Head Space and Timing

MRAP guys did have Shock Coffees. They were willing to share.

And the other people restocked.

Life is good.

Meanwhile at the remote control machine gun class we learned all about the system. It's a machine gun, not a sniper rifle. But the first shot accuracy, and that it is rapdily followed by many more accurate shots, is pretty impressive. Especially from the relative--but not perfect, never perfect--safety of an armored cocoon of an MRAP.

We got to practice with a simulator, which was really a glorifed first-person shooter game. The younger guys with their video game experience picked up the gaming part of it pretty quick. The older guys picked on the simulation part of it.

Young guys, with less experience, didn't adjust ranging as often, were less conscious of ammo usage, and played a game more than experienced a simulation.

It was also interesting to note that some of the guys instinctively targetted trucks and other civilian vehicles that are often the threat here. But they didn't target the "enemy" armored vehicles in the scenarios.

Cold Warriors would have been the reverse, with instinctive recognition of Russian armor and less awareness of VBIEDs.

Balance is hard.

I'm probably reading too much in to it. We weren't using the software to practice missions. We were just using it to learn the system. And it was very effective.

At the core of this incredible technological beast is a machine gun that was last updated in 1919. The venerable M-2 .50 Caliber machine gun.

If John Moses Browning invented it, leave it alone. It works.

We spent a lot of time reviewing its function, disassembling it, and checking the head space and timing (to make sure the trigger mechanisms and barrel spacing was correct... lest the weapon blow up).

Unfortunately, there was no live fire part of the course. A little unsatisfying, to say the least.

Tomorrow we work on one more automated system with the M240B machine gun. A smaller caliber gun that is derrived from the German MG42 machine gun. I guess there really is no school like the old school when it comes to machine guns.


Well, the Mk46 and Mk48 are pretty newish, but I haven't gotten to play with them yet.