Browning M2 .50cal "Ma Deuce" | HEAVY MACHINE GUN

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome back everyone it's me Matt smus and we're talking about some heavy firepower today now I want to say we're discussing small arms but clearly we're talking about big arms and heavy machine guns in particular the 50 caliber machine gun otherwise known as the m2 or the MA deuce so I'm not a subject matter experts if I get anything wrong please make sure you correct me and to verify that I am NOT here to give you an educational overview more just a insight as to what the 50 caliber is so the Browning m2 heavy machine gun really needs no introduction as many of you probably know exactly what this weapon system is serving in the US military for over 70 years it is only outlived by another Browning design the colt 1911 it's service is highly respected around the world and has featured heavily in movies games books TV shows and when it comes to its firepower it really is one of the coolest weapon systems out there to see in action several generations of fighting men and women all over the world have used this simple and extremely effective design in all types of combat and environments although there have been several medium machine gun designs that have come and gone the m2 proves that if it isn't broke then just don't fix it attitude and has remained the main HMG in the u.s. infantry to this day but where did this beast start its life to find that out we have to first focus on the projectile it's using some eight such outstanding firepower the Browning 50 caliber round originated in the great war American interest in armored piercing cartridges was influenced by the marginal French 11 millimeter design prompting the US Army Ordnance officers to consult browning they wanted a heavy projectile that could travel at 2700 feet per second but the ammunition just didn't exist browning pondered the situation and according to son John replied well the cartridge sounds pretty good to start with you gonna make up some cartridges and we'll do some shooting at this time there was also a strong influence by Germany's 13.2 by 92 millimeter SR 0.53 cal anti-tank rifle round and ordnance contracted with Winchester to design the 50 Cal subsequently Frankford arsenal took over from Chester producing the historic 50 BMG or 12.75 ninety nine millimeter cartridge the army then returned to John Browning for the actual gun itself teamed with Colt he produced prototypes ready for testing and ironically completed them on November 11th 1918 the great walls end the scaled up version of the 30 Cal or 30 odd 6m 1917 water-cooled machine gun possessed obvious potential but the cartridges enormous power proved far too excessive to the Colt browning design which forced the master vatta's drafting board he returned with a buffer system design that seemed a lot more workable tests in 1919 and 1920 confirmed the viability of the cartridge and the gun and the ordinance approved it for production the result was the EM 1921 water-cooled 50 Cal machine gun and was the basis for today's MT Model fabled the modest when--what watch who came around the m2 went it's a mass production and I mean mass in every sense of the word it was originally developed as an anti-aircraft gun though but was also used in Vic was an armor it proved extremely useful when mounted on fighter planes and bombers it was used quite extensively also with the infantry for suppressive fire and mostly with the armor mounted on top of specialized vehicles that could handle the heavy loads of ammunition needed to feed this metal chewing pig both the Army and the Navy loved the m2 and in World War 2 it was even more prominently known within the Air Force to defend bombers and even their fighters with the capability of firing long-range projectiles at incoming fighters or at the ground specific to bombers the ball turrets and main guns on the b-17 Flying Fortress was definitely one of the more prominent features that showcased the m2 browning interestingly during World War 2 Audie Murphy who is one of America's most decorated soldiers was wounded and fired the m2 atop of the burning tank destroyer holding off six Panzer tanks and 250 German soldiers for more than an hour during a battle in eastern France in fact this act of bravery won him the Medal of Honor this is what some say the battle in the movie fury was based upon with this action for Brad Pitt nearly killing an entire SS battalion on the crossroads on top of his tank the long-range firepower of the mob dues combined with its single-shot capability provided the legendary Marine Corps sniper Carlos Hathcock an unusual but effective weapon in 1967 Hathcock mounted a ten-time scope on an m2 which he later aimed at a van con gorilla 2,500 yards away the nearly one and a half mile shot remained the world record for the longest sniper kill until 2002 the m2 usually in its heavy barrel designation has seen extensive use in every single US military campaign since then including Iraq and Afghanistan wars especially vehicle mounted in convoys in 2003 US Army sergeant first class Paul Ray Smith climbed on top of an armored vehicle and fired the 50 Cal at more than 100 enemy soldiers that had pinned down his platoon saving the lives of his men sadly he was killed during this firefight and Smith received the Medal of Honor which was the first award in Operation Iraqi Freedom the m2 has been in use longer than any other weapon in the American arsenal with the exception of the 1911 pistol which is of course ironically also that of John Browning's design the classic configuration of the machine gun is a belt-fed air-cooled recoil operated machine gun its size alone makes it formidable at nearly 6 feet long and weighing 84 pounds without its tripod and adding the tripod takes the weight back up to a 128 pounds the 50 Cal Fire's up to 550 rounds per minute but it can be set to fire single shots making it effective at being potentially a sniper rifle because the weapons designed the ammo belt can be fed from either right or left after a few adjustments to the guns mechanisms what's more the 50 Cal has the potential to let the gunner reach out and touch someone as quote with the weapons effective range of around 6,000 feet however it's a maximum effective range is about four miles the Browning m2 does have its weaknesses though if the guns barrel overheats a new barrel needs to be installed the weapon very effectively the gun will malfunction violently if the barrel change is not performed exactly right and the task is often quite finicky time-consuming and pretty dangerous in terms of extreme heat burning your hands off the machine gun malfunctions caused by improperly performed power changes injured dozens of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan before the Pentagon approved the adoption of the quick change kit in 2012 that allows the barrel replacement to be done without the manual resetting of the weapon doing the head spacing the head spacing is done with a small key to ensure the barrel is seated correctly the basic m2 has many variants this heavy machine gun was intentionally designed to operate in many different configurations the m2hb or heavy barrel version is a basic infantry model fitted with a thicker wall barrel it is used on armored fighting vehicles and tanks as well and it is worth noting that the first versions of the m2 were actually water cooled the original air-cooled barrel was too light for sustained fire in ground applications the m2hb entered service in the 1930s the m2a1 is a recently upgraded version it features that quick change bow holder and the new flash suppressor and removable carry handle on the m2a1 the barrel crew replaced merely in seconds the m2a1 entered service with the US Army in 2010 and is produced by General Dynamics in 2011 the US Army began upgrading the m2hb machine guns to the m2a1 standard and in 2012 it announced that 45,000 m2 HP's in the US Army inventory were upgraded to the m2a1 standard there are fast variants of this weapon system including the ANM 3 for use in aircraft having a rate of fire of around 1,200 rounds per minute one belt-fed m2hb comes normally with a hundred rounds or 200 round boxes right from World War two to Vietnam the m2 used armor-piercing incendiary rounds all such bullets that were called armor-piercing must have gone through at least twenty-two point two millimeters of hardened steel armor from 500 meters to be classified as such if you have to try and make a 2-meter hole with in a bunker using only an empty browning you would need 300 rounds so there you have it everyone the 50 caliber em - ma deuce in all its glory should know about this weapons platform if you're a subscriber of my channel I'd be very surprised if you did not know of its presence in the world because it's all over the place you know it's a very very interesting platform because of the fact of how old it is and how useful it is in the modern battlefields to this day as it said at the beginning of the video here if it ain't broke don't fix it and clearly the 50 caliber machine gun is doing very well for itself to this day I myself fired this weapon system before in Afghanistan it's a lot of fun didn't use it in combat Archie was using the chain gun which is a technically a helicopter machine gun inside my warrior but I would have loved to have one of these things mounted inside of the turret I look a polar of my warrior because it would have been a lot more effective I can tell you that much when you fire the 50 Cal I can't really explain the feeling you get when you're seeing those rounds go downrange and hitting targets pretty impressive the feel of the firepower coming off the gun itself again is incredible it's a feeling you've got it you've got experience at some point hopefully in your life guys if you make it to Vegas or wherever you can to try and you know give one of these things ago a really really fun piece of equipment to use and you know when you're just trying at targets of course anyone downrange in a real combat scenario of this machine gun they're gonna have a really bad day the projectiles do some horrible things to people when they actually hit so you know it's a bit of a fearful weapon when you start hearing these things go down infantry in contact tend to not be around for much longer I can tell you for the most part when we're engaging in Afghanistan when the troops we're using them on the on the woman's with the parachute regiment that we were attached to yeah once the rounds go downrange on the 50 Cal not many people have wanting to hang around for much longer there they're pretty impressive they were punching through compound walls like nobody's business and these compound walls are like nearly two feet thick of compacted mud and hay and straw and wooden sticks and just chewing right through them like butter so really really impressive anyway I hope you enjoyed today's video everyone please leave me a like and a comment if you want to be some you know notified of any upcoming videos please hit the little bell by the subscribe button and ensure that you click all notifications if you want to be updated and if you want to support my channel I do have a patreon account you more than well to go check that out all the links for everything that are involved with my channel or in the description link box below to scroll down in the middle of the video here you'll see the little link box they open up and there's all sorts of different links you can check out including my fan mail my patreon my facebook link everything's there I appreciate you stopping by today I hope you all have a wonderful day and I will see you next time for more military related content all the best bye bye [Music] [Music]

Channel: Matsimus

Views: 364,215

Rating: 4.9342694 out of 5

Keywords: 50 cal, m2 machine gun, m2 browning, 50 calibre, M2 .50cal, .50 cal, heavy machine gun, machine gun, M2 Browning, Browning .50 Caliber, .50 BMG, John Brownin, belt-fed, M2 .50 Browning, M1921, M2A1, XM296, GAU-15/A, M2HB, 12.7 × 99 mm, Browning M2HB, m2a1 machine gun, M2A1 .50 caliber, minigun, M60 machine gun, M1919 machine gun, gatling gun, chain gun

Id: yA-wOZSwYu4

Length: 12min 30sec (750 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 22 2019