Colt's MG52-A: Water-Cooled 50-Caliber Heavy Machine Gun for the World
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- Опубліковано 20 сер 2024
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Before the Browning M2, there was a series of Colt commercial .50 caliber machine guns. The .50 BMG (12.7x99mm) cartridge began development in 1918, and after the end of the war Colt and John Browning finalized a water-cooled machine gun to use it. While military experimentation and development continued, Colt introduced the gun as the Model 1924, and sold it in both water-cooled and air-cooled varieties. The names were changed in 1932/3 to become the MG52 (water cooled) and MG53 (air cooled) to keep the guns sounding modern. In addition, they introduced the MG52-A, which was a water cooled model with interchangeable feed to accommodate vehicle and dual mounts.
The Model 1924/MG52 has a number of early features that would be changed when the M2 become the standard model. These have simple straight-line charging handles, instead of the camel system of the M2. They have rear sights like the early M1917 .30 caliber guns, manual safeties, and are built on dedicated water-cooled receivers (the M2 would introduce a universal receiver). Only a few thousand of these were made by World War Two, and their production did not resume after the war.
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"So he scaled it up to more huger." Easy with the technical terms Ian, most of us aren't rocket surgeons.
Sounds like he's been talking to Othais too much. That boy's a bad influence, I tell ya.
@@danielcurtis1434 You must have not had the pleasure of trying to charge one of those 50's, even the M2 is still very hard to charge if not mounted. Im suprised he did it as easily as he did.
More huger = more dakka dakka
@@iamnolegend483 technically more huger means more 'da' in dakka. 'ka' comes from making it more fasterer.
@@benholroyd5221 thank you for the clarification
Nice water heater!
No water on the snowy mountain range and it's freezing. See one enemy battalion of motorized unit. One hot coffee coming right up! *puts snow into the MG*
@Stop Banningme sounds like freedom
Angreyboiler go BUMBUMBUMBUM
@Stop Banningme 🤣
@Stop Banningme
> Your water heaters making a bunch of weird noises bro
"Nae, laddie, that's juist proactive noise discipline sae th' enemy does nae disturb us while we're haein a bru." ;-)
"I'm in awe at the size of this lad! An absolute unit."
A marvelous Chad."
Ian says Hugely, in this context I approve.
"Now: More huger!"
Oh lawd he comin'
This is so oversized it feels like one of those double-sized training models with the cutaways.
Ever play a game with mostly-accurate gun models? Like they’re pretty good but they’re either way too small or way too big? This looks like that
"Honey, does this water jacket make me look fat?"
John Moses Browning. the greatest mechanical engineer never to go to an engineering school.
John Browning exists;
Engineer schools that only survive because of government mandated loicenses around the world; "Are you trying to get me killed over here? Am I a joke to you!?" Also "NOOOOOOOOO YOU CANT MAKE GUNS WITHOUT A LOICENSE!!!!!!"
Also John Browning; Haha, assembly go clinccccccccccck and cloooooooooonck.
@@tzardnickolasthelitromanov cringe at you trying way too hard.
@@Sycophants_should_suffer bruh, why do you have to be such a downer?
@@tzardnickolasthelitromanov you're such a cliché.
@@Sycophants_should_suffer Let people have their fun. Your comment wasn't warranted nor necessary
The M60 in the background looks like a little guy among all these beasts!
A little piglet.
The MG 42 too.
It's different class of MG.
@@MIMthegreat Nah the 42 looks like it’s about to rip the M60 into scraps
I think that might be an Israeli M2 back there too. At least the carry handle looks like one.
A fifty calibre machine gun for the world, now that’s what I call philanthropy.
'Murica.
Arms depot to the world.
@FBG KOut no, war is the destruction of value on a grand scale. *SUPPLYING* in preparation for war, THAT is the racket.
Thata my philosophy
Humanitarian.
Lolz
Thanks! I used to tell people the .50 cal was water cooled at one time but nobody believed me.
The M15 half-track with the 37mm and dual .50s has water-cooled .50s.
My great grandfather used this mg in the pacific. He got shot twice in the shoulder and had his left leg blown off from a mortar in the Battle of Saipan.
Well did you tell him he should have been more careful with the damned thing? They make those guns for the enemy not to be used against your own men 😂
@@TheBootyWrangler I'm pretty sure what Miteb meant is that his grandfather was shot by an enemy soldier.
In the movie "Midway", one of these guns are seen as an anti-aircraft weapon on the island.
Australia also used some in that role at about that time.
The actor portraying Doris "Dorie" Miller is shown using one in the movie "Tora! Tora! Tora!"
The old Midway, not the bad new one.
The US Navy used water cooled Brownings during the interwar period and into 1942, on ships for AA defense, although it was very quickly tested and found to be entirely lacking in enough power to do the job. It was only kept around until the 20mm Oerlikon was available in enough numbers to replace them. Even in the interwar period, the Navy knew they were inadequate, but both money and availability of an alternative were lacking.
@@jarink1 Much of the footage of the "Japanese bombing of Midway" in the movie Midway is taken straight out of Tora! Tora! Tora!
The m2 in the background be like: hello grampa, how are you doing today?
"I want to be fed ..."
I feel like it wants to tell me old war stories about World War One.
Hot coffee, anyone? Pass me a belt of ammo...
But seriously now, that thing is a monster.
i'll get the cups!
That might actually be worth $10 a cup...
@@ScottKenny1978 pretty sure you could sell at that price at the Big Sandy shoot...
@@lairdcummings9092 crud, could probably sell at twice the price there! 😆
I've heard stories of the british making tea that way during world war 1
Good ol' Ian, rewarding us for waking up early with a video about machine guns to get our day started.
"more huger"
A blessing from the Lord
Like a good ol cup of jim eagle.
Cries in Australian
Did you pinch yourself to make sure you're not dreaming 😴 👍
So this is why the M2 video was suddenly popping up about 6 hours ago. All you patreons went and had a watch :)
Ian: *mentions the M2 repeatedly
The M2 in the background that didn’t even get mentioned: “am I a joke to you?”
Not like he's just gonna reach back and plonk it on the table...
@@jasta07 *insert man baby paragraph about how we did it in the navy seals whilst simultaneously wrestling an Alaskan bull worm and eliminating all of Isis whilst carrying an M2
He’s just such a Chad that he forgot he had a whole ass M2 behind him, too casual to him
"Dude, I'm RIGHT HERE!"
@@jasta07 I got a badass picture of my dad during his deployment in what used to be Yugoslavia in '94 where he's holding an M2 in his hands, gives a pretty good idea how huge they are
8:30 I like that every little piece has a name in the world of machining.
For a second I wondered what kind of person needs a water-cooled 50 cal machine gun, then I realized it's me.
So basically this thing was a semi mobile coffee machine at an affordable price for armies around the world? Sounds like a fantastic deal!
Every mess section needs one!
"This bad boy can brew 6 cups of coffee per Japanese platoon we come across... if the weather isn't too cold. If that's the case Private Spade will just have to spot more enemies instead of drinking coffee..."
@@andersjjensen denying Pvt. Spade his coffee makes him cranky, which makes him eager to spot enemies to be punished, thus making for automatic (heh) temperature regulation.
the water gets asbestos contaminated so I wouldn't recommend it
@@Ukraineaissance2014
Shush, you're ruining the joke.
Ian, blink very rapidly if Morphy is holding you against your will. Or is it that they can't get rid of you? 😏
They’re charging him rent at this point and making him wash dishes.🤣👍🥃
@@BillMcGirr as much as he probably makes them with the increased winning bids? I doubt it.
We may need to send someone in to shout "Ian! I found a whole case of 7.65 French Longue for sale!" to make sure Ian actually eats sometimes...
Ian, I felt your pain trying to charge it on a table, with the barrel installed. Even on a M2 it can be difficult to get enough leverage to retract the bolt, but that straight bolt handle can only make it incredibly difficult. It makes sense why this example has both charging handles installed, just to get enough leverage to yank the bolt back.
Barrel changes and setting headspace must be quite tiring, since you can't have a helper push the barrel back to help retract the bolt extension.
Mowing down the Japanese army attacking Henderson field behind one of these was the highlight of Medal of Honor Pacific assault.
Those were .30 cal M1917s.
@@petesheppard1709 1919's, I'm pretty sure they didn't have water jackets in the game.
@@petesheppard1709 I think you’re thinking of the level after where you had to use the 1919s. Henderson field had the .50s with the anti air sights.
@@McSkumm I'm pretty sure the Marines still had M1917s, but am ready to learn. They did indeed rearm with M1919s afterward, as they went to M1 Garands.
@@itsconnorstime Hm. I'm open for learning, but I had never heard of .50s on the lines. Pressed into stopping Japanese penetrations would not be implausible.
This just looks like a cartoonishly oversized m1917 mg
edit: alright, my gut feeling was right
"Embiggened"
@J F So was the M2..
Have you seen the Pom Pom gun? Pretty much a 37mm Maxim machinegun
...all it really needs is a shoulder sling....for walking fire....
@@TheWolfsnack and three healthy lads following to bear the ammunition.
Serving in the IDF armour corps these "early pattern M2s" were the only ones we knew. The manual timing and headspacing procedure was to be done every morning.
An interesting mention is that the headspacing tool had several flaps, one reading the relevant 0.5, while the more interesting marked with the long gone (in Israeli service) 7.92.
We had to do headspace and timing on our M2's in Iraq.
Now imagine that thing having RoF of one of airforce .50's with 1200-1500RPM. Absolute monster.
A forgotten weapons machine gun video on a Monday morning is a good start for my week. Thank you Ian.
Thank you for the high quality images from all the different angles. It’s hard to find good pictures of small up close details, but your videos always have a great fly over of the weapon for viewing needs. Your channel has been amazing for my 1:1 scale modeling hobby.
Keep up the great work Ian
Who else wants to see Ian use one of these in a 2 gun match at some point?
I think Ian is probably stuck in Morphy Auction House for almost a week now LMAO.
Comments about briar patches are for some reason running through my head. :)
@Ban this youtube I like the cut of your jib, we can recreate the Cold War, but with gun forts!
"Guys, hate to say it but.. there was a Covidcase here soo... we're all under quarantine in this building."
*everybody moans annoyed
*Ian giggles like a little child trapped over night in a candyshop
@Ban this youtube forts, castles, MACHICOLATIONS!
He’s probably ok with that, that’s Ian’s environment!
I'm honestly surprised we don't have more water cooled heavy machine guns like this.
The main disadvantage is weight & mobility. The reason LMGs are air cooled with a quick change barrel.
However, heavy machine guns like this are almost exclusively vehicle mounted, negating that.
Their intentions were Noble.
50 cal for the World. Not everyone does that.
Not gonna lie, if there was a hall of fame for universal multi use machine guns this would be the first inductee!!! What an amazing, long lasting and well built platform!
My late uncle had one of these under his bed when I was a kid. I thought it was so amazing.
Sounds perfect for home defence just have to hope the burglar gives you time to setup a tripod
It's sad that firearms just tend to disappear, sold for a few extra dollars. My grand grandfather brought back a Luger P.08 and he really didn't have the foresight to say who it goes to in the will, so the wife just sold it.
My grandpa has blued some of these some are in a museum on the east coast wish I knew where remember seeing these in parts laying around the shop as a kid
“More huger”. The perfect description of anything .50 caliber.
I kinda expected Ian to mention the cyclic rate of this gun. It is one Fast Fifty!
Nice video. Take Care and be safe, John
Its so beautiful. I would think you would probably be able to get a letter from Colt on who was the original buyer and when shipped.
"Where is this gun best applicable?"
US Military: The answer is yes
In ALL the places.
@@TheRealColBosch Sounds about right. Even today a 50 BMG is the right answer for pretty much anything right up to "Now we need 125mm depleted uranium SLAP ammo, or we need to get the fuck out of dodge right quick in a hurry 'cause that moving house of steel will spot us any minute!".
@@TheRealColBosch Apparently the Jeep had to stop and once the M2 was firing, it would squat the vehicle to the point where it couldn't move.
Also, you couldn't do short bursts since the jeep springs going up and down would throw off your aim.
Something we always did with our M2 when the backplane was removed was to un-notch the recoil spring as soon as we removed the plate.
That prevented the spring being launched if for some reason the charging handle got yanked back.
Ian forgot to mention they also designed it for concealed carry
Yeah... Let me shuffle that down me trousers. No one will notice...
You know what they say, anything is an enema if you're brave enough.
Well, ya can conceal almost anything inside a Sherman.
"Most huger" 🤣 You just made my whole morning Ian!
When you link together all the belts of ammo you have and want to do the greatest mag-dump of all time
If it's anything like the vickers, you could be at it for a couple of weeks and still not break the gun
This video single handedly made the entire town of Raritan, NJ proud. Rest in peace Gunnery Sgt John Basilone
10:22 Ian gets it wrong: it actually takes 2 gallons of piss. Even comes with a trench latrine for the Doughboys to piss into with a pipe that runs directly into the barrel jacket :)
I feel like I've seen these in AA mounts on pre-ww2 warships
I looked around a bit and was unable to find much about the mg52 being used as an aa gun I expect your thinking of the British 1 pounder. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QF_1-pounder_pom-pom
@@roterex9115 I'm sure I saw a photo of a royal navy ship mounting one of these, I think on a minesweeper.
@@rogernicholls2079 quite possible i didn't spend that much time in it.
The battleships at Pearl Harbor were equipped with water-cooled .50-caliber guns, and they were some of the first weapons to be brought into action during the attack. This video from the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial's channel talks about the water-cooled .50 starting at 0:40.
ua-cam.com/video/0wiUU3sVWJ4/v-deo.html
Thanks for bringing us another cool firearm. I really like this 50 cal. It's just different from the m2 that I think it would get lots of attention at a mg shoot!
And while Ian delighted us with his dissertation on the American MG-52, an MG-42 seized the opportunity and tried to get a green card by discreetly sitting between some other American equipment...
best channel for gun ppl
5:10 Very cool how the C stamp in Colt is styled different from the other capitalized C’s
I worked in a Museum for 3 years and the Water cooled fifty was my favorite beating out the Lahti but just barely
@Ban this youtube the Muzzle break on those things is insane. What about the Model-T hand crank? LOL
Honestly, I don't know why production on these stopped. The air-cooled version is only marginally more man-portable. These are almost always mounted on fixed positions on vehicles. Until the M2A2 (literally this decade), changing the barrel was a process the required a partial disassembly of the weapon and burning your hands on the barrel, so I think not needing to change the barrel would be fantastic.
Holy hell, those screws on the front site hood are M A N G L E D.
Also i love how the camera angle in no way gives justice to how gargantuan that spring actually is! Lol
And one person had to pack this in addition to all their other equipment. Now that took a real man. I have packed large chunks of iron through bad terrain, I was never getting shot at either.
I don’t think anyone ever had to carry this solo, it weighs like 120 pounds without the tripod.
This is really cool! Now I know there is not a catalog, but it would be cool if you could find a KPV 14.5 HMG. You might find that one overseas.
The Baltics nations have some I think. Finland has some too. Can get one from Bulgaria as well since they're locally produced under license.
If there's any in the US, ammo is a real problem. No local production, and Uncle Sam does not like importing calibers over .50"/12.7mm
Now to watch Ian fire at towed aerial targets at the range.. ;-)
I never got to work with any of these but the M2 had to change barrels every once in a while. (I'm not a heavy machinegunner, but practically every vehicle in the Military at least has a pintle mount for the Ma Deuce) I have to think that water cooling would only increase it's practical firepower. Since you don't have to change hot barrels periodically to let them cool.
You don't have to worry about cooling at all..as long as there is sufficient water/steam in the jacket you can't get the barrel above 212F... (more or less) which is no problem at all.
I recall seeing a water cooled .50 caliber used in the movie “Midway.” I thought cooling a beast that fires rounds that big was probably a great idea, and wondered why the idea wasn’t continued in later production weapons. Just imagine a quad .50 mount with a powered water pump keeping these things from overheating. Good medicine for human wave attacks or to destroy an old Chevy.
they had quad version in the 60s I believe
7:00 no wonder why the owner put charging handle on both sides
Ian says "only 11 thousand" but I'm amazed there were that many men brave enough to fire it in 1931
Ah yes, I had always wondered if they could have made a heavier version of Ma Deuce.
Technically you could in theory have a coffee break between low level air attacks. The hot water readily provided by the water cooled jacket. Need a Folgers sticker for the water jacket. :)
You guys are true coffee addicts if you'd use THAT water for a drink! lol
Argentina must have bought a bunch, cause theres a photo where 8 (yes 8!) are mounted on a truck!
When the video started I was waiting for the Colt reveal and when Ian said, here it is, I was like, that's a table... oooooh.
Ian, you find the most obscure and interesting weapons. Your videos are so informative.
That is a nice looking BlasTech DLT-19 heavy blaster rifle in the background.
Those were MG34s, there's a MG42 behind Him.
Coffee tastes better with water heated from a more huger machine gun.
It’s science.
I'm surprised that the army didn't request a version with a shoulder stock.
The development line for the MG52 sounds a bit like the M1919 being developed to the M2
Edit: Huh, so that's the actual lineage
A noble spirit embiggens the hugest machine guns
Ian's got to get to the gym to pull the charging handle on that MG52.
US Military: pls make more huger?
Browning: ya sure
Having two charging handles might help the gunner as it would let him use both hands to charge the thing.
The USN used a large number of the water cooled gun, I think.
this is the birthday present I didn't know I wanted!
happy birthday!
The video, or ...?
Happy birthday!
After watching the nth video of yours, I guilted myself into a Patreon subscription. Good work, Ian!
What was the first guns to start using disintegrating belts? Have you done a video about the history of belt feeding?
I don't think he has, but that is kinda up the alley of the FW website.
Besides this being a scaled-up M1917, the .50 BMG is a scaled-up .30-06. All dimensions of the .50 are the same dimensions of the .30 scaled up 65%.
This gun is the best example of what isn't broken, don't replace it.
And the best example of how to break something really fast
The US has finally found a needed improvement modification for the Ma Deuce: fixed headspace and timing.
In the process of doing the upgrades, they found pre-ww2 guns still in service.
What a amazing 50 cal from Colt the Daddy from every aspect including size. Thanks for the video's Ian...
that recoil spring looks so small for such a large gun
Really appreciate the great footage of the sights. Thanks Ian!
The double cocking handle looks like the gun was cocked by both hands either side on a mount.
1 thing wrong. Those feed stops are interchangeable between left and right side. Its annoying to change, but they can be
Saw some water cooled .50 cal MGs in early WW2 Navy combat films when the Japanese were rampaging in the Pacific.
Listen to Ian while I'm driving
I can't listen to Ian while you're driving unless you publish your itinerary.
Me too!
Hard to not sneak a peek...
@@petesheppard1709 "Yo! Is that forgotten weapons! crank that shit up!"
"More huge:er"
That pretty much sums up the US mentality to me...
Embiggening.
We do it best.
Take a map of western europe. If you lay that over a map of the US, Portugal and Spain are in Texas and Italy is in Florida. Denmark is in North Carolina.
The state I live in is 300mi/500km east to west, and 500mi/800km north to south.
@@ScottKenny1978 Oregon is larger than the entire UK.
Wow that bolt assemble really hasn’t changed at all since they made it ambi-feed. The 2 m2s we have with our unit have the same exact bolt assembly
now we're waiting for a video of you shooting this big monster.
"More huger" is my favorite size of gun.
Who the hammered Hell gave this a thumbs down!🤬😡
There will always be haters.
@@lairdcummings9092 and bots
The guy who spent several thousand dollars for a semi automatic conversion of this.
There’s always a few.
Dshk fanboys
I wonder if they saw some LTT videos back in the days and thought to themselves:
If they can watercool everything, we can too!
Ian, could you try to get your hands on a gun using the Gast principle of operations, notably the Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-23. Would be a challenge to find but the design is unique.
Isn't that the one where the gun has two barrels and the recoil from one barrel loads the other one?
I think Ian has covered the Hughes heli-gun, which works the same way.
At first glance I thought it was an M2 with a massive suppressor
Now THAT'S a weapon for home defense right here!
Thinking of using one for concealed carry 🤔
If you're putting these babies for HD, you better give it turret shields and mechanized rotation to complete the package
@@ArcturusOTE quad mount in a Maxon M45 turret.
Serious question: what about a freezer cooler gun? Imagine creating a form fitting freezer that surrounds the gun, could that help keep a chain gun from overheating?
When water cooling just isn't cumbersome enough because you're more masochistic than other people.
Machine guns don't need to be extraordinarily accurate. They just need to keep shooting. A gun barrel can do that perfectly fine at 100c. It doesn't need to be cooler, and the size of the rig needed to sustain that kind of heat extraction with a refrigeration system would probably be unusable in anything smaller than a capital ship.
*BABE WAKE UP NEW FORGOTTEN WEAPONS VIDEO JUST DROPPDE*
2:30 "its behind you!"
Oh my the true unicorn of colt machine guns. Great way to start the week.
Hell yes I enjoyed the video! Awesome piece of history and so much learned in the time you spent... Keep up the great works!
Would have been very useful when, in my national service days, I had to empty a lorry-load of .50 BMG ammo through one M2 after the other 11 didn't set the timing right and bent the firing levers. The barrels glowed a bit after 1000-1200 shots. Army supply rules being as they are, ammo had to be used up in this one range visit to have ammo available the next year. Can you imagine that night shooting with tracers in a M2 gets boring after seriously heating the 10th barrel?
Did this on a exchange with Americans back in the 80's with a M-60 and 7.62.
Had to get rid of about 40,000 rounds and the '60 we used got so dirty you didn't have to hold the trigger. So we ended up putting a foot on the grips while the gun was on the ground.