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The Thompson, depending on which model, had a rate of fire of 600 to 800 rounds per minute. An AR-15 with a bump stock can achieve a rate of fire of 1400 to 1500 rounds per minute,..
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This is true, but also a bit of a "trap". RATE of fire (cyclic rate) and AMOUNT of fire possible are very different numbers.
Underinformed people frequently believe that the rate of fire (rpm - rounds per minute) of a gun is how many bullets can be fired in a minute, but it's not. Its the rate the mechanism operates at.
The only firearms that can come close to actually firing as many rounds in one minute as their cyclic rate are solidly mounted belt fed machineguns with enough ammo linked into one belt to fire for a full minute. NOTHING else can come close. Other factors get in the way, like reloading, for one....
Look at it this way, the fastest human sprinters have hit speeds of 27mph in the 100yd dash. That's the RATE they are running. Can they run 27 miles in one hour? No. Other factors get in the way.
Ed McGivern, possibly the fastest human pistol shooter ever, had a record that stood literally for generations. 10 shots on a playing card at 20 feet in 9/20 of a second. Let's be "generous" and bump that time up to a full 1/2 second. 10 shots (ON TARGET) in 1/2 second. That RATE of fire would be 1200 rounds per minute. McGivern did it using two DA revolvers!!!!
Could anyone actually fire 1200 rounds from two revolvers in one minute? I'd lay considerable money against it.....
With a light recoiling semi auto (say a .22 cal) its not difficult to fire 10 shots in 3 seconds and lots of people are faster than that. 10shots in 3 seconds is "only" 200rnds per minute, but very few people could manage firing 200 shots in a single minute.
Look at it yet another way. Lets say you are shooting an M16, with a cyclic rate of 900rpm. Sound huge, right?? But what can actually be fired in 1 minute is a lot less. Ler's say the gun is fed from from the standard 30 rnd box. Now, to get to 900 rounds you'd have to have 30 magazines. And, lets say you are very fast and swapping mags and returning the gun to firing only takes you 1 second.
That would be 30 seconds of the time it takes to fire 900 rnds where the gun is NOT firing. Fully half a minute. That should clearly show how it is not possible for a shooter with regular equipment to meet that 900 rnd mark in one single minute time.
Simply put, the cyclic rate is the rate the mechanism cycles at and it is faster (considerably faster, usually) than the gun can actually be fired.
With hand held weapons, short bursts of fire at a high rate are possible, firing constantly for a full minute and meeting the cyclic rate of the gun in actual rounds fired, is not.
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An AR-15 with a bump stock can achieve a rate of fire of 1400 to 1500 rounds per minute,..
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Just out of curiosity, where does this number come from????
A bump stock CANNOT fire the gun faster than the cyclic rate (just not physically possible) and my (admittedly dated) books state the M16 has a cyclic rate of 700-900rpm. Just checked, and the Internet agrees with my old books. Internet gives a slightly higher top rate for the M4 carbine, 700-970rpm, and gives 800rpm as the cyclic rate for the AR-15.
SO, WHAT AR-15 runs at 1400-1500rpm???? With, or without a bump stock???
Seriously, I think that 1400-1500rpm RATE is BS.