All around, what rate of fire do you like?

I find guns in the 600 range to be too slow. They kind of chug along and rock and bounce and groups are pretty terrible.  Likewise, I think when you start to get over 900 RPM (on anything bigger than a 22LR) you have to start fighting recoil and the gun tends to less controllable.

I find that I tend to prefer about 750-800 or so RPM.

My body is a temple. P90>>>>

I don't know if you've read any of my posts but that is what I'm always trying to do....bring the cyclic rate down but only if it is smooth.  I don't like bouncy setups.  With the Ferfrans RRS carrier, I got the cyclic rate down to 478 RPM but I didn't like it and felt it was bouncy but one of my friends loves it.  I hate it.

When I first got into MG's, I liked the fast cyclic rate, then I went to my first SMG match and was hooked.  I was getting bored of just dumping mags and the matches made it challenging.  Forcing you to leave the selector on auto and having to deal with 'no shoot' targets and conserving ammo.  
Being able to easily pull a single round off in auto and then to pull doubles or triples at will is very satisfying.  For me, that means I need to be in the 600's.  But again, ONLY if it is smooth.

For an open bolt SMG, there are several that can be slow and smooth.  Sterling, Sten, Swedish K and even a full size open bolt UZI I still find to be smooth.
For a closed bolt, the MP5 remains the king but it is still a tad too fast.  Even a full size MP5 cycles a tad too fast to reliably get singles out of it.  Sure some people can consistently do it but I would argue it requires more skill/concentration.  The straight blowback 9mm M16 absolutely sucks.  Sure, I've gotten mine down to the 400's but so damn choppy.  
Now with the CMMG radially delayed and all my tinkering, I feel that my setup has finally surpassed the MP5, as I have the smoothness but a cyclic rate you can't get with the MP5.
Note, that the out of the box or factory recommended CMMG RDB configuration isn't that smooth to me.  Better than straight blowback but still not in MP5 territory.
http://www.c3junkie.com/?page_id=280


I think this is amazingly smooth:


For a gas operated M16 variant, the first thing you need to do is make sure it isn't overgassed and I personally prefer a mid length gas or rifle length for smoothness.  A lot of people just throw heavy buffers at everything and I find that just makes everything too bouncy with more reciprocating mass.

Have you tried an open bolt Colt LMG?  Cyclic rate around 600 and super smooth!!  However, I'm not going to go open bolt on a transferrable M16 lower so I do all this tinkering to get it close.

For a shorty gas operated 5.56, the 12.5" mid is my favorite.  The configuration below is very smooth.  Still at a cyclic rate that I can pull singles, double, triples at will.

I actually made my post after a range trip yesterday tinkering with a CMMG 9mm RDB. I finally got around to milling my CMMG carrier for RLL usage. Its virgin configuration was actually a Tubb 556 spring, RB5007 buffer and extended buffer tube based on your tests.  It was smooth but so slow.  Dial-up slow.  Maybe low 600s?

So I tried an RB5005 buffer, H2 and H3. The H3 was a tad quicker, maybe 700 or a bit slower and I liked it.  The H2 was pretty darn quick, probably 900ish.  The RB5005 was somewhere in the middle.  I kind of want to try a car buffer out of morbid curiosity but the lightest I’d brought was an H2.

I think I’m going to put both hydraulic buffers on the EE and replace them with Griffin SOB-AR buffers. No sense in having a pair of lowers with $120 buffers in them when $50 buffers can do the same thing.  I’ll probably keep the tubb springs in both lowers for no particular reason.

I like my ROF to be such that I can sweep the gun past a half-dozen bowling pins or small plates at a moderate pace and knock them down. Too slow, regardless of smoothness, and there’s lots of misses. Too fast and you run out of ammo too fast - especially if you have to swing back to get a straggler.

Both my 5.56mm uppers are on the fast and choppy side. One is a Colt 14.5” barrel and the other is a Colt 10.3”... both factory gasblock carbines. But they are built milspec/clone style for reliability instead of smoothness.

I like slow 550-600 , I’m a poor so it wastes ammo slower

Maybe for you but that is definitely not my experience nor any of the guys I shoot with.

Depends on the gun.

I like my m16 around 900 as it is great for 3-4 round bursts.

I like my m11 around 650, allows you to pull singles, doubles, or give you a bit more trigger time during a mag dump.

My favorites are the slow ones.

I have a M3 Greasegun that I love to shoot, but I didnt like it that much stock.  I built a suppressor for it that adds a lot of muzzle weight and REALLY smoothed out the cycling. It is a night and day difference. It is one of my favorites now.

Same with the chances I have had to shoot a BAR. I really prefer shooting it on slow than on fast.

It depends on caliber.  For 45acp in either a grease gun or Thompson, I would want a slower rate of fire than in a 5.56 rifle.  I would want a slower rate of fire in a 7.62X51 or 7.62x54R than in a 5.56,  7.62x39 or 5.45x39.

50 per second?  = 3,000 RPM.  Are you talking about a minigun?

Interesting information and I like reading everyone's opinions. My only experience is from when I was in the Army. I liked the rate of fire of the M3A1. After a while a single shot or 3 round burst is easy to do with the M3A1. We did play around with the M60 to increase the rate of fire a bit. The most fun I had was when we got a hold of an aircraft bolt for the M2. If my memory serves me right it was the AN/M3 and man did it increase the rate of fire for Ma Deuce. And no you did not want to just hold the trigger down and shoot a whole belt at one time with that setup, it got just a tad bit warm

It absolutely depends on the design. Everything seems to have a sweet spot where it bounces minimally and just seems to lock in right where you're aiming. For example - I find a Sten to be great even though the ROF is relatively low at 550-600. The same ROF in an Uzi tends to jitter and pull it in various directions and drives me up the wall.

Similarly the AK and RPD have extremely similar ROF. Where the AK pulls and dances the RPD just anchors itself in place and is easy as pie to aim.

Then there are things such as the P90. 900 or so rounds per minute and yet it might as well be a laser pointer. Slow it down and it seems off.

The Kp/M31 is fantastic with hot ammo and the rate reducing end cap being around 850 RPM. Screw with it and make it run full-open and you can push past 1200 RPM - but it still seems rock steady. Do the same with an M11/9 and it goes from a fairly solid shooter to being near uncontrollable even with a good stock and foregrip.

It just depends.

It depends on the gun. Some are unhappy at various speeds. I liked shooting a friends Grease Gun and found it easy to squeeze off singles and doubles. I like my Mac with a Jack in it.  I played around with the Uzi with hotter ammo and a thick buffer. It is back to stock at the end of the day.

I love the chaos of a fast shooting gun, but it's hard to hit stuff .  That has little to do with how fun to shoot it is, though

This rate is pretty good, not sure what it is exactly. 700ish?

350 for 45acp

550 9mm

If I want super fast rate of fire

I picked between 650 and 750

good guess... goldwave says 731rpm at the beginning of the mag.  Hard to tell more precisely because you're doing a bunch of 2-3 shot bursts.

Mag dump was 759

I like the pucka pucka bump of a slow rate gun.
Plus it saves on ammo costs.

I do have a MAC in .380 that IIRC is over 1100 and its fun to shoot but kinda a one trick pony.

The full size Uzi shooting .45 ACP, and the M16 with a hydraulic buffer and a .45 ACP upper both shoot on the mellow side.  Which is good considering today's price on ammo.

I sometimes refer to the M11-380 as "The Teenage Boy".

it really depends on the firearm

I like the slower rat-a-rat RoF of the M1928 TSMG, as well as the buzzsaw RoF of Norrell 10/22 and MG34... and 3000 rpm is just right whenever I go fly with Dillon Aero and fire their M134 miniguns

I'm going to disagree with the "one trick pony" characterization.   For the M11-380 with either small or large magwell one can purchase a slow fire .380 ACP upper and a 9mm Suomi magazine upper.  While they are not currently being produced (there is a wait list), a tungsten bolt has been used in the large magwell M11 as a compact 9mm machine pistol; and in the small magwell M11 as a slow fire .380 ACP machine pistol.  In the past there have been some M11-380 subguns that had the TASK type slow fire system installed with limited success, but I'm not sure how much effort was put into refining that configuration.

MHO, YMMV, etc.  Be well.

ETA:  Also, there have been a couple versions of .22LR conversions for the M11-380.  Fleming made a Ruger 10/22 mag upper, and the VanVoorhees pattern M11/9 conversion has been adapted to fit the M11-380 with the large magwell.

My ideal Rate of fire varies depending on the platform and caliber.

My American 180 runs at 1650 rounds per minute and it is very fun to shoot (and everyone else seems to enjoy it too).  When I'm shooting my M16, I like it at half that rate.  When I'm shooting my Mp40, I like it even slower...