The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post

TheSpoGun · February 17, 2005, 06:35 AM

I went through Infantry School at Ft. Benning right around the time the Army was starting to phase out the M60 and bring the 240B into play; we actually had to qualify on both.
From a lightfighter's standpoint, the M60 is ALOT easier to hump... not that that matters in a competition, but, I still have nightmares about trying to keep up on a 25 mile hump with a 240 slung on me. The M60, in its day, was a great gun... Few weapons have as intimidating a bark (hearing that thing go off in the assault just made you feel like, 'ok, we're gonna win this one!!') and I always shot pretty well with it. Unfortunately, the only 60's still around are at least 20 years old, and all of em are beyond their service life. The only M60 I saw in Iraq was rigged up onto some REMF type unit's Mad Max'd 998.
The 240B, while prolly not a grunt's best friend on the march, is still a superior weapon in pretty much every regard, except the aforementioned weight difference, ease of disassembly (file that under personal preference), and recoil (only matters if you're shooting from the bipod or "John Wayne" style). I've seen 240's left out on a perimeter, in the rain, (Yes, it does rain in the sandbox), with no maintenance for a week straight rip through a belt of ammo with 0 problems. I've seen them cycle muddy, rusty, sand choked, and sans lube. I've even seen them shot till they're glowing damn near white, and I have yet, in 7 years, to see 1 misfire. That's nothing short of amazing. While I may not like that weapon, I do respect it, and I can count that gun, Ma Deuce, and my M1114 as the 3 pieces of equipment I would not wanna go back to war without.

February 17, 2005, 06:35 AM	#6
TheSpoGun Member Join Date: December 22, 2004 Posts: 25	Some observations on GPMG's I went through Infantry School at Ft. Benning right around the time the Army was starting to phase out the M60 and bring the 240B into play; we actually had to qualify on both. From a lightfighter's standpoint, the M60 is ALOT easier to hump... not that that matters in a competition, but, I still have nightmares about trying to keep up on a 25 mile hump with a 240 slung on me. The M60, in its day, was a great gun... Few weapons have as intimidating a bark (hearing that thing go off in the assault just made you feel like, 'ok, we're gonna win this one!!') and I always shot pretty well with it. Unfortunately, the only 60's still around are at least 20 years old, and all of em are beyond their service life. The only M60 I saw in Iraq was rigged up onto some REMF type unit's Mad Max'd 998. The 240B, while prolly not a grunt's best friend on the march, is still a superior weapon in pretty much every regard, except the aforementioned weight difference, ease of disassembly (file that under personal preference), and recoil (only matters if you're shooting from the bipod or "John Wayne" style). I've seen 240's left out on a perimeter, in the rain, (Yes, it does rain in the sandbox), with no maintenance for a week straight rip through a belt of ammo with 0 problems. I've seen them cycle muddy, rusty, sand choked, and sans lube. I've even seen them shot till they're glowing damn near white, and I have yet, in 7 years, to see 1 misfire. That's nothing short of amazing. While I may not like that weapon, I do respect it, and I can count that gun, Ma Deuce, and my M1114 as the 3 pieces of equipment I would not wanna go back to war without.