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A Little FN M240 Bravo Action
You can find Matt Bracken on GAB
https://gab.com/Matt_Bracken
I’ve never fired full auto but that sure looks like way too much fun!
Local range has a few full autos that you can fire. I chose the M-16 and had a blast. It is very controlled with the barrel secured to the table with a lanyard and the RO standing behind your R shoulder.
I’m fortunate that I live somewhere that affords me the ability to shoot when I want. Now I just gotta fine me that rental! Or maybe… 🤔
Does PSA sell these?
Asking for a friend.
Dude is crazy to shoulder fire the thing. 240b is a tripod or vehicle mounted, crew served weapon. 240e variant with a short barrel has been adopted by SOF, but is still intended for support by fire. I did not appreciate having to drag one through the FL swamps in Ranger School.
More fun to use them to cut off the legs of an approaching company-sized infantry element with grazing fire.
Nope. Abn Inf fired M60’s and fire M240’s in the assault, with a sling, drop to the prone using the bipod as needed. The ONLY time we used a tripod is in prepared defensive positions with defined fields of fire. The weight of the gun absorbs much of the recoil when you’re on the move.
I used to shoulder the old M60 and hit targets out to 300 meters back in the day. 1/503rd PIR. 101st airborne. it not that hard to do. the sights were good, although we didn’t waste ammo like that.
you had to carry your ammo, so. you did tend to waste it. and a 100 round “box” didn’t seem like much
but when you have 4 of them plus the one attached to the gun. it does add up.
A crew served weapon ? Wrong. Tripod? Wrong. You went to Ranger school??
Dude!! He was in “Tiger Cubs” which is pre-boy scouts. He is legit hardcore!!!
Cool, but anyone reading TBP is far more likely to be on the receiving end than the giving end.
Worth keeping on your spicy-time shopping list though.
I like the meltdown vids. They’re awesome and would be a blast. Waste of a good gun, but science. lol
Brewer Buddy,
My MOS with Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children enforcing for the MIC in 69 was 0331. That was the M-60…some called it the Pig…we never did…we just called it: THE GUN.
There are a few other Grunts here…no matter the MIC BS War (and they all are BS)…they will eat what is below with a SPOON. Because it is real.
On the Hump I just waited to hear the inevitable ‘GUNS UP’! During my misguided Grunt Yout.
You learn to keep your adrenalin frosty under fire…that will take five or six firefights minimum…but like everything else…the longer you do it…the better you get at it.
As a 0331 (no matter your actuall MOS) you will learn how to clear a link out of the feed tray under fire (now and then) and to keep your gas piston wrench handy/dandy (always in the same place and make sure the A gunner or a trusted ammo humper has a spare) for a quick tighten. (I only needed it once after a failure to fire…my fault…too long panic bursts).
You will learn how to use a B-2 C-Rat can (it fits perfectly under the feed tray) to replace the A gunner…It will help feed the belts in with it’s perfect curve…because sometimes there is NO A GUNNER…because he is dead…wounded…or can’t get to you because you are under heavy fire…because you are returning heavy fire.
You will learn how to make a ‘Jungle Sling’ out of M-16 cloth mag bandoliers for THE GUN to allow it to hang down off your shoulder at your waist when contact is coming…on the Hump.
Usually THE GUN is on you shoulder – and you ar balancing it with your hand on the bi-pod. It weighs 28 LBS. with a 100 round belt…you cannot carry it at the ready too long…so a Jungle Sling (made in many ways) was needed.
At night – during most combat – you better keep your red (tracer) line bursts waiting (if you can) until their green (tracer) line bursts or RPGs white flashes give their position away!!!
Talking second can often end the conversation in your favor. Talking first is often DEATH no matter who talks first…on both sides…Talking first is why Nicky New Guys DIE.
Problem was we had a lot of Nicky New Guys…they had a lot of one, two, and thee war veterans…some who learned how to ‘TALK’ second before some of us were even born.
During daylight fire fights (no matter how many angry bees are buzzing past your body) walking the 7.62 rounds into the ground in front of you (with 3 to 5 round bursts) so you can see where you are hitting (depending on the terrain) then pouring it in on where they actually are…if you have the balls…you may be the only one standing…is what you learn to do…because that was why they gave you the M-60…and if you can do this – that is one of the reasons why you kept the M-60 (if you lived)…or went back to Ammo Humper.
one thing my platoon SGT, pounded in my head was to MOVE my ass after firing a burst. because once a M60 opens up, you get a lot of return fire coming right at you or get you ass behind some good solid cover. was to have 2 riflemen to cover your ass too, but most of them like a “little room” from you.
and sometimes we would remove the tracers from the belt. they do help you to see where you rounds are going or hitting. BUT, it also shows them where YOU ARE. THAT IS WHY YOU MOVE AFTER FIRING. short bursts always, move and fire again. and again, listen to what the old guys tell you to do.
I always liked the old M60 too. it always worked for me, but them again, I took care of it too.
I can only imagine what that must have been like.
I got the pics too. Thanks.
Brewer, dave in pa., Shotgun Trooper, Eyes,
We kept an M-14 in the Gun Team and used it at the right times to fire on auto…3 to 5 round bursts at night…faking an M-60…then who ever was the decoy did a”didi mao” away fast…then when the flash of the RPGs came in on that spot then you could open up with the Gun on the flashes…then move again…but a lot depended on a lot of ‘what was going on’ to pull that off…but we managed a few times to do it.
Never talk first at night with an M060.
Here is something I am still pissed about:
The M-60 I inherited had a feed tray that was almost silver…it had been rode hard and put up wet for many, many Grunt years.
The sear went once at a critical time (that was what I was told by the pogue armory after it was repaired)…only would fire one shot at a time in the middle of a firefight…cock it back…just one shot… cock it back…just one shot…cock it back …just one shot. Almost cost me my life from the enemy angry bees buzzing past me…musta been 47 of them…and it almost cost the lives of the fire team I was giving swinging door covering fire to…covering fire that never came while they were on the leap frog run!
When we got back to the battalion base camp I rushed the single shot M-60 to the armory.
The armory pogue in the rear with the gear and the beer…fixed it…and gave me the same old silver feed tray…worn out M-60 back.
I was just an E-3 with six months in the bush (soon up for E-4) at the time…but I was far beyond that rank in wanting a new Gun! We got into it!
I put up a stink…and got my ass run off by higher ranking pogues that were insulted I would demand a newer M-60.
See the armory (did I say they were in the rear – with the gear – and the beer…motherfuckers) had a wall of brand new M-60s ready for Inspecting General INSPECTIONS…we all knew it…but they were for inspection period!…for the General…not for us lower than whale shit grunts….who did the fighting, killing, and dying.
When the IG General wandered in – in his spit shined starched utilities…surrounded by his staff…in their starched utilities and spit shined boots (all the starching and shinning done by mama-sans) they wanted to see those black, oiled, new M-60’s ready to go into combat…and they did!
But we never saw them.
We learned to despise pogues…and know nothing starched, spit shined-shiny generals.
I got soming else coming to you Brewer.
It’s hard to believe those bastards would have you try and fight with substandard hardware when they had perfectly good, new ones sitting in inventory. Iceholes!
The true story of the M-16 is sickening…there are an untold number of men on ‘The Wall’ because of that piece of shit rifle, and it was covered up at the time…big time!
I fought mostly with the M-60, and or an M-14, a .45 & M-26 Frags (a hellava weapon)…fuck the M-16 and the bribed bureaucrat traitors who made most of us fight with it.
COLOSSAL FAILURE: Why the M16 Rifle Was a Disaster in Vietnam
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/colossal-failure-why-m16-rifle-was-disaster-vietnam-178769
US TROOPS IN VIETNAM HATED THE M16 So Much They Picked Up the Enemy’s AK-47s
Apr 20, 2022 Samantha Franco, Guest Author
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/m16-rifle-vietnam-war.html
The only thing worse than humping the old M60 was jumping with one. Everything suddenly got better when you could finally cut loose with it and shed some weight. I’m wondering if the M248 is as easy to fire from the hip as the 60 was. Lighter gun with less cartridge so it should be even easier.
This is a good pic.
My M60a3 in West Germany had an m240 coax mounted in the turret.
I’ve taken one down and reassembled it many times.
belt fed is impractical. 30 round mags work just fine. in a fire fight, you won’t be picking up hard to find/expensive links.