I am currently working on a Tamiya M41 Bulldog but next models will be US WWII armor.
I have seen photos of the M41 .50 with and without the change handle, and some photos of late WWII armor .50’s with the change handle although most photos are without the change handle. When did the change handle on the .50 become common use?
The AFV club M41 .50 cal MG has the change handle and the extra barrel on the side of the turret seems to be a full barrel assembly rather than just the barrel. Does the presence of the change handle signify use of the full assembly rather than only a replacement barrel? When the MG barrel gets hot it would seem that the whole barrel assembly was changed, not just the barrel?
On photos of WWII armor I have not seen extra .50 cal (or .30 cal) barrels anywhere, were they carried on the WWII vehicles?
All of the photos of the M41 I have seen have either one or two sets of attachment points on the turret side above the sledge hammer. The AFV club model is the only place I have seen the extra barrel assembly in place there. Would those attachment points (and end brackets) always have been for the extra barrel assembly, or would cleaning rods have been stored there on some vehicles?
I might be able to answer a few questions, as a Gun Plumber.
The change handle should be removable. There should be a small detent that allows it. I am not 100% sure of it, we canadians use the 0.50 QCB, a bit different, but every handle I saw so far was removable. + the handle on a BMG looks directly align with the line of sight… not good if you are a gunner… I would say that crews left it there so they could do a quicker barrel change,(with mittens) and be back in action faster.
As I said earlier, you should be able to remove the carrying handle assembly. Here, as a matter of fact, we keep 1 handle per MG. When the barrel is hot and you want to change it, you put the handle on and change it. BTW, leave the handle on, and the heat produced in the barrel will transfer to the handle, same material…(believe me, that barrel get so #%&@* hot!). Another good reson to remove the handle when using the HMG.
Barrels are round…(especially 0.50 when no carrying handle on) so they roll when the vehicle bounce… therefore, have a tendancy to fall off vehicles… I would say inside… close at hand (near the MG hatch)
I have no idea… I am a Canadian Gun Plumber after all… hope it helps!!!
The charging handle is removable for disassembly and cleaning, but there is no reason to remove it during use. In fact, the charging handle is used to load the weapon and to clear any stoppages.
The only time I see a .50 without the charging handle is the type used in the M1 Abrams commander’s weapon station. This one is the same type the M48 used in the cupola.
It depends. We are using different contractors on the basis of who get the better deal. Colt Canada in Kitchener (use to be Diemaco) make some parts for us. When the need for a specific item arise, they are generally making them. They are also use as a 4th line of maintnance and overhauled many weapon system. FN for now is the main supplier of the C-6 MG and spare parts. It is changing though, because Colt Canada is now making some too, + some parts are made in the U.S. for the M-240.
There are two barrels but only one removeable carrying handle per gun. Barrel changes are best made with two mittens, we don´t evan want to go into headspace and timeing. If there´s a fat part with cooling perforations at the rear of the barrel it´s wrong. that belongs on the receiver. For sure there is a manuel that says exactly where and how something will be stowed. Then there´s this thing called field expediency.
Thanks for the answers guys, I know practically nothing about the .50 MG. I think I screwed up a little on the brackets for holding the extra barrel on the M41 tank, actually I probably made two or three mistakes on them. Guess if I hadn’t done anything I would not have made any mistakes: this first model is supposed to be a learning experience anyway.
There will hopefully be many more models, and many more .50 cal MG’s to install correctly, with the correct equipment in the correct places. One of the supervisors at work was tank crew on M1’s and he helps with some of my questions too. I will keep checking used book stores for old technical manuals of WWII vehicles I would be interested in and hopefully not bug you all with too many foolish questions.
I am finding out that I will have to understand alot more than I thought about how things worked on these vehicles to do a good job of modeling them.