This is an M2 on a late WW2/postwar mount:
Pic used for discussion only and belongs to this site. As you can see, the ammo box is closed so no ammunition is loaded on the MG. I need some pics of this same mount, but with the box opened and the ammo loaded. I also need the actual dimmensions on the ammo boxes. Thanks a lot in advance. Best regards.
Actually, the ammo cans can be closed when the gun’s being fed from the can… Well, almost closed… You can leave the can’s lid open an inch or so to pull the ammo through… That’s what I did (had that ype of mount too) when it was raining or a lot of dust… Just flip the lid closed, and leave the ammo fed inti the gun…
PhotoBucket is acting up again and I can’t get in to show you some pics of Mother Deuce…
Actually, with the “type” of ammo can shown in the pic above …the gun “can not” be fired with the can closed (even partially) . The hinge runs along the “long” side of the ammo can, not on the Short “end”. Attempting to fire with the can closed will cause jams and “mis-fires”.
Today’s (Modern/Post WW II) ammo cans (.50 cal) dementions are (L x W x H) 12 X 6 X 7 (inches).
Unfortunately I cannot find my pic’s of a loaded M2…will see what I can come up with later.
However here arew a couple of a 1/6 scale loaded.
That will help a lot, Thanks for the dimensions, I was cutting some plastic already and I made a close match. My kit is 1/76, but the provided M2 has the ammo belt loaded moulded as a block, I want to replace it, so why not with the ammo belt too? Best regards.
José.
FYI, be careful using that 1/6 item as a hard reference. I am unaware of the M2 .50 cal ever using a cloth belt. All that I have ever seen or used had a disintigrating metal link belt. The WWII Browning .30 cal used a cloth belt.
That’s why I said, “most”… [;)]
Never said anything about firing with the can closed either… I flipped the lid over the ammo to help keep it clean and dry (sorta)…
Here’s a couple shot of the Ma Deuce being fed…
!(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/HansvonHammer/Support Equipment/Aircraft Support Items/weapons/mc_scope_800.jpg)
!(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/HansvonHammer/Support Equipment/Aircraft Support Items/weapons/ammofeed50.jpg)
!(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/HansvonHammer/Support Equipment/Aircraft Support Items/weapons/50-calammofeed.jpg)
These are tripod-mounted guns, obviously, but they feed the same, regardless of the mount… Now, I never saw any of the ammo-cans that hinged on the “long” side, and I’ve been “intimate” with Mother Duece from 1976 to 2006… But I can promise you that the gun certainly could fire with the type of can above being partially closed… The feed-pawl on the Fifty has a pretty good “grip”…
The disintegrating-link ammo belts have been a staple of the Browning M2/M3 since prior to WW2, as have the ammo cans depicted above, and they still are… When the gun’s fired, the brass ejects from the bottom of the receiver, while the links come out from the side…
I found something else. The late cradle’s designation is D80030, here’s some info about it. So the ammo box lid was removed prior to mount it. I’ll bookmark it 
Best regards.
José.
The WWII Ammo can had a “piano” type hinge for the lid running lengthwise and had to be removed from the can in order for the gun to be fed. The can itself was also stamped, probably for added strengthening.
The post WWII can had no stamping and the hinges were changed to widthwise. While it had to be opened to feed the fun, it did not have to be removed. And as said above, can be left on slightly ajar in order to provide some protection from the elements for the ammo belt.
as far as the nomenclature for the various mounts goes, I would have to dig out my old -10 for the M2 and see if that is listed in there.
I meant that I never saw a “long-side” hinge during my career, Stikker…
Me neither my freind… at least not containing rounds. I have only seen them from re enactors, my neighbors garage (he had quite the assortment of old WWII/Korea stuff in his collection), and in surplus stores.
FYI at the beginning of the war the ground troops were being issued .50 cal ammo with “cloth” belts.
But the Aircraft magazines were not designed for the use of cloth belts, so as the demand for .50 ammo for aircraft weapons started to “increase”, production concentrated more and more on ammo for planes. As this steadily increased, ground troops started to get a mix of Belted and Linked ammo, which of course eventually replaced the belted ammo altogether.
It was just plain econonmics, the cost of producing both belted and linked ammo, the cost of producing the containers for both (clearly marked), because you can’t have belted ammo going to fighter squadrons. It was just cheaper to produce “one” type., and that ammo was needed at the front as quickly as possible.
On an Abrams tank, the ammo mount for the TC’s .50 is designed so that the latch that keeps the lid on the ammo box closed is used to secure the ammo box to the ammo mount. This in effect makes it look like the ammo box is closed, but as you can see from this head on shot, the lid is slightly ajar.
I would love to see a photo of cloth belted .50 cal ammo. Like I said, I have never seen or heard of it before, and I am fairly well accquainted with the M2. The M3 version is a slightly diff erent beast, with a higher rate of fire, IIRC. and i am willing to bet there is a differnce in the feed mechanism when dealing with a cloth ammo belt or a disintigrating metal link belt. Not so much economics as logistics in keeping all those .50s fed from the same belts.
According to this website, there was, in fact, a cloth belt for the M2 .50-cal that held 100 rounds and was produced until 1945.
http://users.skynet.be/jeeper/page61.html
I, in my experience with the .50 had never seen nor heard of such a thing…
But this site actually has pictures that seem to show .50 cal ammo in cloth belts:
http://browningmgs.com/AmmoCans/Wood.htm
And if you scroll down a bit on this page, you’ll see another example:
http://doughboymilitary.com/details.php?cid=3#2428
Interesting… you learn something new every day…
Wow, you can teach an old grunt a new thing…[;)] Thanks for the enlightenment BB.[t$t]