This look like it'd get a lil heavy after a while.

[bg]

Iraqi Soldier on guard. I don't know what type weapon
it is, but he's not lacking for ammo...

On a sadder note, 4 more Marines were called home today.
Lets not forget to say a prayer for them as well as all our
troops on this very special day. God Bless them..

 

[mbs357]

M60? Looks a bit too beeft to be a M249...maybe I'm wrong.

Regardless, I want one.

 

[ABTOMAT]

It's an M240. Weighs about 25 pounds, without the huge load of ammo. Must be a sturdy dude--Iraqi mall ninja?

 

[Nightcrawler]

All of the above are incorrect, I'm afriad. It's a Soviet-type PK or PKM machine gun, caliber 7,62x54R. This is one of the best machine guns in the world. It's lighter than an M60 by a noticable margin, but offers superior reliability. One interesting feature is that the belt feeds from the right and ejects from the left.

This weapon was also designed by M. Kalashnikov.

What the intrepid Iraqi National Guardsman pictured really needs is some ammunition pouches. Not only is carrying ammo that way awkward, it exposes your ammo to the elements.

Thanks to Wikipedia.org for the picture.

 

[mbs357]

Winner gets a cookie.
Was this the machine gun that was designed along with the SKS and AK-47?

 

[Nightcrawler]

Was this the machine gun that was designed along with the SKS and AK-47?

What you're thinking of is the RPD, a belt fed light machine gun in 7,62x39.

The PK was adopted by the Red Army in 1958 or 1959 or so. It replaced the WWII vintage DP, DPM, and RP-46 machine guns.

Check out World.Guns.Ru for great info.

Edited for clarity.

 

[KC&97TA]

Nope, not a M60 and definetly not a M249

It is a Russian PK Machine Gun, it's a nice gun, a little more delicate than the M60 ... see all that time in Iraq pays off now I have something to talk about today. See attached Picture, we picked up a few off a gentle man who no longer had a use for them, and we couldn't find his WILL to pass them along to the next of kin. That's one of my boys posseing, he was the entry man and couldn't believe what he found that day, although after a while it didn't suprise us finding the things we did most days.

This website has more info, if anyone is interested

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PK_machine_gun

 

[AndyC]

Looks like a PKM - PK has a slightly longer flash-hider:

 

[lamazza]

Enjoyed your picture pages -thx Andy

 

[PvtPyle]

What you're thinking of is the RPD-46

That's RP-46. It was made in limited quantities by the Russians but used widely by the ChiComs. Take a DPM, remove the pan mag and insert a belt fed mechanism for the same links as the PKM.

 

[Nightcrawler]

The RPD and the RP-46 were both introduced at the same time, weren't they? So, he might've been thinking of the RPD, he might've been thinking of the RP-46. I assumed he was referring to the RPD, which I had thought was originally called the "RPD-46" (like the original nomenclature for the Simonov carbine was SKS-45).