Does water cooling a gun render it (practically) invulnerable to barrel deformation from heat? Without the problem of heat, what other parts are most likely to foul?
Supposing you had a water cooled MG42 and a nearby pool of clean fresh water. Could you theoretically sustain a RPM of 1500 for half an hour with no heat damage to the barrel itself?
in theory yes since barrel temp cannot excede the temp of boiling water
Barrel would probably wear out and lose accuracy after half an hour of continuous firing
That's 45,000 rounds. I imagine it'd be shot out at that point.
Eventually the rifling will erode away.
Exactly what kind of inaccuracy are we talking about here - Or rather, how badly can worn rifling reduce a guns effective range. Up to half? Even more?
Could a very worn barrel be even worse than a smooth-bore barrel because of the bullet carving the metal randomly?
whats the story about like 6 vickers in ww1 shooting around a million rounds over 12 hours without malfunction? I think the dudes resorted to pissing on them to cool them.
in ww2 a lot of MG42 gunners preferred shot out barrels because at long distance you provided cover fire to an area rather than an individual and the shot out barrels provided a larger area for the shots to hit.
That was post war testing.
I remember some unknows anecdote of Bren gun that only complaint of it was that it was too accurate meaning it was worse covering bigger area, same as you said.
Captain Graham Hutchison recorded this account of the Vickers in action during an attack on High Wood in August 1916 (exerpted from “The Grand old Lady of No Man’s Land by Dolf Goldsmith):
For this attack, [ten] guns were grouped in the Savoy Trench, from which a magnificent view was obtained of the German line at a range of about 2000 yards. These guns were disposed for barrage. On August 23rd and the night of the 23rd/24th the whole Company was, in addition to the two Companies of Infantry lent for the purpose, employed in carrying water and ammunition to this point. Many factors in barrage work which are now common knowledge had not then been learned or considered. It is amusing today to note that in the orders for the 100th Machine Gun Company’s barrage of 10 guns, Captain Hutchison ordered that rapid fire should be maintained continuously for twelve hours, to cover the attack and consolidation. It is to the credit of the gunners and the Vickers gun itself that this was done! During the attack on the 24th, 250 rounds short of one million were fired by ten guns; at least four petrol tins of water besides all the water bottles of the Company and urine tins form the neighborhood were emptied into the guns for cooling purposes; and a continuous party was employed carrying ammunition. Private Robertshaw and Artificer H. Bartlett between them maintained a belt-filling machine in action without stopping for a single moment, for twelve hours. At the end of this time many of the NCOs and gunners were found asleep from exhaustion at their posts. A prize of five francs to the members of each gun team was offered and was secured by the gun team of Sgt. P. Dean, DCM, with a record of just over 120,000 rounds
I think this is what you are referring to -
In 1963 in Yorkshire, a class of British Army armorers put one Vickers gun through probably the most strenuous test ever given to an individual gun. The base had a stockpile of approximately 5 million rounds of Mk VII ammunition which was no longer approved for military use. They took a newly rebuilt Vickers gun, and proceeded to fire the entire stock of ammo through it over the course of seven days. They worked in pairs, switching off at 30 minute intervals, with a third man shoveling away spent brass. The gun was fired in 250-round solid bursts, and the worn out barrels were changed every hour and a half. At the end of the five million rounds, the gun was taken back into the shop for inspection. It was found to be within service spec in every dimension.
I saw that same vickers from the picture Tuesday. Its in the National Museum of the Pacific.
Summer
Gamers
Probably but modern coolant would be better. However the problem is logistics. It’s easier to tote an air cooled LMG/HMG on a vehicle than a LMG/HMG and it’s coolant equipment
>5 million rounds of .303
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Yeh someone shoulda taken it home instead lol what a waste
Define 'better'
heat capacity of water is pretty fucken neat and it's not exactly in short supply
Many heavy machine guns are recoil operated meaning the barrel moves. This make water cooling them more complex.
But yes newer gas operates guns could be watered cooled and last long time periods.
>post-war analysis has concluded that our infantry weapons are too accurate
>begin training of new Parkinson's squads to provide covering fire immediately
That's fuddlore boi
Yes it can, you fool. Only liquid water cannot exceed the temp of boiling water in its current enviroment (which factors in pressure). The barrel can get hotter than 100C.
You'll eventually blow up the gun by either loosing head space in the chamber by eroding the shoulder that much, or having a roller let go/a recess get to dug out.
Lindy pls go.
Yes but you'd have to saturate the heat sink media before it could. Which being water that's not allowed to boil off, it's not really going to happen.
No, because the water cools the outside of the barrel while the bullet heats the inside. It's unlikely that steel conducts well enough to keep the inside lower than the "hot enough to be ruined" point with the outside constrained to 100C.
Better as in cooler and engine coolant isn’t exactly in short supply either