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Posted: 6/27/2016 1:24:14 PM EDT
Hey guys, forgive my ignorance on the M-60, but that sure looks like a C Rat can under the ammo belt at the receiver?
Anyone care to educate me? Thanks  " /> |
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Posted: 6/27/2016 1:27:18 PM EDT
[#1]
Shooting those things you really work up an appetite so you know like you just attach a snack , eh.
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Posted: 6/27/2016 1:28:38 PM EDT
[#2]
It was to ensure proper feeding so as to decrease the potential for stoppages IIRC.
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Posted: 6/27/2016 1:28:43 PM EDT
[#3]
Kinda like the heat from the weapon heats up your beans & franks?
Ahhh got it  |
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Posted: 6/27/2016 1:29:13 PM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryQuoted: It was to ensure proper feeding so as to decrease the potential for stoppages IIRC. |
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Posted: 6/27/2016 1:31:39 PM EDT
[#5]
No first-hand experience and kind of a dumb reference but in an issue of G.I. Joe from the 80s the machine-gunner, Rock n Roll, is showing his "pig" to another team member and indicates he brazed the C-rat can to the feedramp himself.
Series was written by Larry Hama who was supposed to be a Vietnam Vet. Maybe it was a thing. |
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Posted: 6/27/2016 1:32:23 PM EDT
[#6]
Thanks
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Posted: 6/27/2016 1:34:19 PM EDT
[#7]
Yes it is a ration can. ...and yes it was very common during the Vietnam "conflict".
It was a field expedient solution to the ammo belt getting twisted or snagged and breaking a link of the belt. It was tack welded at the feed to help keep the belt feeding smoothly. |
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Posted: 6/27/2016 1:38:11 PM EDT
[#8]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Yes it is a ration can. ...and yes it was very common during the Vietnam "conflict". It was a field expedient solution to the ammo belt getting twisted or snagged and breaking a link of the belt. It was tack welded at the feed to help keep the belt feeding smoothly. +1 |
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Posted: 6/27/2016 1:47:03 PM EDT
[#9]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
+1 Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Yes it is a ration can. ...and yes it was very common during the Vietnam "conflict". It was a field expedient solution to the ammo belt getting twisted or snagged and breaking a link of the belt. It was tack welded at the feed to help keep the belt feeding smoothly. +1 Absolutely, back in the early 90's we had a few of the M-60's still in our company that had the C-Rat can fix. They seemed to run better than the ones that didn't have it. |
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Posted: 6/27/2016 1:53:56 PM EDT
[#10]
With the M60, you are supposed to have an assistant gunner who feeds the ammunition. His job is to feed the belt, keeping it level with the weapon and keep it from getting twisted. If you try to fire without an assistant gunner, feeding with the belt hanging straight down it will jamb, especially if you cant the weapon to the right. (I know this from personal experience!). The C ration can had almost a magical effect on feeding.
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Posted: 6/27/2016 2:19:08 PM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Shooting those things you really work up an appetite so you know like you just attach a snack , eh. |
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Posted: 6/27/2016 3:07:27 PM EDT
[#12]
When I went in it was still in "the book" they gave us to use a c ration can, even though the c ration was recently replaced with the MRE.
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Posted: 6/27/2016 3:12:53 PM EDT
[#13]
Yep, there is a reason we referred to it as "the Pig!" I only did basic qualification with the M60 during Army basic in 1974. However, when I was in a reserve USAF Security Police flight in 1979-1981, I went to Camp Bullis Texas in 1980 for a two week "Security Police Tactics School." We were almost all civilian cops in the unit, so they billed it a Security Police SWAT school. It was actually Air base Ground defense, and I spent two weeks carrying the M60, sometimes trudging behind the lucky guys in the Cadillac Cage V100 armored car!
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Posted: 6/27/2016 3:24:16 PM EDT
[#14]
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Posted: 6/27/2016 5:35:50 PM EDT
[#15]
If you look close you can see the ammo is really blanks in the pic above.
After semi annual unit qualification there was always a ton of ammo to shoot up once completed (either that or bury it). I laugh because no one wanted to shoot their weapon more that the forty rounds because they'd have to clean it. Since I was in the motor pool and had to drive the truck, draw the ammo, ferry the unit to and from the range, and had access to tools and solvents that did a bang up job with clean-up I assumed it was my duty to empty every piece of brass issued. I fell in love with the M60 during those afternoons, the feel, the sound, the smell, wish I would have bought one when I had then chance. Man I love those guns, shoulda, wouulda, coulda... |
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Posted: 6/27/2016 5:37:19 PM EDT
[#16]
The early M60 had a magazine bracket affixed to the left side for a canvas pouch. The pouch was quite useless and rarely used but the bracket could fit a C-ration can perfectly.
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Posted: 6/27/2016 6:33:08 PM EDT
[#17]
The C ration can was only needed with the early style bracket assembly mounted to the receiver as shown above.
When the later hanger assembly came out in the early to mid-70's it was attached directly to the feedtray and didn't have any projecting latches to potentially snag linked ammunition. The later cloth "bandoleer" with the 100 round cardboard box inside would slide over the new hanger or, a bare belt would feed reliably without hanging up. In the very early 80's I was Direct Support and inspected and gaged literally thousands of them during the time and never encountered the old style bracket installed on an issued M60. If anyone encountered one in the 90's they didn't have maintenance guys worth a damn or, some moron thought they still needed a C-Rat can attached to the new hanger. Which if full of fail as C-Rats had gone the way of the Dodo and wouldn't have even been available. YMMV, Wpns Man |
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Posted: 6/27/2016 6:42:47 PM EDT
[#18]
That's the same attachment on our Huey M60D's. The M24/26 sub munition system had a chute that fed ammo from a 1500 ammo can. We all however kept a peach can under the gun seat in case we needed to dismount the MG and use on the ground. And it works very well and if you drown the gun in synthetic Main Rotor Grip oil the gun just wipes down and it clean as can be in just a few minutes. Would love to have a gallon of that stuff again.
Quote HistoryQuoted:
The early M60 had a magazine bracket affixed to the left side for a canvas pouch. The pouch was quite useless and rarely used but the bracket could fit a C-ration can perfectly. http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/JFDIGILIO/IMG_6051.jpg |
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Posted: 6/27/2016 8:27:49 PM EDT
[#19]
A friend who was 11th Air Assault door gunner in 65 told me about this. Worked great he said.
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Posted: 6/27/2016 10:28:22 PM EDT
[#20]
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Posted: 6/27/2016 10:29:37 PM EDT
[#21]
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Posted: 6/27/2016 10:46:43 PM EDT
[#22]
Great pics everyone. I thought I was just seeing things. Figured it was something else and my eyes were playing tricks on me.
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Posted: 6/27/2016 11:13:51 PM EDT
[#23]
No snags.
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Posted: 6/29/2016 10:00:19 AM EDT
[#24]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
No first-hand experience and kind of a dumb reference but in an issue of G.I. Joe from the 80s the machine-gunner, Rock n Roll, is showing his "pig" to another team member and indicates he brazed the C-rat can to the feedramp himself. Series was written by Larry Hama who was supposed to be a Vietnam Vet. Maybe it was a thing. 
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Posted: 7/1/2016 8:04:59 PM EDT
[#25]
Aussie issued M60s retained the old style magazine bracket till the end of their service here in the late 90s. There was a locally developed metal 60 (and MUCH less common 100) round magazine that attached here. When that 60 was gone the external profile of the magazine performed the same function as a C Rat can.
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Posted: 7/3/2016 6:43:35 PM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistorySame setup we used with the M60Ds on our UH1s when I was in El Salvador in the 80s. The issue fed chutes caused constant jams but with the cans installed the guns fired flawlessly. Well, as flawlessly as one could expect from a M60. |
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