Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire M60, the pig

Anybody here ever lug one around?

Great belt fed weapon -------the one in the photo shoots blanks.

Carried one in early 1987, there really is no comfortable way to carry it.

I knew some guys who were firing that gun in Vietnam in 1969. They thought very highly of it.

They weren't too awful to work on, but they did require a lot of work to keep running right (I worked in my company arms room for awhile). I wasn't really a fan, but they aren't as bad as I remembered, either. They'd work the rivets loose in the receiver without a lot of effort, though. We used ours pretty hard (lots of training time in the 82nd Abn).

Yes, all 23 lbs. of it, thankfully only for about six months. I still remember all the little details and to this day could still operate it. Tracer burnout - 900 meters, maximum effective range - 1100 meters, yada, yada, yada.......
A lot of fun to fire when it worked. I would rather carry one than be an AG. They really got loaded down. I also thought it was easier to carry than a SAW.
But, you carry the pig for six months to a year, and when you get a hold of an M-16 it feels like a Red Ryder, lol.

I noticed the Gas tube seems a bit oversize and it is set up with blanks in the photo. I know an older guy that served in Viet Nam, little guy said he lugged one around his entire tour. I had handled a couple of them and was impressed with their weight and square edges. He said all that mattered to him was putting out rounds and the M60 would put them out. We hunted elk a couple of times and he carried a 30-30. I remember him putting out three rounds so fast you could barely hear a space between shots. And down was a nice cow elk, all rounds in the chest. He is still kicking but not hard enough to elk hunt anymore.

You had to have a good supply of barrels for one, if you were shooting it much.

Didn't take long for that barrel to get red hot.

Yes

They would get head space issues after a lot of heavy firing also. The pins that held the trigger assembly to the receiver were easy to lose

We did, although as others have said it was a bit heavy to pack around. But when the time came to use it, it was worth it's weight in gold.

Semper Fi

I remember Smitty speaking fondly of his pig. The M60 was the only subject he would talk about on his time in Vietnam.

When I was in the Army in the early 1970’s I was in an Infantry Brigade. We had lots of M60’s and would fire them until the barrels glowed. They came with an “Accessory Bag” that contained spare barrels and asbestos gloves to wear when changing hot barrels. One of my assistant gunners forgot to put on his asbestos glove and grabbed a glowing barrel barehanded. I can still remember his screams and the smell of his burning flesh on the barrel. We medevaced him to the hospital and he ultimately was discharged on disability.

And the barrel mitten was easy to lose, but a t shirt would work

Getting some trigger time on the M60. El Salvador, 1984.

Cool pictures.

MSG duty?

Yep. I was down there from Oct '83 to Jan '85.