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I've never fired one, or seen one fired except on video, and I'm only generally acquainted with its reputation, so I don't know much about 'Ma Deuce'. Actually, I haven't seen many videos, either, but every once in a while one will pop up on YouTube and catch my notice.

It seems like every time ones does, the action is somewhere in the sandbox, and the gun won't run more than a few rounds at a time before stopping. To get it going again, the operator has to hand-crank it, often more than once. Depending on the length of the video, this 'cycle' might be repeated several times.

Is that 'normal' for the BMG, a sand/dust problem (maintenance?), or something else?

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910 views

I've seen that also. Wouldn't be surprised if they were still using up WWII ammo. Looks like a lot of duds. Or possibly leaving the barrel unscrewed a notch or two and causing light firing pin hits?

864 views

we had a big batch of .50 ammo over in the desert made at Des Moines (at what is now John Deere Ankeny Works) in 1945, which we thought must have come out of a warehouse in Germany. Guns ran just fine on it; properly set up, Ma Deuce will keep running with amounts of sand/dust that would hopelessly choke lesser weapons.

837 views

there and done that, for keeps.
;-)

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Of the Troops & For the Troops

807 views

I had some pretty 'wild' ideas about the reasons for what I'd been seeing on YouTube, but that settles it.

If anyone else had said 'WWII Ammo' − (NO OFFENSE to anyone who did!) − I probably wouldn't have believed it.

Still, it's pretty hard to believe.

Someone should make a 'movie'... :-|

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789 views

Its a maintenance issue. I'd bet the majority of issues you've seen are on vehicle mounts. Dust in the weapon coupled with improper headspacing and dirty ammo can cause anything to choke. My Dad was in armor in the Korean misunderstanding. He had his men cleaning weapons anytime they stopped. He said proper headspacing on reassembly was of utmost importance to reliability in the .50.

850 views

Most stoppages I've experienced were because of old WW2 ammo during mid 50's when I shot Quad 50's Pedistal mounted. Taken from Quad 50's used on half tracks in Korea, also tracers that were supposed to be each 5th round were about every 20th, makes it tough to shoot sleeves towed by aircraft at 600 yds off-shore. Since then I have shot 50 BMG cartridges in rifle from the same period w/o all the mis-fires and tracers worked well. Could also be an ammo storage situation. Tho, ammo Mil-Spec stuff is pretty reliable .I too remember Lent Lomont making a 100 yd. long belt of ammo at Knob Creek and firing the whole 100 yds of ammo w/o a hiccup, many watching. BBl turned from red to white, bullets could be seen going down bbl. When shooting stopped bbl just wilted. Lomont was probably the premier authority on M-2's in the US, prior to his untimely passing a year ago last January. RIP Kent

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Kent is surely missed.

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Yes by many, he was a one of a kind. Handgunner, camper extrordinaire, Phd in EE.
And a true friend. :-)

798 views

I thought 'maybe', but when you fold in the old ammo, there might not be enough scrubbing to go around, no matter how hard you try.

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786 views

I watched GIs get one round off from their vehicle mounted M60s and M2s because they were not properly running the gun. And as John mentioned; old ammo, road grime dust ect. Many , Many GIs run their M2s properly and kill bad guys a plenty. Waiting for a certain 2 war veteran Army officer that has actually used m2s in combat to chime in here! ;-)

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Of the Troops & For the Troops

843 views

Always a bit too handy in my case, cynicism said something like 'Training Issue'.

I figured if you have time to make a 'movie' about it, the gunfight is probably just a side show.

'Easier said than done', I'm sure, but there it is. ;-)

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812 views

to the letter and never had a gun fail to fire even with the plastic ammo.

Dem sons of guns are HEAVY! I've never seen a barrel wilt as Lee describes, maybe 'cause I didn't want to buy it!

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Sincerely,

Hobie

834 views

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816 views

"Trounds"?

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Sincerely,

Hobie

791 views

Plastic cased, IIRC.

799 views

confusion. ;-) I did not want to assume what you meant.

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Sincerely,

Hobie

760 views

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759 views

:-D

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Sincerely,

Hobie

756 views

But I'm not, so there!

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714 views

I've been told, on good authority, i.e. I believe this fellow, that last year (2012) there was fired a 1943 105mm gun/howitzer with 1943 ammo from the Normandy coast into the channel to celebrate the anniversary of the embarkation. These were HE rounds and they had zero problem with any of the ammunition.

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Sincerely,

Hobie

770 views

I still have lots and lots of surplus WWII ammo - most of it is reliable. Some is absolutely terrible - the worst is one lot of Radway Green cordite 303 brit. Pop, fizz, hang fires abound. Then there's the Turkish 8mm... but it probably wasn't much good brand new as evinced by the cracked necks from bullet seating.

Also have some German 7.62x51 that apparently was wet enough at some point to nearly dissolve the 20rnd square cardboard boxes. Tho dry, they crumble at the touch. Ammo works fine.

Based on what I know, I would speculate it probably centers around temperature and humidiy extremes during storage. Wide temp swings play havoc with many things.

768 views

As that is now something only gun nuts know anything about, it seems. His solution for cleaning out the barrel was to take it in the shower with him. Worked well enough...

752 views

Back in 1965 in OCS we took our M14's into the shower with us to get them clean. Really hot water worked great.

759 views

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