It’s about 8 feet away from me. It’s usually in a museum, but it’s being taken for a public display and until it’s picked up, it’s literally propped up agains a cabinet.
Heavy sumbitch, I’ve never had the opportunity to handle one.
Hell, go buy some ammo and take it out for a spin!
I’ve seen Dillingers cut-down BAR up close and yeah, there’s no way I’d carry that thing around, even with the reduced weight.
My brother carried the BAR in the Army. He always cursed it as a heavy, awkward lead sprayer, with no accuracy whatsoever. Plus he had to carry a lot of ammo for it.
I want it. Send it to me.
I’m not sure exactly what it’s worth, but it occurred to me that I could abscond with it, sell it, and live comfortably for a several years off the proceeds.
I thought there were two guys, or am I thinking M-60?
That belongs in a museum!
Coooool. That is all.
What was the point of that weapon, anyway? A machine gun with a 20-round box magazine? You’d only be able to shoot for like 2 seconds before reloading. Why not belt feed?
Machine guns aren’t really designed to be fired by holding down the trigger until the magazine is empty/belt is expended.
They’re usually fired in 3-4 round burst a few seconds apart. Blowing 20-round magazines down the barrel one after another would render the weapon unservicable from heat build-up before too long.
Apart from that…good point. What a pain in the ass.
I’m really surprised their IS an original still to see and your not just looking at a knockoff.
Then how would you know? One old BAR looks pretty much like another.
Thing is over the years so many pieces of history have been stolen and been replaced by forgeries. Their is supposedly a HUGE market by these wealthy collectors who can afford to bribe guards and even museum directors with thousands if not millions of dollars to steal precious items for their personal collection plus they can afford to have exact copies made. Even some museums just have forgeries on display while the real McCoy is in a vault somewhere.
They say in Iraq Saddam Hussein was the master of this and they would go to great lengths, even death threats, to hide the fakes.
In the first place, B+C used a LOT of BARs. They took them from National Guard armories.
Second place…let’s just say that the weapon’s provenance isn’t in question.
Although there are some MGs that are just fine with being treated like that. There’s a famous account of a Vickers machine-gun detachment spending twelve hours or so sustained-firing into an inconvenient patch of woods back in WW1. By the time they were done (water-cooling and some quick-change barrels helped) there was not only nothing moving in the woods but precious little standing either.
AIUI the BAR was neither one thing nor the other - too heavy to be a useful automatic rifle, too light and incapable of sustained fire to make a serious MG. OTOH if you have enough of them about the place then I daresay they will make an impact.
And if you’re caught, you could shoot your way out. Think of the cool news stories!!!
I think as long as it’s here, I’ll refer to it as “My Little Friend.”
And damn, there’s no magazine. Feeding rounds one at a time by hand kiiiind of defeats the purpose of having an automatic weapon.
Question: What is it you do that would provide an opportunity to have Clyde Barrow’s BAR in the corner of your office?
Water cooling and barrel changes are the ONLY thing that made that possible. Sure, the action can function for that long (providing it doesn’t get fouled), but you’ll melt a barrel down.
I work for the gubmint, and the gubmint took this here firearm from B+C.
Then get off the internet and GET BACK TO WORK!
You mentioned there was no question about the provenience of this particular weapon - by chance was it in their possession when they departed this mortal coil?