Re: [OT] Linking Ammo

Must be the new Army or something. 25 years ago in the US Navy we linked
 by
hand (usually for splicing two partial belts together) and had a hand
operated press for making up longer belts. You laid the links on a tray
that
had troughs in it, and rounds parallel to the links, then the press
pushed
the rounds through the links. Then we moved the belt over and linked to
the
belt end. I seem to remember like seven or eight 7.62 rounds could be
processed at a time and the .50 cal like two or four.

Granted, it wasn't an everyday thing, but we did do it.

Had one moron one time take two partial belts of 20mm and try to relink
them. If you think of the links as two halves on a door hinge, the round
is
the hinge pin. The round doesn't want to slide in, so said moron grabs
an
open end wrench and starts pounding on the round "around that like flat
spot
with the dimply thing in the middle?".

The predictable thing happened. Moron hits the primer and POW! Big
Firecracker!

>Given their nature, I'd be surprised to find that there is a compact
>hand-cranked machine to "build" a belt of ammo out of un-sorted links
>and boxes of ammo.  Like Mr. Atkinson, I never saw one, and never had
to
">build" belts of ammo from unlinked rounds.

>Note that the description of the links applies to ammo used in the M-2
>(.50cal Browning MG), M-60, M-249"SAW" and M-240.  Probably applies to
>others, but those are outside of my personal experience.

Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys on a million
typewriters, and email	is NOTHING like Shakespeare.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Flak Magnet" <flakmagnet@tabletop-battlezone.com>
To: <gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2002 12:21 PM
Subject: Re: [OT] Linking Ammo

> I think it's a matter of how the belts are put together.  Our "belts"
of
> ammo are cartridges linked together by metal "clips" called links.  A
> link clips onto one cartridge and has a "hook" that is locked around
the
> next cartridge by the link that's clipped onto that cartridge.
>
> http://www.twobittraining.com/CAP/graphics/belt3.gif
> Note:  This is an image of 7.62mmNATO M-60 ammo.  Pretty much all of
our
> (US) small arms belted ammo is built this way.  The orange-tipped
rounds
> are tracers, of course.  Great for letting you know where your rounds
> are going, as well as letting the NME know where they're coming from.
>
> So when the weapon fires the "belt" disintegrates as the bullets are
> stripped from the links and fed into the barrel.  After firing, you
have
> separate brass and links for each round fired.
>
> The links are annoying little things, that get tangled when you try to
> sort them, hurt like hell when you happen to kneel on one or press
your
> hand down onto one and usually found all over the training areas
(making
> it real easy to kneel on one...
>
> Given their nature, I'd be surprised to find that there is a compact
> hand-cranked machine to "build" a belt of ammo out of un-sorted links
> and boxes of ammo.  Like Mr. Atkinson, I never saw one, and never had
to
> "build" belts of ammo from unlinked rounds.
>
> Note that the description of the links applies to ammo used in the M-2
> (.50cal Browning MG), M-60, M-249"SAW" and M-240.  Probably applies to
> others, but those are outside of my personal experience.
>
> >From your description of "Feed in the belt from the side, drop in the
> > cartridges from the top and crank away" I got the impression that
belts
> remained intact after firing...  Was that a correct assumption?
>
> http://www.twobittraining.com/CAP/graphics/belt3.gif
> Note:  This is an image of 7.62mmNATO M-60 ammo.  Pretty much all of
our
> (US) small arms belted ammo is built this way.  The orange-tipped
rounds
> are tracers, of course.  Great for letting you know where your rounds
> are going, as well as letting the NME know where they're coming from.
>
>
> --Flak
>
> On Mon, 2002-06-24 at 14:49, K.H.Ranitzsch wrote:
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "John Atkinson" <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com>
> > > Now, machinegun ammo will be pretty much the same (IMU, as
> > > in Real Life, my SAWs fire the same ammo as my rifles)
> > > but linking it is a sonofabitch.
> >
> > I'm slightly puzzled here. When I was in the Bundeswehr, we
sometimes
had to
> > link up practice ammunition for our MG 3 (aka MG42 to WWII gamers).
Linking
> > by hand wasn't nice, but we had a small hand-cranked machine. It
looked
a
> > bit like an old coffee grinder. Feed in the belt from the side, drop
in
the
> > cartridges from the top and crank away  The work went reasonably
well
with
> > that. Does my memory fail me or don't your units have something
similar
?
> >
> > Greetings
> > Karl Heinz
> >
> >
> >
> --
>
> --Flak Magnet
> Hive Fleet Jaegernaught
> http://www.geocities.com/flakmagnet72
>