From:	David Hinkley <dhinkley@***.ORG>
Subject:	Re: Autofire Rates
Date:	Sun, 13 Aug 1995 00:39:11 -0700

The United States Army provided me with the opportunity to fire a
wide varity of Full Automatic Weapons (M-2HB, M-3, M-14, M-16, M-60, M-85
and AK-47) as well as instructing others in the care and feeding of same.
My experence is that in the hands of a intelligent, trained and practiced
operator they all have the same effective rate----a 3-5 round burst
followed by a brief pause then another burst. The Infantry has only one
other way to fire machine guns (one I learned and taught but because i
was a Cold Warrior never got to use)FPF or final protective fire during
this all the units Automatic Riflemen (a designation rather then weapon)
and machine guns fire long extended bursts(full magazines or belts)
down predetermined lanes (which if properly laid out interlock). The idea
is to establish a wall of bullets that the attacking enemy will have to
walk or crawl through, At the same time the grenaders are firing at dead
ground and the platoon leader is on the horn with any and all artillery
calling for fire as close in as posible (the fragments should be flying
over the defenders heads as they fire from behind the front berm of thier
fighting positions. As you may have gathered this a last ditch effort the
basic consept being that it is better to have no ammunition, a burned out
barrel and be alive rather then dead. I never did get a satisfactory
answer to the question regarding what we were to about the second wave....

To return to the main subject, automatic weapons are presision
objects (except maybe the M-3 Grease Gun, the early Stens and the PPSH-41)
extended firing (long bursts) increases the chance of a jam or feed
problem, heats up the barrel excessivly (reducing accurce by making the
bore larger then the bullets [heat expansion]),and/or heats up the breach
area (causing premature firing--cook offs). These less then disirable
results are in addition to the reduction of accuracy resulting from the
difficulty in keeping the weapon on target.

In responce to the yet unasked question, of why high cycle rates?
There seem to be a couple of reasons 1. the duration of the 3-5 round
burstis shorter giving the weapon less time to climb. 2) there is a
theoretical rate where the operation of the weapons action cancels out
the recoil (the only weapon that I have heard of that has reached that
rate is the American 180...it is chambered for .22LR and empties a 750
round drum magazine in seconds) 3) it sounds better in add copy and 4) a
high rate of fire is an advantage in using a automatic weapon in a AA role.

As to controling the burst to 3 to 5 rounds most people learnit quickly
(I only ran accross one person who could not master the three round
burst....me...I can shoot 2 or 4 rounds )

I agree to Paul's comments regarding belt firing machine guns,
they are great emplaced but a great pain when moving around or for that
matter carrying around with or without a belt. That and they get strange
looks at staff meetings.

Hope this is some help to those of you how are trying to figure out how
to game guns.

David G. Hinkley