H&K's L7A2 GPMG

Dsiwy said:
Shorter barrel is not an upgrade for a GPMG, It will decrease your maxium effective range, If you want a short barrel 7.62 LMG, FN offers one.
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It's an option though. Perhaps some end users require a short barreled GPMG with a more durable reciever than the mk. 48.

Dsiwy said:
Top cover I think ever army by now is using a top railed cover or flip over rail on there GPMGs. US, Canada "overseas", Brits, Aussies
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Ok...so obviously it is a popular feature. Smart of them to include it.

Dsiwy said:
Light barrel is nice but how does it effect the guns barrel life on prolong firing?
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Some units may say "Who cares?" and budget to buy new ones.
 
Big_Red said:
It's an option though. Perhaps some end users require a short barreled GPMG with a more durable reciever than the mk. 48.
.
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Have not seen a worn reciever on one yet and there are no revits to worry about. Now they have been know to crack bolts.
 
Loouie said:
Are you sure that the HK L7GPMG is a FN MAG copy? It reminds me of a Czech made BREDA in 7.92x57. The Brits used to use the BREDAs in their tanks at the beginning of WW2 as did many other countries (Germany).
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That would be the Besa, which was a British made copy of the Czech ZB.37. The HK is definitely a variant of the FN MAG rather than the completely different Besa/ZB.37.

The Italian firm Breda did make a number of machine guns for the Italian army during WWII, however.
 
Dsiwy said:
Light barrel is nice but how does it effect the guns barrel life on prolong firing?
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Well since the barrel, is fluted it should cool marginally quicker than the standard barrel. But it's still as stiff or possibly stiffer than the standard barrel. So overall it should be an improvement all around. plus it benefits from almost 50 years of barrel and metallurgical development, so I'd think that it'd be better all around.
 
A short barrel is an OPTION....you can carry the short barrel for closer in ops (ie unit moving into an urban area) so that the weapon is handier when working in a FIBUA environment, but you'd still carry the long barrel and the SF kit would probably be in the unit's APC/carrier.

It's not giving up a capability, it's adding an option to a weapons system.

Think SOPMOD for the M-4 (ya know, the barbie for men motivator poster?) Now, add an extra, easily changed barrel to the picture.

That's all they've done. :jerkit:

*shrug*

Makes sense to me.

Oh, and H&K put their name on it? What's the likelyhood that the Brit Army contracted them to do a mid-life upgrade on their L7's? The SA-80's I've handled (The A2's at least) were all nicely marked with similar H&K stampings....looked nice. But, in the end, they're just another gun maker, or in this case, most likely, re-fitter. :jerkit:

As they say....carry it on the the left....

NS
 
teddy49 said:
Well since the barrel, is fluted it should cool marginally quicker than the standard barrel. But it's still as stiff or possibly stiffer than the standard barrel. So overall it should be an improvement all around. plus it benefits from almost 50 years of barrel and metallurgical development, so I'd think that it'd be better all around.
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You can't make a barrel stiffer (or anything else) by reducing the cross-sectional area. A larger diameter barrel with flutes will be stiffer than a smaller diameter unfluted one of the same weight, but an unfluted barrel of the same larger diameter will be stiffest of all.
 
Also bear in mind that while a fluted barrel will cool faster, a solid barrel provides more metal to act as a heat sink. When you're going through two or three belts of 7.62X51 in a hurry, no barrel in the world will cool fast enough to keep up. All that you can hope is that the barrel has enough mass to absorb the heat being created by the firing without reaching a temperature that will cause it serious harm.
 
w squared said:
Also bear in mind that while a fluted barrel will cool faster, a solid barrel provides more metal to act as a heat sink. When you're going through two or three belts of 7.62X51 in a hurry, no barrel in the world will cool fast enough to keep up. All that you can hope is that the barrel has enough mass to absorb the heat being created by the firing without reaching a temperature that will cause it serious harm.
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yes or no - it can be calculated and optimized. A 2nd year engineering student can easily tackle this problem with some number crunching
 
greentips said:
yes or no - it can be calculated and optimized. A 2nd year engineering student can easily tackle this problem with some number crunching
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Agreed. You can figure out what rate of fire is sustainable, or how long a given rate of fire is sustainable.

My point was more that a heavier, non-fluted barrel (seven or so pounds) will last longer at a rapid rate of fire than a five pound fluted barrel before it gets to a temperature that will cause long-term problems.

No matter how fast a rate of fire you design a barrel to deal with, you can always trust a soldier to find a tactical situation that calls for more rounds downrange. ;)
 
Yep kinda looks like a PKM on the juice.Still think the PKM is the best GPMG out there hands down.
The C9 A2 comes with 2 barrels now.Both a long and short barrel.
 
tjhaile said:
You can't make a barrel stiffer (or anything else) by reducing the cross-sectional area. A larger diameter barrel with flutes will be stiffer than a smaller diameter unfluted one of the same weight, but an unfluted barrel of the same larger diameter will be stiffest of all.
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Right, but as you note the fluted profile is a more efficient cross-section (if we are concerned with flexure and/or torsion). At a certain weight, we can always get a higher second moment of area and polar moment by keeping the mass as far as possible from the axis of rotation.
 
Some people still think we are sitting on the German border waiting to repel a mass soviet advance, heavy and long is not a good think in asymetrical warfare.

FN makes a Ti receiver M240 for those who get tired of the disposable Mk48.

I heard a rumor a few days ago Colt won the M240 contract down here...
 
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