Can't offer specifics, but Small Arms Review ran a buyers guide over several issues with all the information you'll need to make your decision. Pick up those back copies.

I have them all scanned and used to email them out, however there is no need for me to even email them to you anymore as they have been posted online.

http://www.machinegunpriceguide.com/html/m60_part_1.HTM

When buying my 60 a couple years ago, I found no reliable information online about purchasing a M60.

Over the years I have collected a decent repository of US Army Field and Technical Manuals and would be more than willing to email them to you. Just PM me you email address..

If there are any specific questions I can help answer, just let me know.

I think you could find a gun in the mid to upper 20s.

However, M60s are known to be tempermental, and transferable examples run the gamot of quality from hatchet job rewelds with worn out parts to pristine E4 conversions of NIB Saco-Lowell/Marmont factory guns.

My advice would be to honestly not try and buy the cheap end of the scale. Its sort of like buying a cheap used Ferrari, where there is a high chance it will leave you bitter and with an empty wallet regardless.

M60 build quality is really critical to how they function and unlike a transferable M16 or HK Sear you really can't "throw away" the majority of the receiver parts or even the whole host gun for peanuts and replace the bulk of the gun with something that works. M60 receivers if out of spec and/or worn out are going to require expensive parts and a lot of very skilled labor to try and make it right.

You are basically paying about 25Kish for the "paper" tranferable status and whatever you spend on top of that is roughly what you are getting in gun, now a days. So a 27,000 M60 probably consists of 25K in transferable status and 2K in actual "gun", which means it is most likely a beater. (Unless you come across a crazy good deal like one of the other board members here did at an auction a couple years back)

With today's market prices on M60s, its my opinion it's better to spend at least 30K and up and get something that is in spec and works and runs, than get a bargain 25K gun that is the most expensive single shot machinegun you can buy.

After doing a decent amount of research, I ended up with a Rock Island Armory (RIA) gun as they seemed to offer the best value. They are factory made guns (not a rewelds or some machined bar stock trunion gun) have good reputations for reliability but didnt come with the brand-name cache that a factory Saco/Maremont gun does (along with the equivalent name recognition pricetag). My extra cash was then put toward a new E4 conversion on the RIA receiver.

Frank at ATFmachinegun has a RIA gun available in E1 config for $30K, which isn't a bad buy now-a-days.

Whatever you do, I would encourage you to personally inspect whatever you are buying given the pricerange.

Pic of my pig

jbntex's advice is spot-on. If you can't pull the trigger on a usgi-spec maremont gun, your best bet is probably an RIA gun. I picked mine up about 6 years ago for $27K and then spent the money to upgrade it to E4 config. These are great guns - mine has never failed to fire, and it's easy to shoot from the shoulder.

Just make sure it's a good one and it'll be reliable and fun. Out of all the beltfeds I've had, the 60 is the only one I've cared to keep.

Yup. The stuff has gotten boring and shooting is either non existent in my life or I just don't care to go anymore. Spending my whole life around machine guns or guns in general, I've officially been burned out.