As I remember, when you fired it perpendicular to the earth, it tended to ride up into the sky. It was very light. If you held it parallel to the ground, it traveled sideways. So, if there were a group of targets, it would spray them better.
But shouldn’t the weapon’s butt stock be pressed firmly to your shoulder or hip? How do you do that while holding it sideways?
It didn’t have a great deal of kick. But it was a long time ago.
The M-3 was issued to crewmen for shooting people attempting to climb on their vehicles. It doesn’t take a lot of accuracy to hit a man sized target at a distance of less than fifteen feet.
It’s an equal and opposite reaction kind of thing. The overall weight of a firearm will make a huge difference in the felt recoil and actual recoil. A light weigh firearm, firing a high-velocity, light-weight bullet can kick as much, or more, than a heavy firearm firing a magnum load.
Generally-speaking, the M-3 weighs over 8 lbs, has an 8" barrel (higher velocity) and usually fires a 230gr, .45 ACP round, at over 900 fps.
The 5" barrel, M1911 Colt weighs around 2.5 lbs, and fires the same .45 ACP round under 900 fps.
Assuming that the M1911’s felt recoil is within the personal limits of a shooter, the M-3, which weighs over 3x more, would have a lot less felt recoil. At least when you’re firing one shot at a time.
- *Interesting read including a Handgun Recoil Table
Handgun Recoil Table
By Chuck Hawks*
They had a brief period of military effectiveness - see the caracole.
http://www.investigationsofadog.co.uk/2012/08/21/cavalry-tactics-the-caracole/
The reason it could work: pistols wielded by cavalry did not need to have a long range - just longer than that of the pike:
I thought this was fiction–it’s the first bad guy weapon in Skyfall–but IMFDB tells me it’s a Glock 18 with a Beta 100-round mag.
I then that that miscegenation was fiction, until I saw this guy emptying one, at 0:36.
You guys. 
How in the wide world of sports would you carry that thing with the magazine loaded?
Once you’ve put the magazine in, who’s going to stop you from open carrying? :eek:
Strenuously, given the manufacturer claims it weighs 4.6 lbs for the 5.56 NATO variant. They mention that an empty 9mm magazine weighs 2.2 lbs. Add to that a ballpark weight of 2.6 lbs for 100 rounds of 115 gr FMJ 9mm, and I get 4.8 lbs. Which is comfortably more than the 1.3- 1.4 lbs the pistol itself weighs.
I imagine it feels weird as hell to fire, like a cross between a boat anchor and a fire hose.
What I asked was how, physically, do you hold a weapon sideways? You can’t fire from the hip, obviously, so is the stock pressed sideways across your shoulder and upper chest, or do you fire with the stock folded?
Neither, the butt of the M-3 stock does not have to be pressed firmly into your shoulder or hip. Why? Because the cartridge has relatively low recoil (compared to a high velocity rifle round), and the M-3 weighs as much as a rifle (8.5+lbs). The M-3 can easily be fired with one hand.
The M-3 stock doesn’t fold. The stock on the original M-3, or M-3A1, is made of heavy wire and slides back and forth. Back, to allow the butt to be held against the shoulder for better control, or left forward, for ease of carry and firing one-handed.
Right. This isn’t a sharpshooter rifle. It’s a handheld “spray and pray” weapon, like the Soviet PPSh and British Sten. Inaccurate as hell, the point is to get as many bullets as you can in the direction of the enemy in hopes that a few will hit.
Or get him to keep his head down, as in suppress his ass.
Several people did. There was the Kimball which worked out about how you would expect, the TC Contender, and I think at least one other big semi-auto (maybe a Desert Eagle variant?). As far as I know they were all loud and obnoxious and in the case of the Kimball, dangerous at both ends.
I guess you wouldn’t need magna-porting or much of a compensator for muzzle jump after firing it.
The .30 Cal carbine round got mixed reviews during the Korean War. There were reports that the bullets would fail to penetrate (aka “bounce off”) the quilted, insulated coats the Chinese and NK troops wore during the Korean winters.
Just to note what they are symbolic of and what an officer’s unpleasant duty to use it for on the battlefield should it come down to it though, from Max Hasting’s Overlord, page 149 of the hardback edition, bolding mine:
Before semi-automatic and automatic rifles were available, combat in jungle conditions could suddenly and unexpectedly become close-quarters. A patrol might not have time to set up a machine gun or reload the bolt-action rifles of the day. The 1911 ACP was developed because soldiers fighting in the Philippines complained that the pistols they’d been issued didn’t have enough stopping power against berserk attackers.
I think this qualifies as “the enemy getting close enough so that it’s time to get the hell out of there”!