BAR

It had too limited firepower to be used as a machine gun. Strong recoil and mediocre accuracy made it undesirable for shoulder fire. Other flaws were non-changeable barrel and high maintenance due to clunky WW I design. I was glad to see it replaced by the M60, which was a real machine gun AND good for shoulder fire. They weighed the same 20-22 lbs. I never liked the BAR or knew anyone who did.

I always wanted to shoot one of these. This weapon shot the .30/06 round and could hand out lots of lead. The drawback was the 20 round magazine. It only recently has been taken out of service.

The common soldier liked this piece.

The original US GI Squad Automatic Weapon. Designed to supply the American Expeditonary Force on the battlefields of the Great War with "portable" full-auto firepower. Had a special cartridge belt (holding extra 20 rd mags) with a metal butt-cup for the buttstock of the weapon. The idea was that as the soldier walked forward while on the attack he would spray the battlefield with hot lead back and forth from the hip, pivoting the BAR with the buttstock seated in the cup! Nice idea, in theory. Otherwise, John Browning made one heck of a rifleman's Auto-rifle.

A good, solid squad-level weapon. A bit on the heavy side - I was issued one when I went through infantry basic (I swear they picked the smallest guys to lug the mortars and to be BAR gunners). Lots of fun to fire - low recoil because of the weight and the bipod. Despite having to lug all of the extra weight around, I was glad to have one issued to me.

Old but great gun

Heavy weapon but good gun.

Hefty, but a winner on the battlefield.

one of my favorite WW2 era weapons