I would never buy belted ammo.  It would reduce me to buying a beltfed machine gun which could get ugly.

Quoted: What's wrong with an M-60?

Damn near everything.  Worst POS the military ever adopted since the Chauchat.

-Troy

Quoted: Now this is something I'd not heard before!  Where might this inquiring mind go to further explore this fertile ground of military procurement at its most typical?

Do some reading/Googling.  Some examples:

- The barrel is detachable.  On virtually all other detachable barrel systems, adjustments are made at the front sight, so that when you swap barrels, the new barrel will come in zeroed (assuming it was zeroed at some point).  The M60's sights adjust at the rear, so you have to rezero with every barrel swap.

- Other guns have a handle or some way of changing a hot barrel.  Not so with the M60; the AG (assistant gunner) has to carry around an asbestos glove to change the barrel.

- Virtually all belt-feds advance the belt half-way on each stroke of the bolt, which gives you nice, smooth feeding.  M60s advance the belt in full increments, which means many more jams.  You may notice small coffee cans or other make-shift devices designed to help the belt feed into the gun more smoothly, due to this "feature".

- The design of the sear makes it common for the gun to run away on full-auto due to wear.  M60 gunners learn to grab and twist their ammo belt by reflex, and they do it so often that it gets ingrained in muscle memory.

There are others, but that should give you some idea.  The ONLY good thing about the 60 is that its recoil system allows for compact versions (like the SEAL's E3) to be made.

There's a reason why the M60, itself adopted in the 50s, has largely been replaced by a GPMG that was released back in 1958(!), and was based on the Browning B.A.R. of WWI.  That gun is the FN MAG-58, known in the US as the M240.  It's also widely recognized as the most reliable GPMG in the world.

-Troy

How to delink ammo relatively fast and easy:

You need:

- leather work/gardening gloves
- A small piece of wood, like a 6" length of 2x4.

Put the gloves on, and (if you're right-handed), grab the belt with your right hand, and place the very end bullet tip-down against the wood.  Your hand should be wrapped around the top of the belt, so that the round at the end of the belt is between your thumb and forefinger, and your hand/index finger are holding the 2nd-to-last round on the belt.  Simply push down on the belt, which pushes the end-round into the board (the bullet will make a dent in the wood, which is fine), and the round will pop out.  Using your left hand, pull the belt forward one round, and repeat.  Do this sitting in a chair with a cardboard box in front of you to catch the loose rounds.

I can delink a 100-round belt in about 2 minutes this way.

YOU MUST WEAR THE GLOVES, though, or your hand will be pinched and torn up by the links.

-Troy

Quoted: I talked to an ex-nam era SEAL who was a 60 gunner and said he loved the thing. Fairly few problems even after slogging along the deltas and other crap.

Quoted: what makes the DAG fragment so nicely is the thin copper steel jacket.

-Troy