Browning Automatic Rifle

[AlexanderA]

One word solution... bipod

The bipod is what makes it effective -- but only if fired from the prone position, or from a trench or foxhole.

Bipods are post-WW1. The first one, on the M1918A1, was better positioned (on the gas cylinder) than the A2 one. But the A1 bipod had spiked feet, which didn't work too well on hard surfaces such as pavement.

The A2 bipod, although it had skid feet, had the worst position, right at the muzzle. Plus, it flopped around a lot. No wonder the gunners wanted to ditch the bipod. But in doing so, they would give up a lot of the gun's effectiveness.

A silly development was the butt monopod. That was dropped in a hurry. Today, having one of the butt monopods is something to brag about, for a collector. Somebody is actually reproducing them.

Another accessory was the carrying handle.This came out right at the end of WW2. (In the movie The Longest Day, a BAR is shown with a carrying handle. That would have been anachronistic for D-Day.) If you own a BAR, please don't mount a carrying handle. That will wear a groove around your barrel.

 

[Golfanaticshooter]

best answer

You sir, clearly get it.

 

[tark]

The T44E6 was 0.9 pounds lighter than the regular T44E4 (M14)

Good pics, lysanderxiii. Your first pic of the T-44E6 is what amused me. It shows the gun with a selector mounted, and set on Automatic fire! That must have been fun. The info the museum has on the gun stated that overheating was one of the biggest problems with the design. The pic I posted shows a selector lock on the museum's specimen.

 

[tark]

tark: "... the Pederson Device ..."

I have wanted to take the Pederson Device (semi auto bolt for a 1903 Springfield rifle with 40 rd magazine, firing a cartridge roughly twice the .32 ACP, half the .30 Carbine), put it in a modified Panama Canal Zone Bushmaster carbine (a 20 in barrel 1903 Springfield), and put the combo on the hands of the crew of a 1930s Edgar Rice Burroughs fan-fic movie to deal with pirates. Then switch to the 1903 .30-06 bolt when the dinosaurs show up.

This one was never fired. ( Very few were.) That box of dummy rounds is quite rare. Worth more than a box of live rounds.

 

[Armybrat]

FN in Belgium was licensed to make its version of the BAR. Main difference was the addition of a real pistol grip.
My Dad brought back one in 1945 from France. It was apparently captured from the Belgians when the Nazis overran the Low Countries early in the war and recaptured by the Americans after D-Day..
It looked just like this one below.
My Grandpa plugged the chamber breech with a brass plug to make it legal. Dad got a letter from the FBI approving it.
As a kid, I used it around the neighborhood to play Army with my buddies, and no one batted an eye.
My brother donated it to the Texas Military Museum at Camp Mabry in Austin, Texas about 15 years ago where It has sat undisplayed in their vault ever since.