Rate of Fire: What Determines it and How to Change It (Ad-free)
Added 2025-01-17 12:00:11 +0000 UTCWhat determines the rate of fire of a machine gun, and how can that rate of fire be determined or changed from a design perspective? Let's talk about pressure, mass, and distance...
Comments
Yes, please. I have my own opinion of this (pretty much standard US Army), but I would like to hear your thoughts.
Matthew Stanchfield
2025-01-18 15:34:16 +0000 UTCGreat video. Yes, I'd like to hear about which rate-of-fire is best (or worse) for various applications.
Jason
2025-01-17 20:26:31 +0000 UTCOkay, I should have done a little research first. It was a "Recoil Booster". Wikipedia has a page. Seems like Hiram Maxim invented it so his gun would function better with the 6MM Navy.
Walter Cheatham
2025-01-17 19:53:39 +0000 UTCA number of years ago, I read a book, with a simple title like "Machine Guns". I still have it but it's at our vacation home. I wish it was easily reachable. I believe it was talking about the MG-42. It mentioned a recoil enhancer. Not having a clue what that was I sent a letter to the American Rifleman. The reply included an illustration. It showed a flared muzzle moving in a fixed barrel shroud. So the muzzle blast acted on the barrel as a piston enhancing recoil and therefore rate of fire.
Walter Cheatham
2025-01-17 19:43:22 +0000 UTCYes, what are the general parameters of rates of fire depending on application, ammo type, ranges, etc.
maxmfs
2025-01-17 17:57:42 +0000 UTCThat’s my question, too. From my ME-201 Engineering Mechanics class in school (way back in 1979): the period of one cycle in a spring-mass system is two pi times the square root of the mass divided by the spring rate. This comes straight out of the math of a linear second-order differential equation. The spring-mass system is identical to a straight-blowback, constant recoil system, a system in which the receiver is so long that the bolt never hits the rear travel stop. All other machine gun mechanisms are variations of this design and the cyclic rate would differ from this basic rule of square root of mass divided by the spring rate, accordingly.
Jack Wakeland
2025-01-17 17:33:35 +0000 UTCWhat about strength of recoil springs?
Gary W Hausler
2025-01-17 17:25:03 +0000 UTCWell Ian, what rate of fire is best for what purposes?
Benjamin Helton
2025-01-17 16:38:03 +0000 UTCcorrect. insane amount of ammo and questionable rounds that hit. I'd prefer better control hits and little less keep heads down.
Guido Schriewer
2025-01-17 16:27:49 +0000 UTCI have attended two Big Sandy shoots and the high rate of fire from the miniguns have yet to shoot down one of the drones (model airplanes) however the slower machineguns are successful at downing them, I have downed two of them at each shoot using a MP-40 (550-650/min). High rate of fire is great for keeping your enemies heads down on the battlefield but requires an insane amount of ammo.
Steven E
2025-01-17 16:22:51 +0000 UTCI miss Q&A’s…and the Scotch choices.
Terry
2025-01-17 16:08:02 +0000 UTCyeah with the angry bees a180
Guido Schriewer
2025-01-17 15:11:31 +0000 UTCAir defense MG use went away a few decades ago, but it might come back thanks to drones...
Forgotten Weapons
2025-01-17 15:09:06 +0000 UTCI have a related topic that you may want to do a video on. How are 9mm NATO rounds different from SAAMI 9mm rounds and why are barrels/pistols not stamped as "9mm NATO" . Also and most important what parts of a striker fire pistol ware out faster when using 9mm NATO ammo. I was very surprised when I started asking manufactures question about these issues.
Retired No Bad Days
2025-01-17 15:02:59 +0000 UTCunless air defense (is that still a thing these days with fixed wing jets) absolutely a nice sloooow controlable 450-500/min! optimal for any mission IMO. they should have reduce the rate of MG3 (nin ecport,, ng42, 36,,,, subcompact subgun is one thing. mg42 is pretty insane.
Guido Schriewer
2025-01-17 14:54:57 +0000 UTCPerhaps you can explain to our intelligence-deficient legislators that semi-autos don’t have a “rate of fire”.
Rick Notkin
2025-01-17 12:42:48 +0000 UTCVery kewl. I vote for a discussion of “optimal” rate of fire based on mission. 🤙
GaryG
2025-01-17 12:19:07 +0000 UTC
