10-16-2011, 11:55 PM
When I was a SAW gunner, I had two well-stretched 30rd M16 mag pouches with the tape nylon dividers removed so I could fit a 100rd nutsack in each. I also had two SAW pouches with 2 100rd nutsacks per, for a total of 600rds on my fighting load, with the remaining combat load in my assault pack and within the team. As the Molle gear was adopted, SAW gunners were carrying variations of this load in the utility pouches and SAW pouches, many of which were individually-purchased.
If the chance of a slugging fight is likely, I want to have a minimum of 600rds on my person in that duty position. A constant-recoil system would facilitate less rounds expended per effective suppression, since you can write your name with them.
The M240 also can't fire blanks for crap, but it eats live rounds like nobody's business, and you don't hear a lot of complaints about its reliability from the troops. I was also an M60 AG for a little while as a PFC in Korea before going to the Scout Platoon, a 240 gunner, and a Weapon's Squad Leader at different stages of my service, so I really learned to deal with the dismounted belt-fed role from squad and platoon-level perspectives, with my sniper training as a better foundation from which to distribute trajectories, spot for gunners, and so forth. I always felt that the SAW was our weakest link in portability, but very effective in firepower when it worked. The M60 was great for portability, but absolutely blew chunks for reliability...probably worse than the SAW. The newer M60E3 & E4 seem to have corrected the reliability issues at least in short term initial demo of capability, but like you said, how will a system be running 6, 7, & 10 years down the line...
If the chance of a slugging fight is likely, I want to have a minimum of 600rds on my person in that duty position. A constant-recoil system would facilitate less rounds expended per effective suppression, since you can write your name with them.
The M240 also can't fire blanks for crap, but it eats live rounds like nobody's business, and you don't hear a lot of complaints about its reliability from the troops. I was also an M60 AG for a little while as a PFC in Korea before going to the Scout Platoon, a 240 gunner, and a Weapon's Squad Leader at different stages of my service, so I really learned to deal with the dismounted belt-fed role from squad and platoon-level perspectives, with my sniper training as a better foundation from which to distribute trajectories, spot for gunners, and so forth. I always felt that the SAW was our weakest link in portability, but very effective in firepower when it worked. The M60 was great for portability, but absolutely blew chunks for reliability...probably worse than the SAW. The newer M60E3 & E4 seem to have corrected the reliability issues at least in short term initial demo of capability, but like you said, how will a system be running 6, 7, & 10 years down the line...