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brav    10/5/2007 11:01:27 AM
Well i watched an episode of Future Weapons on Discovery Channel, hosted by ex-SEAL Richard Machowicz. It was about the M82A1 .50 cal, and in one part he said that great advantage of the Barrett is that it's semi-automatic, so it can deliver 10 shots in about 10 seconds while with bolt action sniper rifles, you spend 15 to 20 seconds between shots, till you open the bolt, put the round in and close the bolt. How come that someone who spent 10 year in the SEALS says such thing. Not that I mock Richard, from what I read about him he seems to be a very smart man. Here's the video of the Barrett episode if you're interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWJp14tkBlU . Might be a pointless thread but that caught my attention.
 
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brav       10/5/2007 11:02:46 AM
sorry i forgot to put a topic name.
 
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ChdNorm       10/5/2007 10:59:07 PM
The part that got me, is about 1:10 to 1:20 into it he holds up a .223 round as an example of what the M-16s fire, and a 7.62X 39 round as an example of what the AK-47s fire .... but he calls it a .308.
 
Aside from that, I could easily see the 15 second time frame between shots for a single shot bolt action .50cal. If you only consider opening the bolt, placing the cartridge into the action, then closing the bolt,  it seems like way too long. But, when you consider that you also have to completely reset your shooting position after that, let the rifle settle back down, and then 3 or 4 seconds to get your breathing under control ... it seems like a reasonable assertion to me.
 
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flamingknives       10/6/2007 5:49:52 AM
Possibly, but it's less reasonable when comparing it with a round a second from a semi-auto gun. Apart from anything else, you'd have to hold your breath for 10 seconds. Added to that you have recoil, laying on different targets and resetting your firing position etc.
 
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Horsesoldier       10/6/2007 1:30:34 PM
From watching the show, it seems like he either has some very bad writers and editors making him say very dumb things, or he's just not very knowledgable.  I have no explanation for that in light of his military background unless he was not much involved on the shooting side of things for whatever reason (or, as I say, he's reading a script written by folks who are ignorant of some things and does not have the clout as the host to inject corrections).
 
As for 10 rounds in ten seconds through a Barrett -- sure, can be done.  With accuracy at much beyond pont blank (for a .50 cal) range?  No.  And after that ten seconds you'd probably have to roll off the gun and sort yourself out, because you'll be pretty punch drunk.  Recoil on Barretts is not bad, but sheer concussive force from that round going off near your head starts to wear on your pretty quickly.  I'd describe it as kind of feeling like someone punched you in the back of the head every time you pull the trigger after the first magazine or so of regular, deliberate fire.  Dumping the mag as fast as you can would only make that worse.
 
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brav       10/6/2007 3:25:51 PM
>eah it's probably  editor's fault, I doubt he is fake, cos he's not anonymus, he wrote a book also and no one put his background into question.

About .308 and 7.62x39 , maybe he called it .308 because it's pretty similar to AK round, and it's much more known by the audience than the 7.62x39 so he called it .308 so that the audience get a picture, if you get what i mean.

Still pretty strange that he couldn't correct editors, it's strange that they are so strict even when they spread misinformations.

 
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flamingknives       10/6/2007 4:01:26 PM
7.62x39mm is the AK round.

.308 is 7.62x51mm NATO - a substantially more powerful round.
 
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Horsesoldier       10/9/2007 9:14:03 PM

7.62x39mm is the AK round.

.308 is 7.62x51mm NATO - a substantially more powerful round.


Yeah, .308 is always (or maybe "almost always" if that's the reason FutureWeapons was off) taken to mean exclusively and specifically the .308 Winchester round, better known in military circles as 7.62x51.  A generic reference to approximate bore of the weapon would be simply ".30 caliber" and would have been correct in the given usage (and would have included everything from 7.62x25 Tokarev pistol rounds to 300 Win Mag and beyond rifle rounds), but calling something a .308 is about like calling a Fiat a Ferrari -- they're both Italian cars, right, so what's the big difference?
 
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