The Mother of All Weapons Class Threads

[[DWG]Chipwich88]

Automatic Weaponary
The M-249 Auotmatic Rifle is a squad support weapon that fires a 7.62 mm cartridge. In this game, the M-249 comes standard with a 200 round belt for mobile fighting, making it highly versitile for sustained cover fire (think bridge) or close range conficts. The OPFOR version of this weapon in this game, the RPK, is equipped with a 100 round drum magazine and uses 7.62 mm ammo. Since the RPK is an AK remoddled for machinegun-like purposes, it features only a slight change in the recoil (the bipod changes its recoil from reqular RPK back to an AK level recoil, great for long range targets!)
Personally on like Mountain Pass or Radio Tower, I prefer the RPK but in most situations, I use whatever I can.

Responses to Comments
Reflection on M16/M4 using same sized ammo: The M4 is an M16 with its barrel shortend and RECHAMBERED TO FIT A 5.56 MM ROUND!

Reflection on the M-249 Ammunition: At the time of this comment, I did not even touch upon the M-249's ammo size and what kinds of Magaiznes/Belts it could fire. In this installment of this guide, I left out the fact that an M-249 could hold the same magazine as the M-16 because, in the game, YOU CAN'T USE THOSE! Same applies to the AK-47/RPK

Reflection to the story of the AK rifles: Major General Klash. was a tank designer during WWII. In 1943, he was placed in charge of a tank that was eventually shot down. During his recovery, the Russian Military decided on the need for a new rifle to be manufactured to even the odds against the German STG-44. Mr. Klash. entered the prototype design for his assault rifle, but was turned down. Once the war ended, the Russian Military, disappointed with the designed they chose over the AK, decided to modify the AKs design and manufacture it under extreme secrecy from 1947 until the start of the Cold War when a few Hungarians were found sporting that model. (Many Thanks to "The History Channel - Tales of the Gun" for this info.)

[RavenJoe]

Wow... the M-249 is NOT a 7.62!!! It is simply not. The FN MAG or M-240 is, and looks vaugely similar because it is built by the same manufacturer, FN-Herstal, but the M-249 MINIMI SAW simply is not a 7.62mm weapon. It has, does, and always will fire the 5.56mm NATO (or .223rem) SS-109 round. That is all there is to it. The RPK does fire a 7.62mm round, but the OpFor squad auto in this game is an RPK-74. The RPK-74 fires the much smaller, but just as leathal 5.45x39mm M74 round. While it's external design is baised off of the AK-47/AKM, internally it is a different weapon. It is also much longer, much heavyer, has a different stock, and does not take standard AK-47 magazines. It can take box magazines, but not those of the AK-47. The single most blundering error you've made though is your insistance that the M-16 is 7.62mm. It also fires the SS-109 5.56x45mm NATO round, or .223 Remington. The original Armalite AR-10 and AR-15 fired the 7.62mm round, and the Knight's Armament Corp. SR-15 and SR-15 fire the 7.62mm round, but no M-16 rifle, the M-16, M-16A1, M-16A2, M-16A3, or even the M-16A4 have EVER fired anything other than the 5.56x45mm round. The only difference between the rounds they fire is that the original M-16 and the M-16A1 had a tighter groove (1/14) than the later models (1/12) because it fired the M193 round rather than the new SS-109, and the A2 fired the M855 as well as the SS-109. All those bullets are 5.56 milimeters in diamiter. That is a fact. Also, just a minor note... tanks don't get "shot down." In WWII the Germans attempted to mount glider wings on several Panzerkampfwagen designs, none of which were succesful. The idea was never used in combat, and nobody else attempted it before or after. Thus no tank has ever been shot down.

[RavenJoe]

I am forced to agree with you on one point however... The RPK/RPK-74 is a much better weapon all around than the M-249, or at least in this game it is. The M-249's insainly high cyclic rate (~900rpm) is usefull in close quarters, but the SS-109 round has never been an effective manstopper, and firing the weapon is about as accurate as rolling torpedoes down a hill. The RPK has margenally decent accuracy, especally for a Kalashnakov design, and is a selective-fire weapon as well. The round it fires, wether 7.62 or 5.45, will tear it's target apart well enough to ensure a complete loss of combat effectiveness. If ever confronted with an RPK on the ground, I pick it up without question, and drop my SAW.

[Daumach]

AK-47 and RPK both uses 7.62 mm ammo. I even recently fired AK-47 and army in my country uses it as primary soldier rifle. Both guns are very old and very ineffective in real life. (AK-47 has effective range 300-450 meters).NATO and Russians decided to make small caliber bullets to minimum damage to wounded sodier and they made mistake. 7.62 round was heavy round that goes through soldier (has entry and exit point) 5.45 round (AK-101 , AK-102) is also known as bone crusher because it is light and when enters soldier's body it does not get out and gets all (bones and vital organs) on its way. Ak-47 is widely used because of its price, not quality. During the war in my country AK-47 (produced in ZASTAVA, Kragujevac) could be bought from 75-120$. Those AK's had more quality then Russians or Bulgarian ones. If i go to war i would like to have GARAND or M-48 rifles and maybe Heckler for close quarters.

[bunkey18]

wo u guys really learned alot about guns. FROM VIDEO GAMES!!! wow soon everyone is going to be a gun expert.

[Joe_Napalm]

OK, Chipwich, I'm still not totally sold on the fact that you're a "moron". But you do need to do some studying before you decide to reply to this "expert" forum. We'll chew you up and spit you out...

Let me help: Visit www.fas.org for all you weapons research needs. Now, we shouldn't get any more misinformation, should we Chippy?

How do I know all this? It's my job. I'm an Intelligence Analyst with the US Army...

[RavenJoe]

I am forced to agree with Daumach on most points, my love for Kalashnikov weapons spawns mostly from this game, not so much from real life. However, while the AK's accuracy is piss poor, it's stopping power is unmatched, and it's reliability (at least in the well made ones, et. not Chinese,) is near Glock quality. I'm assuming the country you're from is Hungary? They're known for making good quality AK's. The RPK I like because it looks wicked, I don't know much about the overall quality of the weapon. Oh, and I learned most of what I know about weapons from research and the History Channel/Discovery Channel, not from video games. Most video games are wrong. Exelent example: Goldeneye... "KF-7 Soviet" = AK-47, "Klobb" = Vz-61 Skorpian, "AR-33," = M-16A2, "DK-5 Deutsch" = MP-5, ect. Not a good place to pick up weapon facts.

[Daumach]

Not from Hungary from Croatia. We had a war with Serbia from 1991-1995 (all former Yugoslavia) so AK-47 was very common in my country for few years. Hungary AK's are also very good and very useful. Accuracy was a bit of problem. Stopping power is great but that is not quality for me because if u hit from any weapon on the field thats end of fighting for you that day. If we are going to talk about power then we can mention Russian Spetznaz assault rifle (i think it is AK-74 SU). It is made for close combat and it has great power.

[mEkImIrMe]

LOL of course enemy guns are better then US guns