Ithaca Model-37 Slam Fire

[entropy]

I hate it when someone tries to downplay inefficiency. And it still seems to me that 4,500,000 rounds per enemy casualty is a terrible hit rate. If you take out all the one shot one kill sniper kills heaven knows what it would be.
I hate everything about Vietnam, except the fine American military men who served there. The U.S. set out not to "win", and guess what, they didn't. Almost 60,000 Americans killed so we could end up with a favored nation trading partner. An American travesty. They should have hung all the politicians involved.

Do you understand the concept of supressive fire?

In military science, suppressive fire (commonly called covering fire) is "fire that degrades the performance of an enemy force below the level needed to fulfill their mission. Suppression is usually only effective for the duration of the fire"

Also, CAS, or Close Air Support, uses large volumes of fully automatic fire fired from aircraft.

In military tactics, close air support (CAS) is defined as air action by fixed or rotary-winged aircraft against hostile targets that are close to friendly ground or naval forces, and which requires detailed integration of each air mission with fire and movement of these forces.



War is not all Vasili Zaitsev vs. Major Koenig. It is not one-one gunfights on a massive scale. There are lots of other things going on on the battlefield, most of them involving fully automatic fire, which is naturally going to degrade hit ratio. I.E., Squad level MG's (SAW) Platoon level MG's (M240 as well as MK19). They are all out there engaging the enemy with full auto fire both to cause injury or death and to allow our forces to close and defeat in detail. If an enemy attack persists, usually CAS will be called in to convince the enemy to retire, or to die in situ. This action involves CAS aircraft like the A-10, an aircraft built around its 30 mm gun, which fires up to 4200 rounds per minute. Or any of the various rotary-winged aircraft mounted with the M134 gun which has a variable cyclic rate of up to 6000. Or the AH-1W and Z model cobras still used by the USMC, with their 20mm M197 gun. Lest we forget, the most likely to show up for CAS lately is the AH-64 with it's 30mm M230 gun. These guns used for CAS are all rotary cannon, with high cyclic rates. COmbat vets hold them in reverence.


I am in 100% agreement with this part of your statement.

I hate everything about Vietnam, except the fine American military men who served there. The U.S. set out not to "win", and guess what, they didn't. Almost 60,000 Americans killed so we could end up with a favored nation trading partner. An American travesty. They should have hung all the politicians involved.

 

[Virginian]

Yes I fully understand all of that. Take out all the fancy rhetoric and it means it's harder to be an effective shooter when being shot at. And I understand all the high volume rotary cannons, etc., etc. And it appears the whole process was a lot more effective in a desert environment than it was in the jungle, although the difference strategically long term doesn't appear much better.

 

[oneounceload]

Tragic? Really?

I understand that some folks' ideas about shooting are not always shared by others, but this protest seems a bit over the top.

Really? Hmmmmm, you spray and pray in an intense situation, run out of ammo and then?????..........Seems it could easily be a tragic waste of resources.....

 

[VA27]

It was possible to order an Ithaca with a disconnector. I have a late 60's police issued DSPS so equipped.