When we were decommissioning my last command, USS Tripoli LPH-10, we as Gunner's Mates were allowed to "dispose" of all of our ammo. The Navy decided not to send us up the coast to offload, so we went out to sea and fired I don't know how many tens of thousands of rounds of Browning .50, 7.62 for the M-60's and M-14's, 25mm chain guns with HEI, 20mm CIWS (FC's, not us), .45acp and anything else we had. That day was more fun than I've ever, and I mean ever had!helicopterpilotdoug wrote:If I remember rightly, there was a time limit on firing the minigun. Maybe 10 seconds per burst. It's not good when the barrels get to glowing like that!
I remember being on the fantail and sending so many rounds out of the Browning that when we finally stopped, unscrewed the barrel and rolled it across the deck, it looked like a warped pool cue!!! Had never seen that before. We would take all the tracer rounds from the M-60 ammo and put them in an M-14 mag and shoot em into the ocean on full auto. Pretty cool to see...even in the daytime.
Also, when we'd have those guys with the funny haircuts on board, they'd let me shoot their toys, so I got to qualify on the M-16 A2, 92fs and the Barrett .50. The Barrett was simply awesome, and more manageable than I imagined.
