, direct hits at about 2000 yd.s
And the m2 .50 cal. Watched the T.C. on a M551 Sheridan(piece-o-cr*p!) but this tank commander bent over the .50 cal, sucking it into his stomach and touched off about 2 to 3 bursts of about 25 rounds and it looked like it was hitting the same hole at 900 yd.s!! The guy knew what he was doing!!! ...Then I watch my T.C. spray the whole range with one, he couldn't hit cr*p! *G*
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I am new to this forum as of today (12/28/08.
Just wanted to say I was in Phu Bai Oct 68 to Aug 69. I was in the U.S. Navy. Co L Marine Support Battalion Detachment Alpha. We were ditty boppers Communication Techs (CT) now it's Cryto Techs.
I was asst 50cal gunner on a Star Bunker
Just wanted to say when we had to get rid of some old ammo it was a blast to shoot that cannon.
We had hand-me-down .50s (WestPac pool items) on our signal bridge that were were issued on arrival at Subic Bay and removed at the end of the cruise.
Although issued for close-in support, we used ours to try to sink floating rice bags that were dropped over the side of an anchored foreign merchant (could not shoot the SOB). The tides (mostly) took the bags to the beach - we got the ones that floated out farther. (The original transport method, small boats, were fair game and the later A-7s from the carrier with Vulcan guns had a fine time shooting them up!)
It was ineffective because the .50 punched a hole through the bags and the rice swelled to plug the holes. We eventually had to lower the motor whaleboat and had our guys use machetes.
Of course, we had to report our daily rice bag count!
Well, one night, I'm there doing my best Beetle Bailey, when I hear a truck coming. The gates had long been locked, and were not supposed to be opened for any reason. But here comes this standard Army truck, with just those little eyelid lights on. This was long before truck bombs, so my only thought was that it was the bad guys coming to ram through the gate. (If it had been a bomb truck, the next few seconds would have been my last!) With no time to ring up the Command Post and get orders, I yanked the handle on Ma, set the front bead on the radiator and thumbed the trigger. PUM! PUM!
Naturally, the whole camp went into "hornet nest" mode. Mortar flares, people running, sirens, the works. When they found out it was an Air Force guy on the gate, they were royally whizzed - until I got the word "truck" in edgewise.
Turns out it was two of our uhh... mercenary fellows coming back from a late engagement at the local steam and cream. My two rounds, incidentally, went through the radiator, took all the diesel stuff off the top of the engine, went through the dash, passed between the elbows of the two suddenly very sober little guys, then out the back of the cab - and may still be going.
Those are the only two rounds I ever fired from one.
W.D.
I sent several months with the 3/5 CAV C Troop in Quang Tri Pro., M2HB was the main gun on the 113's and my friend. Late I was tranfered to 4/47th Mobile riverine force C, HHC & A companies. The navy had all the M2s there. I got out Dec 69.
Now 40 years later I am helping moderize these old guns for today's warfighters. check our our web site at www.atssm2hb.com. Who would have thought that I would be back mess;n with Ma at this time of my life
Eagle
If you were on the boats you know we had 500 rounds per gun in each side tub .I was the gunners mate on my PBR and was in charge of all the weapons .Had the win .50s a M60 amidships ( total length of a PBR was 35 feet)And either another .50 or a 40 mike- mike honey well on the stern mount. Any way ya look a at it those fiberglass boats were floating light weapons platforms.
I still remember cleaning those twin .50's and setting the head space .Had to change out the barrels quite a a bit also.
I miss em every now and again when some one cuts in front of me on the highway
Well any how ..............
New to the board and the first thing I came upon was your post on the .50's and YES you did kick up some memories ,some good some not so good. Funny how it was 40 years ago and some times ( like now ) its like it was an hour ago ,where you can still smell the fear and taste the bug juice and sweat .
Glad to read so many great posts from vets and especially Brothers from THE NAM
First time user here.
I was stationed with the ACV (Air Cushion Vehicle) Unit From 2-69 to 2-70 in the 9th Inf. Div.. Worked out of Dong Tam for 6 months as the bow .50 gunner then on the Vam Co Tay at Ben Luc as a pilot of craft #902.We would work the two rivers (Tay And Dong) up and around the Parrots beak and out into the Plain of Reeds.Tuy Non, Tra Cu ,Bo Bo Canal.We worked out of FSB Gettysburg on the French canal.We could traverse both water(70 knots) and land (about 50). We use to work the area south of Siagon out of Na Be but we could operate better out in the open. Ben Luc was a small Navy base with a SEAL contingent and a lot of PBR's along with whoever stopped by,Tangos,Alphas,Monitors and Mike boats. And yes I do remember launching a few thousand rounds of .50 cal. Mostly a lot of recon by fire and support of our onboard (up to 16)or other Infantry units. The occasional ambush that sprung up would use up 400 or so of my 500 rounds. I LOVED THAT HOT *!!! It would kick *,take names and not use a pencil. It would bust up most anything it hit. All I had to do was to make sure she was well fed and well taken care of. DUNT,DUNT,DUNT,DUNT,DUNT,DUNT,DUNT,DUNT.
Oh Ya Baby Thats What I Like!!!! The only thing more would be having 2 side by side. Like Overly did. Quad .50's would probably make me...ah Ill let you guess. Anyhow like I always said about my 50 was that if it had a c..t I would have married it HA!
PS. Welcome back brothers
I think I remember at the beginning of Carlos Hathcock's book, him telling the story about using the 50 cal with a scope as a sniper rifle and shooting the bicycle out from under a Cong at some ungodly distance. Who would have ever thought of using it that way.
I'm not surprised the M2 had a flat trajectory, and it could travel as far as the eye could see..[:D]