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Posted: 6/2/2014 9:47:05 PM EDT
Are there any organized competitions for us class 3 owners that own MGs? Ive heard of subgun matches a few years ago once or twice, but nothing past that. Id just like to give my m16 a "purpose" haha.
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I've heard these guys run some matches in Idaho: http://iawca.org/ No personal experience, yet.
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You might check around with some of the local 3-gun matches and see if they would let you run your "rifle" in full auto. Who knows, you might start something.
To be honest, I used to want a rifle-caliber MG (ok, I admit it, I still want one), but like you I wouldn't have any real purpose for it other than recreational blasting. I really enjoy shooting subgun matches, but I haven't seen many competitions for machine guns. The only one I am aware of is the "belt-fed" match in AZ. Looking through the scores, I have seen where people used other machine guns, such as M16s, Louis Guns, etc. The other one was http://actsshooters.com, which is a 2-gun match based in Michigan. The MI host range doesn't allow full auto, but they used to have an AZ chapter which did. |
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Hard to due a machine gun competition given accuracy and speed are the scoring factors and with a MG the ROF is always the same for all shooters and accuracy is pretty much non existent.
As far as purpose goes.... It draws attention at the range and is a good way to break the ice and meet people. Self defense, i personally have no concerns using my MG in my own home for self defense. Thus far MGs have made great investments. All around fun, and i have yet to have a friend or coworker turn down an opportunity to shoot a REAL machine gun! |
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Quoted:
Hard to due a machine gun competition given accuracy and speed are the scoring factors and with a MG the ROF is always the same for all shooters and accuracy is pretty much non existent. As far as purpose goes.... It draws attention at the range and is a good way to break the ice and meet people. Self defense, i personally have no concerns using my MG in my own home for self defense. Thus far MGs have made great investments. All around fun, and i have yet to have a friend or coworker turn down an opportunity to shoot a REAL machine gun! The AZ belt fed matches are scored based on accuracy and speed. I also don't think all MG's have the same ROF. Most of a certain model would have a similar ROF. |
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Quoted:
The AZ belt fed matches are scored based on accuracy and speed. I also don't think all MG's have the same ROF. Most of a certain model would have a similar ROF. Quoted:
Quoted:
Hard to due a machine gun competition given accuracy and speed are the scoring factors and with a MG the ROF is always the same for all shooters and accuracy is pretty much non existent. As far as purpose goes.... It draws attention at the range and is a good way to break the ice and meet people. Self defense, i personally have no concerns using my MG in my own home for self defense. Thus far MGs have made great investments. All around fun, and i have yet to have a friend or coworker turn down an opportunity to shoot a REAL machine gun! The AZ belt fed matches are scored based on accuracy and speed. I also don't think all MG's have the same ROF. Most of a certain model would have a similar ROF. ah yeah i should have clarified i was assuming everyone was using same model, ie a mac 10 prob wouldnt be competing vs a M60 |
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Hard to do a machine gun competition given accuracy and speed are the scoring factors and with a MG... Not necessarily. It just takes a little more thought vs. setting up a subgun match, which are generally shorter-range affairs. Some years back, I saw a video of a guy running a stage (handgun or subgun match or similar) with a slung M60. Targets were all fairly close range (appropriate for a handgun / subgun). He actually ran it pretty well with the big Pig. When his 50-round belt ran out, he dropped the gun in its sling and finished up with a Glock 18. Very cool - but not exactly a "rifle-caliber" match setup. Targets were all paper, so there was no concern about killing mild steel targets. But you hit on the crux of the matter. If scoring is based on speed and accuracy, once you get beyond 50 yards or so, you are probably going to be faster with individual aimed shots than with burst fire. So you can require the shooters to run the gun in full-auto mode (which is common at most subgun matches as well), but depending on how the stage is set up, a shooter might be able to run it faster with a semi auto, or even a bolt-action rifle. An interesting setup might be to use a target made up a board covered in a dozen or so balloons. So you have a tight "array" of small individual targets. Set these targets out at 100-200 yards. A shooter on a solid platform (like a bipod or tripod) could take out the majority of the balloons with one or two bursts, and then clean up the last couple of balloons with a couple of singles or doubles. You could also use some knock-down steel targets, set heavy enough that would require more than a single hit to take down. Depending on size and distance, that could be very difficult to do, though. Also, a .303/.308/.30-06-class gun is going to have an advantage here, vs a .223 / 7.62x39 gun. You can do paper targets, requiring a minimum number of hits. But again, I think this type of setup still favors a series of fast, aimed single shots. That's why I like the balloon idea. You can see from the shooting position if you have all of your hits, and a burst is still a viable approach. With the longer rifle-caliber distances, you also have to consider how to reset the targets. You can use steel "flash" targets, which reveal a flag when hit. They give a visual reference, and then just swing back. No resetting required. Or you can use an ATV to run back and fort to reset the targets. This can kick up a lot of dust, so you need to consider the make-up of your range if you are going to be driving back and forth a lot. If you wanted to make it really interesting, you could require some movement. The MG crew would engage a number of targets, and then break down the gun & bipod / tripod and move to a different position and set up to engage the remainder of the targets. It depends on what "flavor" you want the match to have. IMO, that is a legitimate action to require the shooter(s) to perform on the clock. OTOH, that is going to give a huge advantage to the guy shooting an M16/Shrike or a Colt LMG vs. an 80 lb. Maxim on a Sokolov mount. Something to think about, though. I always thought it would be fun to add a set of bonus belt-fed targets at the beginning of a subgun stage. Have a belt-fed gun set up with a 10-round belt, and a few targets set at 100+ yards. The shooter starts the stage on the belt-fed, and hoses the bonus targets. They then move to retrieve their subgun, and run the rest of the stage. The stage would have to be set up such that the belt-fed targets are not downrange of the rest of the subgun stage (maybe 90 degrees to the direction of subgun fire). In order to efficiently run the shooters through the stage, one RO would have to be clearing the belt-fed gun as the shooter was still running the rest of the stage. But that's not really a "machine gun" match. It's a subgun match with a little MG use thrown in. I found some video of the AZ beltfed match. It looked like they used static shooting positions and paper or steel targets. 
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