03-13-2012, 02:15 AM
I have to agree with LRRPF52 when he contents that the 'big' magazines distributed within the section will be used BY the section and won't be available for the gunner when they are needed.
The Australian Army made a light machine gun out of the FN-FAL called the L2A1. It was essentially a heavy barrel with a split forend that acted as a bipod (similar to how a Steyr Scout works today). With a cyclic rate of ~800rpm it was a reasonable weapon for some duties. It was issued with a case of 10 x 30round magazines and a pouch for the gunner.
Standard practice was to patrol with a 20rd in the gun otherwise your nuts kept getting smacked by the long magazine. The gunner carried three magazines, other members of the section had the remainder. For some dumbass reason I always found that the other section members always used the 30rd magazines FIRST in a contact leaving the gun 'down' all the time whilst the gunner and his no.2 were reloading their 30rd magazines. It was such a dumb idea the weapon was quickly relegated to support troops only - even though it was effectively the same as the weapon it replaced, the British BREN. I used when I was injected into support troops to stiffen them during their annual infantry training.
Australian F89 Minimi (SAW equivalent) are more reliable than those you speak of (in fact most other nations report better reliability - maybe the US has snuck in some 'improvements') but I think it could be better for the weight you must carry around. Going the other way with a 'upspec AR' is not a winner IMHO. My experience suggests that a support weapon that works off magazines is doomed to failure as it just does not provide the goods when you really need it.
The Australian Army made a light machine gun out of the FN-FAL called the L2A1. It was essentially a heavy barrel with a split forend that acted as a bipod (similar to how a Steyr Scout works today). With a cyclic rate of ~800rpm it was a reasonable weapon for some duties. It was issued with a case of 10 x 30round magazines and a pouch for the gunner.
Standard practice was to patrol with a 20rd in the gun otherwise your nuts kept getting smacked by the long magazine. The gunner carried three magazines, other members of the section had the remainder. For some dumbass reason I always found that the other section members always used the 30rd magazines FIRST in a contact leaving the gun 'down' all the time whilst the gunner and his no.2 were reloading their 30rd magazines. It was such a dumb idea the weapon was quickly relegated to support troops only - even though it was effectively the same as the weapon it replaced, the British BREN. I used when I was injected into support troops to stiffen them during their annual infantry training.
Australian F89 Minimi (SAW equivalent) are more reliable than those you speak of (in fact most other nations report better reliability - maybe the US has snuck in some 'improvements') but I think it could be better for the weight you must carry around. Going the other way with a 'upspec AR' is not a winner IMHO. My experience suggests that a support weapon that works off magazines is doomed to failure as it just does not provide the goods when you really need it.