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Mike Rothery -> (12/1/2000 6:17:00 AM)
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quote:
Originally posted by jerrek:
I was speaking with a soldier of the australian army recently and he told me that the styer assault rifle was rated for 200 rounds per barrel before replacement. Obviously they could do more if required but i suppose they would be less reliable. Under automatic fire they go transparent and you can see the bullets going up the barrel. Aty this point i would imagine the barrels are quite weak and easily deformed. MG42 would have a similiar problem.
At the end of the war (not sure ww1or2) their was a test i remember about with some british shooting a vikers continuously with surpluss ammo to see how long it would last - i seem to remember they gave up after 6000 hours (or some stupid figure). Water cooling, heavy but useful.
I think that the guy meant that after 250 rounds of continuous fully automatic fire you would start to get barrel erosion, ie the rifling would start to wear away rapidly, and the accuracy would drop. The weapon will continue to function for a lot longer thanthis, but the barrel would have to be replaced.
As for the barrel becoming flexible, well a very hot barrel will droop, or whip when fired and start to lose long range accuracy, but this will recover when cool unless it was absolutley cooked.
The test on the Vickers gun you mentioned was in about 1910 before the First World War. The Vickers, like the Maxim on which it was based, was cooled with a water jacket. The test ended when they ran out of ammunition available at the range.
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