PS Magazine - TB 43-PS-581
PS, The Preventative Maintenance Monthly
ISSUE 581
APRIL 2001
PS 581
APR 01
45
Machine Guns…
M2 Machine Gun…
iring and firing your M2s, M60, M240, or M249 machine gun without switching
barrels when you’re supposed to gets the barrel VERY HOT. When that happens,
these bad things happen:
a cookoff
a warped barrel
a worn-out bolt and barrel
ruined headspacing, which can cause the machine gun to explode during firing
A spare barrel comes with your machine gun to prevent these things from hap-
pening. Wherever you take your machine gun, take the spare barrel too, and:
keep track of rounds fired and the rate they were fired
change the barrel when you reach the rounds limit for your gun
For the M60 and M240, change the barrel every 10 minutes during sustained fire
(100 rounds per minute) and every 2 minutes for rapid fire (200 rounds per minute).
For the M249, during both sustained fire (40 rounds per minute) and rapid fire
(100 rounds per minute), change the barrel every 200 rounds.
For the M2, change the barrel at the end of every firing session or if the barrel is
damaged, regardless of the rate of fire.
No matter which machine gun you’re firing, change the barrel more often on hot
days. It heats up quicker in the heat.
N
dispose of both the old lights and the new lights as radioactive waste.
capable if the driving spring rod is broken
cracked.
If driving spring rod’s cracked,
get it replaced
PS 581
APR 01
44
Dear Editor,
In our arms room inspections,
we’ve noticed that almost half of
the driving spring rods for our M2
machine guns are cracked, usually
at the end of the rod. But when you
check Step 24 in the PMCS in TM
9-1005-213-23, it says the rod’s
OK as long as it’s not broken.
We feel the rod should be replaced
if it’s cracked.
MSG Hans Hyland
741st Maint Co
Clackamas, OR
581. 44-45 (C)
2/25/01
5:42 PM
Page 1
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