![]() Disassembly was not difficult.”īeasley added: “The rate of fire was another positive: It was easy to control how many rounds you were firing. Said Beasley: “The rubberized fore-grip was very comfortable - something its replacement, the M240, didn’t have when it was introduced. Navy photo by Journalist 1st Class Robert Benson Special Warfare Combat Crewman spray a mock enemy area with a barrage of live M60 machine gun fire from weapons stations aboard their combat patrol craft during a training exercise in the bayous of Stennis,Space Center, Miss., ca. Ammunition fed into the weapon from a 100-round bandolier containing a disintegrating, metallic split-link belt. Typically, every soldier in a rifle squad carried a supply of 200 linked rounds of ammunition for the M60, a spare barrel, or both. ![]() Using its bipod, the M60 had a maximum effective range of 800 meters (the measurement used in U.S. It became the “Hog” or the “Pig” to American soldiers because its report sounded like the grunt of a barnyard hog. Sweeting, an author of books on guns and combat equipment, said in an interview that the M60, “showed that as late as 1960, we were still adapting our armed forces with the kind of technology the Germans had pioneered 15 years earlier.” machine gun with a true quick-change barrel system although, as noted above, a change didn’t usually happen very quickly.Ĭ.G. In service, the M60 replaced the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), M1919A6, and the water-cooled M1917 machine gun. Both were chosen because they handled the 7.62 mm (.308 caliber) cartridge adopted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Army standardized on the M60 in February 1957 as a companion to the M14 rifle. Later versions of the M60 added a handle on the barrel so that the assistant gunner didn’t need to use an asbestos glove to change barrels, and mounted the bipod on the gas tube. Since the bipod was attached to the barrel, the gunner would have to hold the weapon up in the air as the barrel was changed, unless it was conveniently mounted on a tripod, as in this photo, which happened rarely. When it went into production, the T-161 was redesignated the M60.Īn M60 machine gun team changes barrels before engaging their last target during Defender Challenge ’88, Aug. ![]() The recoil would quickly make aiming impossible when it was used that way, but as a two-soldier weapon operated by a gunner and assistant gunner it seemed almost perfect. It could be shouldered or fired from the hip if its operator was strong enough (a la Rambo). An attempt to build an American copy of the MG-42 stumbled on political and technical obstacles, but in the 1950s, the United States developed its own T-161 machine gun, which employed a 7.62 mm ammunition belt patterned from the German template. Its inspiration was the German MG-42 machine gun of World War II - often called a better crew-served weapon than anything the Allies had. The Army was enthusiastic when the M60 was being developed in the Cold War 1950s. In Vietnam, the M60 dangled from helicopter doorways, stood guard on bunkers, and accompanied squads into combat. “It had some good features,” said Beasley in a telephone interview. Steve Beasley, a firearms authority, said the M60 is “iconic as a general-purpose light machine gun,” but had many flaws. They loved its reliability and rate of fire but disliked its bulk, which earned it the nickname “the Pig.” Changing the barrel on an M60 was an awkward, cumbersome task, all but impossible in the heat of battle.įormer U.S. The M60 could be shouldered and fired, albeit inaccurately. Ronald Mann of the 1314th Ground Combat Readiness and Evaluation Squadron fires an M60 machine gun from the standing position during the Defender Challenge ’88, Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., Aug.
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