Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

ParaglidingAssFungus t1_j1broq2 wrote

Reply to comment by horrifyingthought in Why didn't the US adopt the STG-44 after WW2? by TurboTortois3

Exactly. I spent 8 years in the US Army. Not once did I see an automatic variant of the M4 or M16. They would be mostly useless for anything other than indirect suppressing fire. The M4s and M16s have a 3 round burst selector but it is also pretty much useless and the only time I’ve ever seen someone use it or used it myself was to expend ammo quickly at the end of a range day so that we didn’t have to turn it in (because it’s a lot of paperwork to turn in live ammo rather than just spent brass).

I’ve never shot an AK so I can’t speak to their accuracy but as far as my experience goes, any light personal rifle would be worse off with an automatic fire option because everyone would want to use it and become less accurate, and they would burn through their personal ammo load incredibly quickly. Semi automatic with placed shots works far better. If we need to send some rounds down range, that’s what we have SAWs and crew served weapons for. Our training doesn’t really revolve around automatic weapon fire either, even when training specifically on automatic fire weapons (SAWs, 240Bs, M2s) we were trained to fire in short 3-5 round bursts, anything past that and you’re wildly inaccurate (and that’s on a weapon with a bipod/mount).

So I guess my best answer would be, if we don’t arm your average infantryman with an automatic weapon now, that’s probably why they didn’t want to back then either.

11

TheGreatOneSea t1_j1cmpo3 wrote

The US did actually develop an assault style weapon, the M2 Carbine, which was an automatic M1 with a 30 round clip.

It was too late for WW2 beyond some Marines in Okinawa, but in Korea, the US noted pretty much what you said, that inexperienced soldiers tended to panic and blow through their ammunition, while experienced ones proved highly effective in places where short-ranged engagements were likely.

The STG 44 had better range and power, of course, but it's also much heavier, to the point that the M2 might have been preferred if the US was given a choice between the two.

2

SignificantTrout t1_j1g6hhr wrote

My father was an infantry man in WWII. From what he told me it was pretty easy for guys to blow through the clip on an M1 too

1

ParaglidingAssFungus t1_j1g8k5d wrote

Yeah, with 8 round magazines that will happen. Little less likely with 30 round mags and a 210 round personal load.

1