Browning M1917: America's World War One Heavy Machine Gun
Вставка
- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- When the United States entered World War One, its military has a relatively tiny handful of machine guns, and they were divided between four different types, as the military budget was small and machine guns were not given much priority. However, since the failure of his gas-operated 1895 machine gun design to become a popular military item, John Browning had been working on a recoil-operated machine gun to replace it. This work became serious in 1910, and by 1915 Browning had met with Colt and agreed to give them exclusive license to his new design - and they began to work with him to refine and perfect it.
When the United States realized that it would be fighting in Europe and would need machine guns in 1917, it held an open trial for designs which Colt and Browning entered. The Browning gun was the undisputed star of the show, firing 40,000 rounds with only one parts breakage and no malfunctions that were not the fault of ammunition or belts. The gun was almost immediately adopted and pushed into production. Ultimately, Colt would allow the manufacture of its guns by Remington and New England Westinghouse, and Browning himself would accept a lump-sum royalty payment from the government for its use, which was about 3.5 million dollars less than he was contractually entitled to - out of patriotism and a desire not to profit too much from the war.
Browning 1917 machine guns would see only brief combat use in World War One, first tasting action in September of 1918. They would remain a staple of US military armament through World War Two, however, improved after the Armistice to the M1917A1 pattern. The gun we are looking at today is an original WW1 M1917, mounted on an equally rare M1917 original tripod.
/ forgottenweapons
Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! shop.bbtv.com/c...
If you enjoy Forgotten Weapons, check out its sister channel, InRangeTV! / inrangetvshow
Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
6281 N Oracle #36270
Tucson, AZ 85704
I've been watching Forgotten Weapons for a couple of years now, and I'm beginning to get the idea that this John Moses Browning guy was pretty good with guns.
Eks calybur Thar would be an understatement of his skills and talent.
Could not Agree More 🇺🇸😊🇺🇸
It seems like he had a few good ideas, and perhaps more importantly, good execution.
Laird Cummings well said 😎
Just a little bit, the man was a genius
Reading McBride's "A rifleman went to war" it was interesting to find that machine guns like this were originally considered 'artillery'. That tripod allowed for very precise defilade fire.
When you just consider the casualties they were dishing out, that was probably a more accurate classification really.
That’s exactly what they were. Before mortars medium MG were the principal area denial stand off weapon.
My grandfather was a crewman on this MG in WWI. He served in the120th Machine Gun Battalion and wounded in the Argonne Forest.
same. my grandfather got gassed in argonne. probably rode an M1917 just like this
Was he 79th division?
@@Autobotmatt428 C Co., 120th MGB, 32nd Division Red Arrow..
A ww2 vet told me before he passed that he was the ammunition guy for a m1917a1 during the pacific theater in ww2. He said the gun was fantastic and told many stories about it. He even got General MacArthur his morning coffee when he was a MP in occupied Japan. Thanks for the vid on this awesome gun
The gun was rock solid. Outdated by WW II standards, but still rock solid.
@Beef Stew
I thought that you were about to say that he used the machine gun to boil the water for MacArthur's coffee.
@@ianmacfarlane1241 boiling water infused with smokeless powder smoke make best coffee
Pour out the water from the shroud after firing a few thousand rounds.
It'll work, I swear.
I have one of the wooden ammo boxes; I found it in my grandparents' basement. My grandfather probably bought it in a surplus store after the war. He was about 15 when the U.S. went to war and convinced the army recruiters that he was 16, which required parental permission for enlistment. His father was a German immigrant, and veteran of the Franco-Prussian War, and did not want his son fighting against his former countrymen, so he would not sign the permission.
My bosses dad had about 30 of them at one time. Used them for kindling and storage. There's only one left now
Its one thing to try to go to war against your old man's ethnicity.
*Its another to go to war against the same exact military your old man used to be in.*
That story went a little whacky towards the end. I was not expecting that.
Spoicyy
I have a kinda similar story. My great grandfather wanted to fight in WW1, but his parents (especially his father) really didn't want him to go and help the British as they were Irish and hated the Brits with a burning passion for obvious reasons. He went to fight anyway and was promptly disowned for more then 25 years.
Growing up in Springfield I met many old timers who worked directly with Browning. All held him in awe.
A gun that simply doesn't stop working really is frightning. When JMB desinged a gun, he made sure that it worked. Period. And that's what a soldier essentially wants: A gun which he can rely on when things get bad.
"At the fierce battle of Momote Airstrip in the Admiralties, the US Army's 5th Cavalry machine gunners killed several hundred Japanese in one night using their M1917 Brownings; one gun was left in position after the battle as a memorial to the desperate struggle"
40k rounds and one failure, which wasn't even the gun's fault?
Damn, that's four times the whole expected lifetime of some modern weapons...
No sir. One failure which *was* the gun's fault. The remainder (an unspecified amount) were due to bad ammo or belts.
Big deal, see my comment.
The British Vickers gun was tested and fired for 7 days continuously with no flaws, only stopping to feed a new belt, replace worn out barrels and change the crew every half hour.
@@Cervando Huh. Must have wiped out the entire Red Army by the time they had finished.
@@underpaidmook It was actually done as a test long after the war, using a surplus gun and ammo after they replaced the Vickers.
"That was fun, y'all wanna shoot another twenty thousand?"
...and honestly, thats probably how it happened. xD
The good old days before ammo taxes.
"It's been issued out to us, I'd rather shoot it than turn it back in!"
It's a shame it fell out of favor with concealed carriers in the past few decades
Ah yes, open carrying my M1917 Browning machine gun with it's tripod
The problem is one of stopping power. Concealed carry is only good if it has the terminal effectiveness too.
@@alifr4088 idk why but I can only see that happening in a Walmart
@@reginaldsafety6090 you questioned the stopping power of .30-06?
At the Marine Corps machine gun leaders course on Camp Geiger, they have one of these completely chromed.
Brian Anderson oh boy Jacksonville, not fond of that town.
Brian you know what I mean, not only stationed there For SOI, but lived there, my estranged wife and kids still do. 2016-2017. Nothing there no jobs worth having unless affiliated with the Corps.
Yeah, was there from 98-02, I`m sure it hasn't improved much. The base IS the town. If your a 19yo Lcpl and like tattoo`s, strippers and getting drunk, no problem. But I sure as hell wouldn't want to raise a family there.
Brian Anderson 89-90, stationed camp Geiger. Lived there 2016-early 2017, oh and don't forget the barbershops, never have seen so many. There has been some growth. The have extended Western Blvd out and built up along the new part. But it really isn't much improved. Downtown around camp Johnson is still a dump.
I actually trained on a M1919 in the Canadian Army Reserve a few decades ago.
Now lug it around Battlefield 1 style.
I really love the classic feel of the WWI machine guns!
That fact that those designs are over a century old only makes it so much more amazing!
Years ago I met a World War 2 vet of the Royal Marines. He was on a machine gun crew that used a water cooled gun. He said that they used to fire off a bunch of rounds so that they could drain hot water out of the cooling jacket to make tea. Nice use of expensive ammo.
That pistol grip is hilarious.
Matthew Doye IKR its just this huge machine gun and then an itty bitty pistol grip
It’s just funny how they didn’t use the double grip button-trigger system
makes it illegal in california
@@wehex6947 I guess the magazine capacity is a bit high as well.
And so it began
Ian, the plug on the chain is not used for the steam condensing hose port but it used when pulling the barrel/operating group from the gun. The gun is pointed at a downward muzzle angle and as the barrel/operating group is pulled out of the back of the gun the stopper is used to plug the barrel packing hole to keep the water from running out. This allowed the gun to be cleaned or a worn barrel to be changed without losing all your water. The downward angle kept the water from coming out of the trunion barrel channel.
you solved a mystery, thank you!
Would you by any chance know how often one would have had to refill the water jacket once operating temperature was reached and under sustained fire? If you test fired 20 000 rounds, could you do it on one fill up? Once the water was boiling, did you have to top up every few belts? Did you wait for it to run dry and then re fill?
I do not know but the condensing can is not perfect and has losses due to some steam. That coupled with the normal leaks at the barrel packing glands means that there will always be required make up water for the gun. One belt will get the water int he jacket hot enough to blow like a steam loco. That said, many guys at MG shoots only have to fill the water jacket once and its enough for the day of shooting though its not being worked like in combat most of the time. At the end of one of my videos you can see the steam blowing from a Vickers after one 250 round belt. ua-cam.com/video/kbeB2aE0eDc/v-deo.html
Mongo63a It really depends, but safe sustained firing could be had as long as the barrel remained under water. I'm honestly surprised that flat bottomed water jackets weren't used, though that may be a good indication that they were a bad idea.
Edit. I actually looked at the 1917 after reading this and the placement of the barrel at the bottom of the jacket is basically what my mind had meant and also keeps the extra step of flattening the bottom out.
I can't say enough about the quality and accuracy of the historical information provided by Mr. McCollum. His videos are always interesting and entertaining and certainly informative. Thanks again.
John Moses Browning was LDS, so couldn't drink alcohol or coffee. This made him very angry and he vented that suppressed rage into gun design.
Being Mormon was his only flaw . . .
I understand. But can't Mormons have multiple wives? That would even it out a little, at least for me. If they don't all live at the same place of course! ;)
TonyNewJersey1 It was only during the mid 1800's due to how many husbands died on the trail to Utah. Today the church condemns the practice. (Source: am Mormon)
Thank you. I always thought the opposite was true. Makes sense though. Have a great day!
Marcus Borderlands the “they only adopted polygamy because so many men died” is a nice bit of apologetics, but it simply isn’t true. Joseph Smith began the practice of plural marriage long before he published his “revelation” on the subject. He had two dozen ‘wives’, some of whom were already married to living husbands and one of whom was recorded to be 14 years old.
Sources: 1. Was a Mormon for 28 years 2. CESletter.com
As for hot water jackets look at John Basilone and his MOH on Guadalcanal during WW2 he got a good burn from the gun as he lost his asbestos glove
Great video, Ian. The only thing even more rare than that 1917 Tripod is one that still has the traverse worm gear mechanism still intact! Mine is missing that as well, sadly. Another historical note on these, to add to your discussion of the weakness of the bottom plates: all the guns that remained in service after WWI received the reinforcing stirrup, which was the band-aid approach to strengthen the assembly. You are aware of that, certainly. The gun you had here is a rare one to have NOT been retrofitted as you point out. But while developing the 1918 Aircraft Gun at the end of that year, Marlin-Rockwell developed a fix for the cracking bottom plates, so that the stirrup was not needed. Unfortunately, virtually all the guns had been built before these changes could be introduced into production. While the limited production 1918 Aircraft models might have benefited (few were made), it was too late for the 1917s.
I just laugh at today's youtuber's, who cant deliver they're under 10 minute video's without looking at a screen or papers, when I see Ian giving such a detailed history by only looking at the subject matter it self for words while speaking. Really detailed history and in such a concentrated format, c'est magnifique! :D
He has used teleprompters lol. Almost everybody speaking at length does.
I'm off to watch The Pacific again to see these babies in action.
Browning is a genius. If I lived in that time, I would buy his 1911, trombone, model 8 and model 17.
"World Master Machine Gun Mechanic"
Pretty fitting for Our Lord and Savior John Moses Browning.
Vincent Simbe his great grand father was from colchester essex UK lol
@@mre.w.2850 yep, most people in the us were only a few generations away from Britain or Europe at that point lol.
Beautiful piece of kit. Browning sure was the man when it came to guns. Thank you for sharing Mr. Ian.
Why is John Browning so good with guns?
Stanislaus Kitagaul he was the original gun Jeasus
KaiserRolls Chicken that doesn't answer the question.
KaiserRolls Chicken AMERICA?
You might even say he was Gun Moses.
Well his father was pretty good with them too
John Browning was a gun god. His designs were far ahead of time and when implemented in WW1, was clearly vastly superior to any of those European forces ever have.
This gun is so fun to use in battlefield 1 multiplayer,especially with "An Escalation" skin
But it isn't munted on a tripod ingame,but a bipod
I learn so much from your videos. Nice closeup views of the weapons. The M1917 is a wonderfully engineered gun.
Just imagine firing 40 000 rounds in one sitting. I can't. Not even that the gun survives it, just the freaking amount of brass.
I have been involved in firing a hundred odd thousand rounds at a time. We used shovels and sand bags to clean up the empty brass.
BIIGtony
Google the WW I German Maxim gun that fired just shy of a million rounds. As I recall it was all in one battle.
Paul Shayter When the Brits were leaving 303 they decided to expend their reserves at a particular base in an extreme stress test of a Vicker's. Something like 5 million rounds over several days, alternating crews. Gun was completely in spec afterwards.
SgtKOnyx,
Yeah but that doesn't sound like the story I had heard, and although I don't recall who or from wear I was told the story it was a reputable source, maybe Gary James but I'm not certain. But the story I heard invloved the Germans and it was in battle and it was one machine gun.
Paul Shayter I wasn't trying to correct your story, I was telling a different one.
very cool to see the basic design and guts look remarkably similar to the M2, and to think we still rely on it today for our HMG of choice.
The M2HB is essentially a scaled up M1919, which is essentially an air cooled M1917. Very similar mechanically
Even uses the same headspace and timing gauges as the M1917. Or at least the plain M2 .50cals did. The M2A1 finally stopped needing to be headspaced with each barrel change.
8:31 - Assuming, of course, that the steam-discharge hose doesn't get clogged (in which case steam buildup will raise the pressure within the water jacket, increasing the boiling point of the water in the jacket and allowing it to get hotter than 100C) and that the water in the jacket doesn't boil completely dry (in which case the steam filling the jacket will start to heat beyond 100C).
Love your vids. I'm doing a school project on John Browning and this makes it a hell of a lot easier.
Nice Video, if you have the opportunity please do one about the Browning M2 from ww2, specially about the aircraft models.
This video is actually kind of funny in regards to Battlefield 1 (sorry Ian, I'm sure you hear comparisons a lot) because in that game the soldiers are actually able to just tote this gun around like a lewis gun.
Good friend of mine served during the early days of ww2 in the pacific.
He was a machine gunner.
He's saids he operated a water cooled machine gun.
Great explanation of the water cooling there, thanks Ian.
Man... These cats named Moses love their seas of red
Definitely up to your usual standards. Fine work. Keep 'em coming!
I can across three examples of the potato digger at the military museum in Bogota, Colombia. In later years after the remodeling on the museum one was removed to storage. The good news is they did keep the various Gatling on display
Lesson to learn: If John Moses Browning is making a gun, adopt it.
Edit: Oh wow! Winchester did exactly that! Went to a meeting for something unrelated, saw Browning was making a trapdoor rifle that was better than the new Winchester and offered to buy it when it was ready. That's actually badass! Check out the vid Ian did on that rifle, here: ua-cam.com/video/kx6xaNab5Es/v-deo.html
I dug up the brass I.D. plate/strap guide of an Browning tripod. I have it to a friend whom is a Nat'l guard veteran.
The carry holster for this must be wild
Great video! Particularly interesting as My Grandfather crewed a machine gun in the South Pacific in WWII. I have to believe it was a 1919A1.
Always loved the American 17 more than the British and German models. More comfortable to use and just looks better.
I like how in BF1 you can carry this 47 kg heavy machine with 500 rounds, with no difference in speed to someone carrying a kolibri. I know it's just a game, and I'm not getting angry in any way, but it just seems really funny to me.
I mean in game it's called "low weight"
TIL how water cooled machine guns worked. I legitimately always thought the water was circulated by some sort of pump mechanism, not just by the steam itself. Huh.
I didn't even know they tried to collect the steam, I just figured they topped it off when it was low with fresh water
I get the feeling that Ian is going to bid on this
Maybe he should have a GoFundme drive to buy it. Then hold a contest drawing, with the winner getting a trip out to Tucson to shoot it.
This gun is in call of duty world at war
@@sarahrigdon6774 That was the M1919
John Moses Browning was a freaking genius....❤❤
Got an A-5 Browning Autoloader 12 gauge from the same year I wuz hatched...😂
(1955)... It's been modified. It's an A-8 now..!!!! Home defense monster killer.......
One point about water cooling, it only keeps that limit of 100°c if pressure can be relieved. Water under pressure can't boil, a cars radiator demonstrates this well. The water and barrel will take longer to reach the point of overheating but it will get there will enough continuous fire.
This can be incredibly dangerous as sudden release of pressure, again car radiators show this well, will cause flash boiling and a jet of superheated steam. That stuff will mess you up, instant burns sometimes 3rd or 4th degree, we're talking skin bubbling straight off in extreme cases.
To make water cooling work and to make sure 100°c is the limit, a water cooling system must have a means to relieve pressure so that water can in fact boil.
Since water has a specific heat capacity of 4.8j (the energy required to heat 1ml by 1°c), a 1gal jacket (approx 4.5l) can take 1,728,000J of additional thermal energy assuming the water goes in at 20°c and exits at 100°c. It only weighs 4.5kg and obviously can be drained to save weight when moving the gun. Plus that thermal energy is being slowly dissipated by the larger jacket. If we say that jacket is 70cm long and 10cm in diameter, that's a potential 2279cm² cooling area, and that's assuming the rear face of the water jacket is obstructed and therefore not involved in cooling. A barrel 1" or 2.54cm in diameter (super heavy for a 7.62mm bore) and 75cm long (let's be generous and assume this crazy over built MG has a bit sticking clear of the water jacket) would only have 599cm² cooling area but would weigh a considerable amount, even with the bore drilled out. Definitely more economical to water cool.
What caliber was this, 30-06?
Yes.
This is WW1 America, why WOULDNT it be a .30-06 cal?
Now that you've mentioned the "Potato Digger" machine gun, I wish you'd get a look at one and tell its history and mechanics sometime!
It seems to be one of the indeed forgotten weapons, for comparability - Maxim and its licensed derivatives, Hotchkiss and Lewis are from the same era, but they seem to be much better remembered, even though Browning M1895 too had seen actual and substantial combat with Belgian troops in WWI, at least that's what I remember reading.
Thanks for quality content Ian, I'm using this video as a source in an undergraduate economics paper about how national defense works (or doesn't) as a public good. Wish me luck!
I never heard anyone pronounce "metallurgy" like that before.
rotgut14 Turns out dialects exist
Invents the Gas Operated Machine gun, it's too far ahead of its time, so makes a recoil-operated one that can shoot 40k rounds straight. What a badass.
I don't think you mentioned that these guns were actually used by Marines during WW2, particularly during the Battle of Guadalcanal--back then, the Marines were still using bolt-action rifles and these water-cooled machine guns. John Basilone was portrayed actually picking one up and carrying it himself--and even firing it from the hip at point-blank range in the jungle--and burning his forearm badly in the process, because he'd lost his glove.
Imagine going into battle with a gun designed by your father.
Browning was a fucking genius. Plan and simple.
Browning made the first semi auto shotgun, too? This guy is a legend.
Browning made machine guns still in use with the US Military today, notably this thing’s bigger cousin the M2 .50 cal. He also designed the m1911 pistol, which was the standard issue US pistol for nearly 70 years. Dude was probably the best gun designer ever
What a fascinating machine! Thanks for this video!
This guy is a great communicator and historian!
Man you know a videos gonna be comfy when Ian is sitting on the floor next to a big piece of ordinance
I've used one of these... On BF1... Hope I get the chance to try one out on a range at some point.
If the water jacket is reasonably tight, then when the gun cools the vacuum in the water jacket should suck up a good part of the water that passed as steam into the condenser. Ian is absolutely right with the explanation, it works as a constant-temperature device. The Vickers was the first with this more intricate plumbing, and the Russian version "Maksim" had a huge filling plug you could force snow into. Presumably it would land on a trough lengthwise at the top of the jacket, where the steam collects and not directly on the barrel, which might not be very good if the barrel had overheated. The glands at the ends of the jacket may be asbestos, beware.
Thanks Ian!
The US Marine Corps did not recive the most up to date guns early in the pacific campaign.
At Gudalcanal, what watercooled version of that old gun did they use?
I believe they fougt of repeatly Banzai attacks with it.
Some guy even got a Medal of Honor.
I think it was John Basilone.
Later tragically killd at Iwo Jima.
Never to be forgotten!
That would make a nice vid.
Thats one hell of a beautiful machine
I love my Auto-5. And anything that works on the same principle. I also like things with pawls in....you know, intermittent motion mechanisms.The water jacket won't burn, it will scald. Different injury.
The water in it will scald you, the metal jacket will give you a burn.
SgtKOnyx If the jacket is wet, it will be scald. If dry, a burn....
Paul Passat Sure. Not that big a difference anyways, you're hurt either way. Don't touch it.
SgtKOnyx You are right.... of all the injuries a belt fed machine gun could cause, wondering whether you are burnt or scalded is probably the least of your worries!
Fantastic video and informative. I didn´t know how it works besides not give away the position.
I read that the marines drilled holes in the bolts in-order to increase rate of fire?
you the man! I feel like I learn something every episode (often many times per episode)
But as they put 5 million rounds through a Vickers, surely these two weapons would have drawn.
I mean, it's an early 20th century heavy machine gun inspired by the maxim, how different could they possibly have been?
I wish it was legal to release blueprints to older guns
1:52 "The Little Things: The Story of Browning's Auto 5"
Such a beautiful weapon. It was basically space age technology when it came out. The water cooled design was probably the best part of the weapon. Can literally fire the fricker till there was no more ammo and it still was able to keep firing. To be honest can you imagine being told that the enemy had a gun that can shoot like 700 rounds per minute and its water cooled so it can just keep firing non stop than they are telling you that you have to go with your team to run STRAIGHT at the enemy's position. Ww1 was literally the begining of modern warfare. Can you imagine that your running into a field with barbed wire amd artillery shells are landing all over. The enemy has machine guns can can kill people with 1 shot to the chest. They also have rifles that are accurate up to 400 yards and are also a 1 shot kill to the center of mass. They got deadly gas in artillery shells that can kill you a very violent way. They got machines that can push thru barbed wire and other defensive positions without any problem and has like 4 machine guns and a main cannon. And lastly they had thousands of people trying to kill you. Like the scale of the armies and the advancement in warfare technology was such a dangerous combination. To think that you could be killed while you sleep from a gas attack or artillery shell or you could be raided and stabbed to death in your sleep. Or you get ordered to charge enemy positions and are basically told that your chances off survival are literally 0%. Industrial murder basically. It's also crazy to think that this was 100 years ago. We went from the first planes with weapons on them and zeppelins with fricken machine guns and cannons and the first tanks and major artillery cannons with poison gas shells to nuclear bombs that can turn cities into ash. We have huge ships that can launch fighter jets and others that are made to sink other ships. To tanks that can take an RPG round and it just shrugs it off. Artillery that can hit targets miles away. Portable machine guns that can shot 1000 rounds per minute. The advancements made to weapons in the last 150 years is really just amazing. The newest weapons I saw which is amazing is a weapon for riot control which basically just shots a high beam of electromagnetic waves that to unarmored targets feels like opening a hot oven. The anti missile system that shoots a shit load of mini rockets at incoming missiles. And the navy's rail gun which stopped getting funding but the idea of a projectile being launched by magnetic waves pushing it to 4000 feet per second. Like holy shit man. Of china makes a fully functional rail gun they will probably be able to take over the Pacific ocea.
Legend says the Brits would run a belt through to boil the water for tea time.
*John Basilone intensifies*
MyNameIsMud oorah
Primus sucks
@@numbermunch916 you're a toolbag
@@johnballs1352 tool is a good band too
@@numbermunch916 Primus sucks!
Battlefield 1 support soldiers carrying it like it was an LMG XD
Couldn't the Leidenfrost effect allow it to overheat? Same thing can happen in car engines. A hot spot will develop, steam will be created faster than water can replace it and that localized spot skyrockets in temp.
No. It doesn't heat up that quickly.
Wish I knew more on screen about this one
Looks exactly like the Maxim which was in turn nearly identical to the Vickers.
An anachronism for sure, but who can forget Warren Oates screaming: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" while firing this during the shootout in the Wild Bunch?
This is my favourite machine gun
Gun Jesus also knows about thermodinamics! I now understand that behind every sentence from our Lord Gun Jesus there is a good amount of documentation, study ... It's so rare today found someone that really knows what he is talking about.
Uhh not to discredit Ian, but how is this knowledge extraordinary? I think everyone knows how hot the liquid water and vessel it's in can get, just think of the water jacket on HMG as of a huge kettle you boil the water in, and, well, here's all the thermodynamics knowledge you need in this case.
@@czwarty7878 eh I didn't know it, not extraordinary but still a little impressive.
That "Potato Digger" nickname explanation made me giggle like a little girl. Thanks, Ian!
I know it's not really "forgotten", but is there a chance that a Browning M1919 video might be in the works?
"If you ever find one of these..." whilst talking about a WW1 heavy machine gun and tripod. Like someone's just gonna go up into grandads attack and discover one of these stashed in amongst the home movies and dusty playboys. Please note, I am being facetious. I understand this does sometimes happen and that Ian was also talking about at an auction. Just wanted to poke fun at the absurdity of finding a light psuedo artillery piece outside of an auction house
I may be 100 years late to the fight, but imagine if they made an electic motor, powered by the recoil, when fired, that would circulate the water through an evaporator, to a condeser, then back to the gun? Maybe even just to charge a battery to run a small motor/pump for water/alternative cooling methods. It would be pretty heavy, but it would allow for a continuous amount of fire only predicated on the barrel life or machine tolerances. Much like an air conditioner works. ACs will work for years until physical part failure or degredation of components instead of warping or overheating.
I would honestly rather carry another 20 pounds of a little motor then have to change a barrel on a 50 cal or M240. It is always hot, nasty and you usually have to be exposed while there is a decent pause in fire. Also, to be honest, no one down range can really tell the difference between 400-600+ rounds per minute. All we know is that there is a bunch of lead in the air going in the wrong direction. So, would I rather have a 450rpm, cyclic rate gun that fires reliably, for extended durations, suppressing the enemy or one that fires 900-1200 rounds per minute that needs a barrel change every belt? I will take the slower gun.
Also, the ammo usage is lower and the cone of fire on a something like a 30 cal would be far smaller then a lot of guns these days. The trade off is weight. In defense and mounted, they are great. On the other hand, I don't want to lug around a tripod mounted LMG that weighs as much as a modern M2.
*1 malfunction in 40,000 rounds* “ that’s not too bad”
Ian is gun jesus
John browning was gun jesus
Most people: immortality if fake
Me: gun jesus
Hey Ian.....weird question and perhaps you either don't know (or can't reveal for legal/contract purposes), could you do a complication video of your most widely viewed/most significant/rare older auction items (such as the above) and tell us what these were eventually sold for at the end of the auction? Just the money, not the person or anything....... ?? Maybe top 20-30 ? I'm rather interested if we are looking at thousands, tens of thousands, even just ballpark would be interesting......
Or is there a single source you can link to?
.
That is absolutely cool as fuck.
Makes me wonder if they (or anyone has) tried using a closed loop cooling system, using the action plus the steam power should be enough to run a pump and fan to make use of a radiator.
Xelbiuj I had always thought of wrapping the barrel in copper tubing and possibly using some thing like freon. Although I have very little idea how to make this work practically.
Shawn R
I thought that'd be a neat way to cool something like, say, guns in space. Where they'd have to be artificially cooled because of the lack of air. A modern freon A/C system would probably work really well for mounted guns.
Laenthal Yes it would not be practical at all but quite possibly a neat concept weapon.
Warriorcat49 Why would you need freon?
A firearm in space presents numerous challenges. Aside from recoil which would affect the user as much as the intended target. Equal and opposite reaction thing.
Among other things keeping the barrel cool if you had to would be as simple as the end of the barrel in the extreme cold of space.
In my opinion firearms in space would not be very practical.
If fired in orbit a cloud of bullets potentially highly effective against your target could become and orbiting cloud of destruction.
Probably better to stick to energy weapons.
Can't help myself from being pedantic but a gun in space (at least for single shot) would work just fine. The bullet will carry as much energy that's in the recoil but obviously the target is going to take damage whereas the shooter will just be moved back some. Just like on Earth, if you fire a bullet into a gun, it'll destroy the gun you hit, but not the gun you shoot from, a controlled explosion is much more manageable.
Convection cools much better in atmosphere, most of the heat would be lost due to thermal radiation so absolutely barrels would heat up quicker and stay hot longer. Energy weapons are definitely the way out go.
So this inspired the water-cooled "Assault Rifle" from Fallout 4
Ian have you ever considered doing a detail video comparing the vickers to the browning?
Hi, guys.
Has Ian done any videos on various aircraft machine guns from WW2? I've been looking around the sight and I'm not seeing anything specific. I ask because I was reading through some old books by RAF pilots and they often mentioned that the adoption of the Browning 1919, over the Vickers, allowed firepower to be increased by placing the guns in the wings of fighters. Apparently, the RAF was never convinced that the Vickers was reliable enough to place it anywhere the crew couldn't reach it to clear stoppages. Or, perhaps, you could offer some other sources on the same subject?
Thanks, all!
In bf1 you can hold 250 box magazine with the m1917 while hold it on your own
Amazing! (I mean sarcasm)
I love using that gun but man it's hard to suspend my disbelief
There is a picture of a soldier holding the weapon by himself, but lots of parts of the weapon are stripped down.
It looks ridiculous. But it's also a game so...
+Jack Clock Certainly holding it without the tripod (which in WWI context means: Not ready to fire). There’s a reason why machine gun teams were typically over four people in size, usually 6 or more guys, not including the NCO commanding the gun.
British troops probably used the warm water from the barrel to make tea
Thankfully *not* a forgotten Weapon!
The colt potato digger was used by Italy and Spain and was improved into the marlin aircraft gun
Which was also used on British shipping in ww2 it was dependable but rather lackluster and never got out of the browning 1917/19*