Re: DS: SAW versus APSW versus RFAC

On Sun, 08 Mar 1998 18:26:51 -0800 John Leary <realjtl@sj.bigger.net>
writes:
>Owen, Los,
>     I guess the next question I must ask after the lesson in 'burst
>control' is:	Why develop a lightweight HMG in a multi-barrel 
>configuration to fire a three round burst?
>     I for one have never read of any sort of multi-barrel weapon used
>in this manner.   (Perhaps I need to read more, I am not really
>up on the modern weapons.)
>
>Bye for now,
>John L.
>

I agree, sorry for being a little cute but this sounds like re-inventing
the wheel. A three round burst weapon is generally called an assault
rifle!!!!

I had always assumed that a multi-barrel design occurred for one of two
reasons. 

  1. To increase the rate of fire. One bullet was going down one barrel
while the next barrel was loading, and the third was ejecting a casing. 

 By the way the literature I have says that if a infantry weapon fires
too fast then the infantry can't carry enough ammo to justify its
utility
(5 seconds and all the ammo carried by the squad is burned through, is a
little pointless!!!)

  2. To reduce wear and heat warping on the barrel. (200 years of
advancing metallurgy makes this sound a little specious.)

For slightly different tack........

I ran across a couple of references to WWII where it was stated that the
50.cal HMG was regularly used in the sniper function. Using its anchored
tripod it was extremely stable and was fired in a single (or two
depending on the skill of the gunner) round action. Then the gunner had
to manually rechamber the gun to fire a next time.  Thousand yard
sniping
was not uncommon. It may have been done in WWI but I haven't done enough
research to know. 

Tom Hughes

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