What a smile....

https://x.com/Restricted_on_X/.../1900335744297677143

Yea, wow. Lots there. What emotions. I think he said "back home" If I heard it right. Kind of like he never left. Neat clip. Good bless him.

That would bring a smile to most anyone's face!
Awesome !

I've shot the pig out to 750 yards. It's a scary weapon. At 750, target goes down with the first 5 round burst. It's that accurate.

I want one.

^^^^^^^
Can't remember who, but I think somebody here on SigForum owns one.

At our age, they might not be that easy to pick up.

The slogan the marines yell on the line has not changed when firing the M60.

Way back in 1987 or 88 a shop near where I worked had a M60 for 10 grand, I would have loved to buy it but 10 grand was light years out of reach of my budget at the time.

An awesome weapon, if I recall correctly 23 lbs and the ammo weighed you down. When needed it brought serious smoke on the enemy. 7.62 x 51 a great round.

Great video. That seemed to bring back some memories and emotions. He just squeezed the trigger and let her rip. No burst or anything.

I qualified several times with the M60, what a hoot to shoot. The only one more fun to me was the M2

The fella in the vid looked like he didn't know if he wanted to laugh or cry

quote:

Originally posted by abnmacv:
An awesome weapon, if I recall correctly 23 lbs and the ammo weighed you down. When needed it brought serious smoke on the enemy. 7.62 x 51 a great round.

My old kung fu instructor said you also needed an extra guy to carry a bag of extra barrels. They would routinely fire until the barrels melted down and had to replaced mid-action.

Is that why they called it "The Pig?"

Hats off to that guy! What a great video, thanks for sharing it.

Just like riding a bicycle.

Squad Leader: "Where's the short guy. Yea, hey Joe...you get to carry the M60."

I “carried” the M60 at my first unit. Then I became a Gunner’s mate and had them until the CG replaced them with the M240B

It’s a heavy “pig” but surprisingly very accurate.

Sea story: we were in GTMO conducting evaluations on how well we ran the ship. Think fire drills, flooding, gunnery etc. so my job was to be the topside lookout for sea mines(carried an M16). I saw “one” (really a target they had set out) and I unmounted a nearby M60, shouldered it and fired one round. (You get points for less anmmo expended) so the ship rider says I missed it, and I said give it a minute-if it were a real mine it woulda blown up. My one round had punctured it and the barrel sank albeit a bit slowly. Captain was super happy about that. We then went on to use the 20mm gun and I struck the towed target oops! The shiprider lost his mind and screamed at me till he was blue in the face-no one had told me not to hit it but to offset as to not damage the towed target.

They called it the pig for it weighted 23 lb amd because it ate A LOT of ammo.

Yes, the M60 is a pig to haul around in the bush. Typical M60 crew included a machinegunner and an assistant gunner (usually carrying the extra barrel and main ammo supply); everyone carried more ammo to feed the pig.

7.62 ammo came in steel ammo cans. Primarily one with a single linked belt of 200 rounds, usually used for fixed positions and vehicle mounts. Other cans had two canvas "assault bags" containing a 100-round linked belt and could be clipped on the side of the M60 to feed into the gun, allowing greater portability in the bush.

In my experience each member of the squad or unit carried 200 rounds for the M60, gunner had the weapon on a padded sling with a 100-round assault bag, assistant had one or two extra barrels (with the asbestos mitten) plus a couple hundred rounds. None of us liked carrying the load, but we always appreciated having the M60 with us in a firefight.

Training concentrated heavily on aimed fire in 3-5 round bursts. Even with controlled firing the weapon would quickly heat up, and there was always a danger of a "runaway gun" when cartridges fired upon entering the hot chamber. (Remedy: break the feed belt links to shut down the gun).

Barrel changes were pretty quick and easy, but handling the hot barrel was a challenge, thus the asbestos mitten in the barrel carrier bag.

I remember several night engagements when I saw M60 machineguns heat up to a point where the red glow of the barrel could be seen from a distance.

I also remember a M60 qualification shoot at Fort Benning, Georgia. A dozen guns on the firing line, overlooking a wooded ravine, then the targets on the rising slope about 300-500 yards away. At the first couple of bursts a herd of wild hogs took off from the ravine running up through the target area. A good time was had by all, and a company barbecue followed on the next day.

I hauled one around during one of our Ranger School patrols back in '76. They were of the Vietnam-era variety...old and beat to death. Issued with a blank adapter and wouldn't work fully automatic. It was a single-shot wonder. Now, if you pressed the muzzle up against a tree, hard, and pulled the trigger, then it worked (more back pressure to allow it to cycle).