Why The M2 Is The Gold Standard Heavy Machine Gun | Weapons That Changed The World | War Stories
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Could the mighty M2 be the greatest machine gun in history? Nicknamed the "Ma Deuce", this fifty caliber American machine gun has been rocking the battlefield for over eighty years. Host Wil Willis puts this legendary weapon to the ultimate test.
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John Browning lives on. Just the 1911 and the Ma Deuce have saved SOOOOOOOO many servicemen and won so many battles. So amazing that this weapon is still in active service.
It’s also killed soooooo many
Not hating just saying it’s done both
7@@alexanderkidonakis9185
@alexanderkidonakis9185 does exactly as intended, kills people in front of it, to keep safe those behind it. Its a wonderful piece of equipment, also browning himself said the browning hi power was superior to the 1911 XD
Ich mag die amerikanischen Fantasiegechichten...
@@sebastianschroeder-d4h Not sure what that has to do with the price of fish, but okay. Also I'm not sure why you're implicating any kind of "American Fantasy Stories" from a nation that birthed the Brothers Grimm.
I worked for Browning and FN for 5 years, was able to go into the library which was not books, and handle some of his original prototypes. You can now see John Browning's work and original prototypes in the Browning Museum in Odgen Utah. Its worth a visit!
Which is often a surprise to people. Why Utah of all places? He was born there and that's something a lot of people don't know or realize, which makes it kind of even funnier. The man who invented two of the best guns in the world was indeed a Mormon. Just keep that bit in your mind next time you see a 1911.😉
just shows how smart john moses browning was M1911 served with the us forces for over 100 years, and the legendary MA Duece. What this doesn't tell us is that browning designed the 50 BMG round ( Browning Machine Gun)
John Moses Browning is the greatest gunsmith of all time, from sporting firearms to weapons of war. He was a true innovator.
I often marvel at its longevity when I see the weapon featured in current affairs on TV.
@@rob5944He isn't smart for creating weapons. A smart person would never create something to kill people.
They literally said JMB designed the caliber first.
A
😅😢
Three words- Simple (To build, operate, maintain), Effective, and Reliable.
Just because something is 'Old' doesn't mean it is ineffective/worthless. Many firearms designed nearly a century ago (And even older), are just as lethal now as they were then.
Ak 47 falls in those 3 factors as well
Some old firearms are better than their modern counterparts.
@@c.antoniojohnson7114
Also heartily agree!
I'm a huge fan of the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple Stupid). Iron sights and the LESS 'Furniture' the better (In most instances).
;-)
M1911A1 for example.
Good enough is the enemy of perfect.
As an Infantryman(11B) turned logistician/armorer(92Y) I had a love/hate relationship with this weapon but one thing's for sure everyone of them I issued out or used on my own vehicles never failed to perform their primary function.
Browning was a genius. The M2 is still in service a century later. The 1911 was in service for 75 years, and remains one of the most popular pistols in the world. His Winchester 1897 was the infamous "trench gun" that inspired every pump action shotgun after it. The BAR was a beast. He designed tje most successful lever action rifle, the first hammerless pocket .380 pistol, and the first reliable semi-auto shotgun. No one man has had more influence on firearm design than John Browning.
Let's not forget that the White Feather used the M2 as a sniper with a scope attached on it.
And showed the world that the.50 BMG round can be a very lethal sniper round.
Carlos Hathcock, from Guyre Springs Arkansas! Great man, great Marine and great book
M2 - If it ain't broke don't fix it.
Rather if it ain't broke, Ma Deuce will fix that.😉😆
In the M2HB you have to headspace and time your M2 every time before you fire or after you change the barrel. You can risk that a round can go off inside the gun. I guess this was the largest motivation behind the M2A1
I read a story about a trooper in 'Nam that was huge and carried a .50 into combat and hit targets at 300m. I've always wondered about that story.
Not long after this episode aired, the light weight machine gun program was cancelled and Browning instead did a lot of quality of life improvements to the legendary machine gun.
Carlos Hathcock even mounted a scope to an M2 and used it for taking out targets at over 2000YDS. It is capable of more accuracy than many believe. Getting good ammo was frequently the limiting factor.
Thank you War Stories for posting this series! It´s a personal highlight every time you upload a new session of Wil Willis awesomeness in this production. More please!
8:00 a few Ma Deuces on full auto would’ve made that opening scene on Dog Green in Saving Private Ryan quite a bit shorter. To compare recall the hedgerows skirmish after Carentan in Episode 3 of Band of Brothers. When those Sherman’s hit the scene toward the end we see the 50’s cutting trees in half. I’ve read that certain urban combat tactics call for cutting through walls with a few dozen rounds to the point where the entire roof of a building essentially collapses and crushes the defenders
This was a fantastic series for the time.
Very cool vid, for sure.
One thing I like about M2 is simply the sheer firepower that 50 BMG round can give. It is easy to use and maintain and highly durable though I felt it lacks a bit in terms of fire rate which the MG42 definitely tops it.
Designed to counter aircraft and tanks in WWI but was delivered after the war ended. By WWII it couldn't do either one of those tasks from the ground. It morphed into the ideal weapon for airplanes to use against one another. It was also the weapon of choice for "Reconnaissance by fire". A term coined to describe the practice of American armored columns to be led by jeeps and trucks hosing down structures and facilities with .50 BMG fire to see if anyone wanted to fight. Jets changed its use from planes to helicopters. Its versatility and reliability guaranteed its reputation.
Firing the .50 Cal is like bedding the homecoming queen.
2:43 A short man from Texas a Man of the wild
Thrown into combat where bodies lied piled
Hides his emotions his blood's running cold
Just like his victories the story unfolds
Bright, a white light...
If there be, Any glory in waaar.
Maxim gun with effective range of 1,000 yards. Wil Willis shoots targets 6 yards away and proclaims it’s “surprisingly accurate.” Genius insight.
50BMG, turning cover into concealment for over a century. God bless JMB.
Browning museum, Ogden, Utah, very cool. If you like guns, gotta go👍
Been there. Not big but good exhibition of various weapons he designed and the developmental stages of each.
A wonderful documentary introduced about M2 A1 and its previously designed heavy machine gun ...what was securities Global US dominant is US superiority of atomic Arsenals and its superiority of USA atomic weapons delivery systems )...yes this US designed heavy machine gun its the best comparably to other heavy machine guns of other countries ...reliably, firepower, senstanably, and accuracy....thank you ( war stories) channel ....for sharing
Fantastic, lots of room to grow with an M2 series. Please give us the sniper M1 Abrams, and the training, victories,and failures that the gunner, TC and crew. Theseweremean killing machines, and with that much love
50 caliber sniper 😊😊😊😊
that barrel change upgrade is sweet
Just think, the P-47 Thunderbolt had 8 of these. Talk about firepower!
12:29 man that rate of fire looks painful.
The Browning M2 was also the armament for the B-17 Flying Fortress, Each one would have 4 to 6 .50 cal machine guns on board with AA sights
Some B-17 had 10 to 14
@@paul85039 True
Which gun do you recommend for home defense and protection😊😊😊😊
Ma Deuce is a beast, no doubt.
The M2 truly is an example of if it ain't broke don't fix it
Weapon/history documentaries these days are mostly made for entertainment, shooting at stuff with rock music in the background sprinkled with a bit of history. Old weapon documentaries like Tales of the Gun may seem boring to some and a bit dated in their presentation but packed with more information about the weapons history and development.
Tales of the Gun is great. The quote from the beginning of each episode is burned into my head.
Unfortunately our society has been so dimmed down, and it reminds me of the quote.
15:25 xm806 was Cancelled in 2012. to allocate all fund into M2A1 Upgrade program.
I love these weapon videos with Will Willis!! Awesome
Missed a key part of the development history… it was first designed and adopted for the Navy coastal air defense as a static mount water cooled HMG and the heavy barrel variant came later.
Laughing and killing seems to go hand in hand with these guys.
Audie Murphy was a beast with that weapon, but did you see what John Rambo did with it in Myanmar in 2008?
I can only imagine how the Allied troops reacted to the German army firing the Maxim machine guns at them at the Somme River. When I was in basic training our sergeants snuck my bunk mate down to the defending side during a training exercise once. He had a M249 Bravo. The attackers had no idea he was down there. The entire unit was cracking up when he opened fire, with blanks.
You guys cheated using an MG-08 instead of a true maxim.. the maxim was produced in the late 19th century, the MG-08 was put out in 1908.. they are similar designs when it comes to the barrel and water jacket, but the receivers and trigger assemblies are COMPLETELY different
Is incredible what Mr.Browning invented without computer and all made on wooden drawing board. Today inventors can't see often real problems trough computer itself.
The US put the M2 on everything and its cousin. The Soviets did not. The Soviets also put forward the 14,5x114 that also were not put on very much.
The Sovs only made a small number of Dushkas, at least when compared to the vast quantity of 50 BMGs.
GOD DAMN memories, carrying the .50cal to emplace while doing Missions
I need 4 boxes of those to buy
Perfect home defense weapon.
big boys having fun with big guns! 🙂
Make sure you drench it in clp if you don't have the correct lubricant.
Ranger AND a PJ?!? WHOA.
I think it would be better if there are less open cuts on the sides (for better reiliability and reduced demand of maintaince
Now I thought General Dynamics was working on and had at least prototype a three-barrel rotary minigun style 50 caliber
Just shows how good of a weapon it is.
I wish I didn't enjoy this but.... dakka-dakka-dakka!
Jams,over heats,barrels have a bad habit of droup, better have lots of spare s.The update did help some.All that said the M2 is about the best light armor weapon around.All in all had a love/hate thing with the Ma Duece
Am from Ukraine thanks US love my m2❤❤❤❤
Note that a sniper is trained to aim for the center of mass, mainly the torso, not the head. At that caliber, both are lethal, but the torso hit is more likely.
My all time favourite episode of triggers!!!!!!
I don't believe Audie Murphy disabled or destroyed any German armor with a .50 cal. I'm pretty sure it was all soldiers on foot. An M2 for all it's power, isn't a tank destroying weapon, even with AP rounds.
Halftracks
He fired on apc (half tracks)
It's all well documented considering he received the freaking medal of honor 🎖
Found the wehraboo
Mine was the M85 tank version. When I had a sorry E-6 named ALModena I snook up from my gunner's seat to fire the M85 just so we could qualify.
Love the Dskh adjustable seat, so unexpected 😂
cinder blocks are weak a water....try filling them with cement or at least dried compacted earth.
Sending a 1/4 lbs of ball a mile on target! That's why its the best!
Topgun - M2 👍
Pick a different car to explode. Not the vintage 70s lincoln mark V 😭😭😭
The M2 is an amazing weapon system, but it also points out one of the current flaws with the US Military Machine. We've had such great reliable weapons and tools that we've kind of built a lot of tactics around them and now we need to replace them. But that's a major overhaul effort that's kind of one of those "Where do you start?" projects. Like the XM 806 kind of can replace the M2, but also not, which is the crux of the problem. What we've been relying on for so long just does so much in 1 package that the only way to get improvements is to regress it into separate bits. Like the C-130 Hercules, great little air lifter. It's a very versatile plane, but it's a quad turbo prop plane in the day and age of stealth jets. But it does what it does and the current alternatives, C-17 and C-5, can't do what the C-130 does today. The C-130 can be reinforced, have guns shoved in it, and become an AC-130. It can loiter around an area, slow enough and long enough to actually be effective. The C-17 and C-5 can't loiter as long, as slow, or withstand the sustained stress of a close air support mission.
So like the M2, the C-130 needs to be replaced, but there's no better alternative out there or in the works. The only way really they could get something "better" than the C-130 would be to have 2 or 6 other aircrafts that can do the various roles it does better than the C-130 does all together. It's starting to become an issue. It won't doom the US or prevent us from defending ourselves, but you can bet the next advent of a "John Browning" that rolls around will shove US weapons ahead by another century, literally.
a 7.62x39 ball round goes through cinder blocks too, but a full mag costs less than one 50 bmg round. If you are planning to show penetration cast a true 8" steel reinforced concrete wall, keep in mind we know the bunkers are much thicker. Not to mention a much better grouping can be achieved with the 7.62 39. The 50 has its purpose, but you didn't show it
Yap yap yap
They should make M2 Portable 🧐
I own a ma deuce and boy its a monster of a gun
Make walls filled with cement and gravels mix
About the only thing I didn't like about that gun was carrying it from the armory to my track!
The main assembly has nothing but sharp corners that dig into your shoulders, and brother(!), it is heavy! So is the barrel! I was scrawny though...
Other than the great fun of firing it, I liked that I could light my smokes off the barrel after a couple of hundred rounds! ;-)
I never had one of these go into cookoff mode even with the barrel glowing, but I did have that happen with M-60s.
$60 a round for dishka ammo - WOW
They actually weren't firing the actual round that dishka is made to use the .50 bmg rounds. Hence why they don't show any close ups of the ammo.
It's near impossible to find that ammo. Bc it's illegal to import after a certain year.
20mm Vulcan
The Ma Deuce. 'Nough said.
😱😱😱 Holtzwihr isn't in the mountains or surrounded by forest at all, it's a small village of sauerkraut growers on the Rhin plain.
Wow
Nice.
Wish he would've fired the mg42. That's a awesome machine gun
The Browning M2 is still shredding Russian troops in Ukraine. And also on the same battlefield used by both side can be found the Soviet era DShK or Dushka dating from the 1930s and the Maxim PM M1910 dating from 1910.
I love the Ma Deuce, but of all vehicle mounted or crew served weapons, I prefer the Mk 19.
Depends on the rangle but yeah... replace dakka with boom.
Impresionante acá le decimos la 12.7 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷
.... it got rid of having to do head space and timing
Wouldn't it have been better if the US military had chosen a 20mm auto cannon instead of the .50 caliber as it's heavy machine gun? It seems like the consensus the US Army Air Corps reached after pouring over all the data after the war was that even with all those .50 caliber machine guns on the B-17s, it turned out to be completely under gunned when coming up against attacking Axis fighters like the BF-109.
They were about equal. If you actually managed to make contact with a cannon round it was for sure gonna be sending the plane down but that was also the limiting factor. You couldn't carry as much ammo, and cannons of the time especially for example the 20mm hispano were new. It wasn't uncommon for those cannons to jam, rendering them useless until the plane landed. They also required a more complicated firing system and ammo delivery.
Overall from what I've read is that .50 vs 20mm cannon they were very close in actual performance. At least as far as downing enemy aircraft goes.
More projectiles to throw.
During the war, Cannons had terrible velocities and wayyyyy less ammo.
So we just kept stacking more .50 cals.
After the war, cannons go much better.
@PeterMuskrat6968 That makes sense...and hey, at least the .50 caliber machine guns were better than the comparatively small .303 rile rounds the British were firing from machine guns on their fighter planes at the beginning of the war. 😆
Shotgun episode please
The British Bren gun had a barrel change system like that 80+ years ago
Hilarious how they described such minimal and obvious changes. Like a handle for quick swapping the barrel, oh wow. So revolutionary. Lmao
@@evil993 Considering the Soviet counterpart the DshK didn't have a quick-change barrel... yeah.
Most heavy MG's were either water cooled and did not have a quick-change barrel.
Quick change barrels may be more common now but it certainly was not when the M2HB was first put into production.
Can you do a sniper rifle next plz
Watch the m1 garand episode of this series. They cover snipers heavily.
This was originally a documentary on cable television that aired 12 episodes from 2011 to 2013. There is no "next"
Keep away from Russian machine gun"the kord machine gun...
Paint cans do not fight back - Bruce Lee
It is kinda ironic The Reds put an adjustable booty cheek rest on their MG
Meanwhile the country didnt produce toilet paper til 69
Why'd he wreck perfectly good pickles!?
Just needs armor plates either side😅
Because in Ukraine warfare has reverted back to entrenched troops and mass assaults on fortified positions both sides like and use old Maxim guns made during WW2.
Noting Eugene Stoner early on in the 1960s demonstrated his 5.56mm could also easily destroy the same kind of concrete cinder block wall and the .30-06 from a Browning 1919 had also been doing so for decades, perhaps a better demonstration of M2 firepower would be to either fill the voids in the blocks with concrete using a thicker wall and show a comparison, or just put up a wall 5 or 10 layers thick and see which caliber can walk through first.
Definitely would NOT want to get hit with a .50 cal bullet
Recommend you watch the final battle in Rambo 2008. Realistic portrayal of the 50 cal
Is that a kick stand on the tripod or is he just putting his feet there
Using them to help stabilize the rifle. Something they figured out.
The Mk 19 grenade launcher is also the same mechanism invented by Browning
No wonder Grant Reynolds is not with Kevin in What Could Possibly Go Wrong
I still dont understand we stand why the army replaced the M1911 with a 9mm.
More ammo and less recoil. Personally I prefer the 1911. Better trigger, more accuracy. Also for the same reason it was adopted in the first place. The effectiveness of the 45 bullet on drugged up enemies
Congress and lobbyists
Is it an effective drone killer?
If the drones were low-flying and didn’t have that small of a profile. The Ma Deuce usually is supposed to be used against most ground threats like lightly armored vehicles, but it can still tackle threats like helicopters and some larger drones if they flew low enough. Then again, I have yet to see footage of a Ma Deuce gunner taking down drones.
Love that Audie Murphy story, what an absolute legend
I appreciate they got a real life hero to host 👍🇺🇸
John Moses Browning. Peace be upon him.
Not even close there are many heavy MGs that are equal or better