M3A1 Grease Gun

Nightcrawler · November 23, 2000, 01:26 PM

Has anyone here fired a Grease Gun? I understand it has a pretty low cyclic rate (350-450 rpm?) Does that make it easier to fire compared to, say, an Uzi or MP5?

Jeff51 · November 23, 2000, 03:01 PM

Yes I have fired a Grease Gun! I have one and yes it has a slow rate of fire,about 6-7 seconds for a 30rd mag. Thats an average of 400rds a min. Most other sub-guns will fire around 600-700 rds a min, or about twice as fast. I have a limited experence on firing Thompson's '28,M1-A1 M-16 and a M-11/9 and none on H&K. I enjoy my M3-A1 very much. Sorry I couldn't help you very much. Tne recoil is not much and maintaing rds on target are easy due to slow rate of fire, cleaning/field striping is easy, parts are easy to get as well as 30rd mags.

Riss · November 23, 2000, 07:51 PM

You bet they're slow. Tested the one at work. About 100 to 150 rpm below our Uzi. Can't remember how fast it was. Even though it shoots a 45 acp is still very controllable. our 'game' of choice is shooting a 5 pin set of bowling pins from 15 yds away. Use full mag no stopping. Still not as easy to shoot or as accurate as an mp5 though.

Badger Arms · November 24, 2000, 05:01 AM

My father Carried one during Korea. Said he preferred it over the BAR as he could carry more rounds and sustain fire longer. Either/or would keep heads down so why not use the lighter gun? No first hand experience here. The one that I've handled (never fired) annoyed me only because I was living in Alaska. Metal gets very cold and 'welds' to your cheek and hands. All of the contact areas on the Grease Gun are metal.

Dad tells of being able to point each shoot rather than 'spraying' and praying.

Byron · November 24, 2000, 04:06 PM

I've read that they were generally unpopular with the troops because of their low rate of fire, as well as being butt-ugly compared with the much sexier Thompson. The biggest problem with the Grease Gun today is that so few of them are transferable. As a result, a gun that was manufactured for about 10 bucks each (in 1940's dollars) will now cost you about $4,000 to acquire. Lots of magazines and parts available, few transferable guns. I don't know why that is, because there were tons of them around. About 646,000 were produced by the end of the WWII, another 33,000 delivered during the Korean War. Where'd they all go? Seems like a lot more would have been amnestied than apparently were.

Badger Arms · November 25, 2000, 03:43 AM

They are still in storage. The Grease gun was used as recently as the Gulf War. Bottom line is that it is the only SMG Available in large quantities to the US Military. Isn't there a storage facility in Nevada where they keep small arms? It'd be interesting to do an FOA request asking for an accounting of the weapons.

BBBBill · November 25, 2000, 12:31 PM

Still in use, too. Although we turned in most of them in the past couple of years, we still issue them to M-88 recovery vehicle crewmen & a few others. M-4/M-4A1 fielding is still slow in Armor units. Spec Ops is getting most of them currently. I've seen updates that say we'll be getting them in 3rd quarter FY2001. Till then, old M-3 will still serve. Budda....budda....budda....

Badger Arms · November 26, 2000, 03:08 AM

Wow. I do remember two pictures I saw during the war where soldiers were carrying grease-guns. Impressed the heck out of me. Do you have to qualify with them?

BBBBill · November 26, 2000, 10:59 AM

Not me personally, but the guys assigned to M-88s do. I usually run the M-16 range. Sometimes the pistol range. We also run a crew served weapons range for M-2 & M-60/240. In the past, I qualified on the M-3/M-3A1. It's a fun piece. I know of a couple in private collections. One guy has an accessory 9MM conversion unit with his. Those are very rare. He also has a lightened bolt, that with different springs, get the cyclic rate up to about 650 depending on ammo. I've seen a couple destroyed in training accidents over the years. One got caught in the turret ring of an old M-60 tank. The other was run over by an M-1A1.

paul s · October 19, 2004, 05:03 PM

Utterly reliable, easy to hit with.

shaggy · October 19, 2004, 05:11 PM

Quote:

The biggest problem with the Grease Gun today is that so few of them are transferable. As a result, a gun that was manufactured for about 10 bucks each (in 1940's dollars) will now cost you about $4,000 to acquire.

Byron - If you can find any greaseguns at $4k, I'm ready to buy all you got. Average is about $12k for a C&R these days.

Quartus · October 19, 2004, 05:23 PM

Quote:

All of the contact areas on the Grease Gun are metal.

Contact areas? Hey, it's ALL metal!

After getting used to almost anything else, shooting the Grease Gun is a bit disconcerting at first.

chug

chug

chug

chug

WILLYA HURRY UP ALREADY! I AIN'T GOT ALL DAY!!!

Okay, it's not that bad. It just seems like it. Recoil is nothing. It just moves around a little.

Reliable as an anvil.

Quote:

Not me personally, but the guys assigned to M-88s do

They've still got 88s? Cool! A 1200 cubic inch gas engine, turning out 1200 horsepower, IIRC. 5 gallons to the mile. 8 when towing.

What?

No, that was correct. Gallons to the mile.

OutAtTheEdge · October 27, 2004, 07:23 PM

...I had a dealer sample Guide Lamp M3A1 that I bought from Armex International for $225. It was a fun shooter (and yes, it's slow, w/ a cyclic rate of 350-450 rpm), and got even better when I stumbled on a great deal on a suppressed barrel for it. The barrel was marked "Marlin Firearms", but I could never find out if Marlin just made the barrel, or the whole can. I used to enjoy playing around with handloads for it, seeing just how fast and slow I could get the cyclic rate with hotter and milder loads. Aside from being ugly, in an attractive sorta way, the M3/M3A1 had one feature I really disliked: the double stack, 30 rd. magazine uses a single position feed, like the MP38/40, Sten, and all of today's double column auto pistols, and it was a pain in the a*s to load, even with the mag loading tool built into the wire stock.

Okay, now you got me reminiscing. Better stop before I get all misty here. I am...

OutAtTheEdge

Mike Spight · October 28, 2004, 01:12 PM

We had some of these in the Brown Water Navy in Vietnam. Some smart young Gunner's Mate (not me) came up with a solution that was ingenious. We took an M2 BMG recoil spring, cut it in two, trimmed to length as necessary and replaced the two stock springs in the M3 SMG.

There was a noticable increase in the rate of fire - how much, I don't have a clue, but it worked and we did not experience any malfunctions with this set-up. YMMV.

guy sajer · October 29, 2004, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shaggy

Byron - If you can find any greaseguns at $4k, I'm ready to buy all you got. Average is about $12k for a C&R these days.

I'll take a case @ $4k

**** This thread was started in 2000 . I think $4k would have been a deal back then as well !

DT Guy · November 3, 2004, 06:32 PM

"Qualification" with the grease gun is more or less showing you know which end the bullets come out...there's not much actual aiming.

The big problem when I was in was magazines-you had to search through stacks to find any that would work. Of course, they were about 50 years old...

Larry

November 23, 2000, 07:51 PM	#3
Riss Senior Member Join Date: February 14, 1999 Location: Eastern, PA, USA Posts: 147	You bet they're slow. Tested the one at work. About 100 to 150 rpm below our Uzi. Can't remember how fast it was. Even though it shoots a 45 acp is still very controllable. our 'game' of choice is shooting a 5 pin set of bowling pins from 15 yds away. Use full mag no stopping. Still not as easy to shoot or as accurate as an mp5 though. __________________ An X is still an X with a Quarter Inch group at 100 yards With a Quarter Inch Group on the keyboard an X could be - Z,S,D, or C. I am a quarter inch typist - Please excuse the errors!

October 27, 2004, 07:23 PM	#13
OutAtTheEdge Member Join Date: September 21, 2004 Posts: 61	Back in my Class 3 Dealer Days.... ...I had a dealer sample Guide Lamp M3A1 that I bought from Armex International for $225. It was a fun shooter (and yes, it's slow, w/ a cyclic rate of 350-450 rpm), and got even better when I stumbled on a great deal on a suppressed barrel for it. The barrel was marked "Marlin Firearms", but I could never find out if Marlin just made the barrel, or the whole can. I used to enjoy playing around with handloads for it, seeing just how fast and slow I could get the cyclic rate with hotter and milder loads. Aside from being ugly, in an attractive sorta way, the M3/M3A1 had one feature I really disliked: the double stack, 30 rd. magazine uses a single position feed, like the MP38/40, Sten, and all of today's double column auto pistols, and it was a pain in the a*s to load, even with the mag loading tool built into the wire stock. Okay, now you got me reminiscing. Better stop before I get all misty here. I am... OutAtTheEdge

November 3, 2004, 06:32 PM	#16
DT Guy Senior Member Join Date: February 4, 2001 Posts: 959	"Qualification" with the grease gun is more or less showing you know which end the bullets come out...there's not much actual aiming. The big problem when I was in was magazines-you had to search through stacks to find any that would work. Of course, they were about 50 years old... Larry __________________ He who fights and runs away had better run pretty damn fast. Government, Anarchy and Chaos

November 23, 2000, 01:26 PM	#1
Nightcrawler Senior Member Join Date: September 22, 2000 Location: Northern Michigan Posts: 2,945	Has anyone here fired a Grease Gun? I understand it has a pretty low cyclic rate (350-450 rpm?) Does that make it easier to fire compared to, say, an Uzi or MP5?

November 23, 2000, 03:01 PM	#2
Jeff51 Member Join Date: April 8, 2000 Posts: 21	Yes I have fired a Grease Gun! I have one and yes it has a slow rate of fire,about 6-7 seconds for a 30rd mag. Thats an average of 400rds a min. Most other sub-guns will fire around 600-700 rds a min, or about twice as fast. I have a limited experence on firing Thompson's '28,M1-A1 M-16 and a M-11/9 and none on H&K. I enjoy my M3-A1 very much. Sorry I couldn't help you very much. Tne recoil is not much and maintaing rds on target are easy due to slow rate of fire, cleaning/field striping is easy, parts are easy to get as well as 30rd mags.

November 24, 2000, 05:01 AM	#4
Badger Arms Senior Member Join Date: July 2, 2000 Location: Harnett County, NC Posts: 1,700	My father Carried one during Korea. Said he preferred it over the BAR as he could carry more rounds and sustain fire longer. Either/or would keep heads down so why not use the lighter gun? No first hand experience here. The one that I've handled (never fired) annoyed me only because I was living in Alaska. Metal gets very cold and 'welds' to your cheek and hands. All of the contact areas on the Grease Gun are metal. Dad tells of being able to point each shoot rather than 'spraying' and praying.

November 24, 2000, 04:06 PM	#5
Byron Senior Member Join Date: December 4, 1999 Location: Sandia Park, NM Posts: 270	I've read that they were generally unpopular with the troops because of their low rate of fire, as well as being butt-ugly compared with the much sexier Thompson. The biggest problem with the Grease Gun today is that so few of them are transferable. As a result, a gun that was manufactured for about 10 bucks each (in 1940's dollars) will now cost you about $4,000 to acquire. Lots of magazines and parts available, few transferable guns. I don't know why that is, because there were tons of them around. About 646,000 were produced by the end of the WWII, another 33,000 delivered during the Korean War. Where'd they all go? Seems like a lot more would have been amnestied than apparently were.

November 25, 2000, 03:43 AM	#6
Badger Arms Senior Member Join Date: July 2, 2000 Location: Harnett County, NC Posts: 1,700	They are still in storage. The Grease gun was used as recently as the Gulf War. Bottom line is that it is the only SMG Available in large quantities to the US Military. Isn't there a storage facility in Nevada where they keep small arms? It'd be interesting to do an FOA request asking for an accounting of the weapons.

November 25, 2000, 12:31 PM	#7
BBBBill Senior Member Join Date: January 5, 2000 Location: Alabama Posts: 197	Still in use, too. Although we turned in most of them in the past couple of years, we still issue them to M-88 recovery vehicle crewmen & a few others. M-4/M-4A1 fielding is still slow in Armor units. Spec Ops is getting most of them currently. I've seen updates that say we'll be getting them in 3rd quarter FY2001. Till then, old M-3 will still serve. Budda....budda....budda....

November 26, 2000, 03:08 AM	#8
Badger Arms Senior Member Join Date: July 2, 2000 Location: Harnett County, NC Posts: 1,700	Wow. I do remember two pictures I saw during the war where soldiers were carrying grease-guns. Impressed the heck out of me. Do you have to qualify with them?

November 26, 2000, 10:59 AM	#9
BBBBill Senior Member Join Date: January 5, 2000 Location: Alabama Posts: 197	Not me personally, but the guys assigned to M-88s do. I usually run the M-16 range. Sometimes the pistol range. We also run a crew served weapons range for M-2 & M-60/240. In the past, I qualified on the M-3/M-3A1. It's a fun piece. I know of a couple in private collections. One guy has an accessory 9MM conversion unit with his. Those are very rare. He also has a lightened bolt, that with different springs, get the cyclic rate up to about 650 depending on ammo. I've seen a couple destroyed in training accidents over the years. One got caught in the turret ring of an old M-60 tank. The other was run over by an M-1A1.

October 28, 2004, 01:12 PM	#14
Mike Spight Senior Member Join Date: February 15, 1999 Location: Leavenworth, KS USA Posts: 606	We had some of these in the Brown Water Navy in Vietnam. Some smart young Gunner's Mate (not me) came up with a solution that was ingenious. We took an M2 BMG recoil spring, cut it in two, trimmed to length as necessary and replaced the two stock springs in the M3 SMG. There was a noticable increase in the rate of fire - how much, I don't have a clue, but it worked and we did not experience any malfunctions with this set-up. YMMV.