How important are quick-change barrels?

[Beagle-zebub]

I was thinking about the RPD recently, and I got to wondering, how important are quick-change barrels in machineguns?

Did guys really lug an extra barrel for their M60s in Vietnam, and do they lug them for their M249s now? (Obviously the word of vets is what counts here.)

 

[Revoliver]

Regarding being issued an M249, yes, you are also issued a spare matched barrel for it, but outside of the base and the range, it sat in the arms room/armory (or whatever makeshift 'arms room/armory' your unit is using at the time). When on patrol, it sat back on base as well. The only time it was used was for training and accountability. Though, to be fair, I only ever fired my SAW once to return fire while in a convoy while downrange, and we just kept rollin along and called it in, the spare barrel was still back in the 'arms room/armory' tent. That's just my experience though, and I was a POG (Person Other than Grunt).

Is it handy? Yes.

Is it necessary? Depends, do you forsee shooting enough to melt a barrel?

 

[Nicky Santoro]

OP,
Regarding the spare barrel in Vietnam, the answer is yes, along with a bunch of spare parts.

 

[1-1 Banger]

During training events I never carried the spare barrel for my 249, and I rarely saw our 240 gunners using theirs outside of live fires or when we would use the miles gear. In Afghanistan I was a SAW(M249) gunner for a little over the first half of the deployment, then became the assistant gunner for the 240B for the remainder. As a SAW gunner, I carried my spare barrel in my assault pack along with 400 extra rounds for about 2 patrols, until my squad leader told me not to worry about it "If we need that spare, we're all dead anyways and you should probably be running for the truck" haha. From that point on I left the bag on top of the truck, if we thought we'd need it the guys in the hatches would toss it down to me after I got out. As an AG though, I always carried the spare barrel along with the tripod and CLP whenever we went out.

 

[Float Pilot]

Our Assistant gunners carried the M-60 or later M-249 and or M240 spare barrel.

The M-249s have a rather tough barrel. I once did a demonstration for some big wigs by linking 800 rounds into one long belt. I then fired all of them in one long burst. Cutting up two 55 gallon drums.

The barrel was chalky colored afterwards and it was able to burn a piece of ammo crate wood. However, we still kept that barrel around and used it for demos for a few years. It worked just fine after lots of cleaning... In fact I think i shot a match with it once after the big burn...Although it was always an odd color after that day...

Anyway, after that point it seemed obvious to me that the SAW only needed a spare barrel around in a semi-fixed position.

 

[briansmithwins]

I seem to recall that the Brits stopped issuing spare BREN barrels after they started hardchroming the bores.

It'd make sense that you want your MG crew to carry more ammo rather than a spare barrel while on patrol. I suspect that a normal MG crew doesn't carry enough belted ammo to burn the barrel out w/o resupply.

The Sov RPK doesn't even have a removable barrel and the new version of the PKM has a heavier, semi-fixed barrel.

BSW

 

[mgkdrgn]

How many Zulu or Zombies are attacking you at one time?

 

[DPris]

I didn't do Vietnam, but when we were trained on the 60 in England in 1975, it involved swapping barrels, with the mitten & all.
I was a designated machine-gunner off & on for the rest of my time there, never carried the spare, just the gun & a couple cans of ammunition.

If you were in a zone where regular heavy use occurred, you'd want the spare. Those things heat up right quick.
Denis

 

[1-1 Banger]

Someone hit it earlier about the amount of ammo without resupply. The 240 team I was in was a 2 rather than doctrinally coorect 3 man team, so I had to be the ammo bearer as well as the assistant gunner. Let me tell ya, that bag got heavy quick. At one point it weighed around 75-80 pounds with ammo, spare barrel, tripod, CLP and ancillary stuff like cleaning kits. After awhile my gunner and I ended up splitting the load, he would carry 400 rounds in pouches on his back and I would carry the other 600. We eventually said eff it and just stopped carrying the spare, figuring that we didn't carry enough ammo to ever justify a barrel change. We could get away with it though because usually both gun teams went out together and also I was in a mechanized unit so we would keep an extra 4000 rounds linked up in ammo cans that someone could run to us after the trucks showed up to bring their mounted weapons into play.

 

[kwguy]

It really depends upon how much your are going to continually fire the machine gun. Some organizations (in the air / door gunner) change barrels every 200-300 rounds while training if they are gonna rip through a bunch of cans during the training. That's so as not to ruin the hot barrel. It just preserves the life of the equipment. But if you're putting rounds down range for real, and have to keep doing so, no one is going to complain about toasting a barrel. It'll still shoot. You won't have sniper accuracy, bit hey, it's a machine gun: accuracy through overwhelming volume

Having to carry an extra barrel is a different thingy though... They're not light...

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I was thinking about the RPD recently, and I got to wondering, how important are quick-change barrels in machineguns?

They are very important. I commanded a Mechanized Rifle Company (A-1/61) on my second tour. Mech companies had M113 Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs), four to a platoon, plus others for the Company Commander and Mortars. Each APC had an M2 .50 caliber machinegun which does NOT have a quick change barrel.

I can remember my First Sergeant coming to the CP in the morning after a fight literally loaded down with warped and ripped .50 caliber barrels -- some of them with rips in the side where the armored-piercing bullets went through the walls of the heat-softened barrels.

For the M60s (each APC had 2) we had spare barrels and avoided that problem.

Did guys really lug an extra barrel for their M60s in Vietnam, and do they lug them for their M249s now? (Obviously the word of vets is what counts here.)

In Viet Nam we did. On dismounted operations, we carried one spare barrel, plus other stuff per gun. Mounted we typically had three or four spares per gun stashed in the track.

 

[Collector0311]

We always carried our extra SAW and 240 barrels on patrol.
Very important during extended suppression.
0311 squad leader turned machine gun section leader.

 

[herrwalther]

Before my deployment I spent 2 years as the AG for a M240B using 2 man teams. I am very thankful I did not deploy in that slot. On mounted and dismounted patrols we carried spare barrels for the 249 and 240. Ammo allotment was typically determined by our likelihood of getting attacked. On a short little walk to a neighboring village, the 240 team might carry 200 rounds. On a long mounted patrol we could have 6000. And yes we shot enough through our 249s and 240s that a barrel change was necessary. We learned very quickly and early in our deployment that a 249 hot barrel will melt through the cheap rubber bags we were issued for them.

Someone hit it earlier about the amount of ammo without resupply. The 240 team I was in was a 2 rather than doctrinally correct 3 man team

I have worked on both 2 and 3 man teams. Neither are doctrinally correct, at least in the Army. It depends more on how many people you have in the platoon. In an old unit, many new privates cut their teeth when they first come in being an ammo bearer for a 240 team until they show something they are good at.

We did have an instance where we started keeping a spare .50 barrel in the truck as well, but that didn't last long. We had a truck rollover that snapped the barrel off like a twig, but a spare would not have made the gun serviceable again so that stopped.

 

[AlexanderA]

Regarding cooling, I think firing from an open bolt is a more important feature than a quick-change barrel. The big drawback of the air-cooled Browning design (M1919) is that it fires from a closed bolt.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Closed bolt or open bolt, you can easily ruin a machinegun barrel in about a minute and a half. There are really only two solutions -- either quick change barrels or a water jacket.