I fired them a few times. Fun but still go through the ammo at that rate.

 

Slow enough to shoot it single shot. Try holding one down that has been slicked up and with the stock recessed - not that easy.

 

Hell. I had to qualify with that thing, Fort Benning, 1989, had a bunch of WW2 Tankers that served under Gen Patton take a tour thru our unit's motor-pool and arms room, Yall still got that piece of ****?, Yup. It was fun to play with though.

 

Were you a track mechanic?

 

The French had a machine gun in WW1 that had a 220 rounds per minute rate of fire.

 

They do shoot slow, if using light reloads it barely cycles. It is definitely slower than the M1A1 Thompson.

 

Slow for Jerry his trigger finger on a revolver is pretty dang fast.

I think he’s one of the people in the gun industry I respect most. Hopefully I can meet him someday.

 

Even less recoil, more fun with the suppressor.

 

Still shoots too fast to dodge it, so quick enough in my book. Full auto giggle switches are just toys in my eyes. Take a lot of training to get proficient with full auto unless you are just sweeping a crowd with no preferred shot placement. This type of gun got handed to a kid just out of basic that was getting sent to the front lines. Most were not marksmen, so lack of accuracy was compensated for with number of bullets. Best option for me is a semi-auto with a large magazine capacity. I can still use it for suppressive fire if needed. If I am fighting a battle every bullet will be precious.

 

Take a lot of training to get proficient with full auto...

Aim, squeeze and let go isn't all that hard to train. I never got to play with the cool kid super squirrel toys, but I was proficient with the toys I did get.

Takes a LOT more training to get so proficient with a semi gun that you can make it anywhere close to as effective at getting multiple rounds on target quickly, than to teach a guy to let go of the freaking trigger once in a while.

Of course, the Army did think burst fire would fix that whole issue.

 

I got to shoot them a couple times in the army & found them very controllable & easy to pull off singles with as well. I shot an original full auto tommy gun when I was in H.S. that was owned by my BIL's father. that was much less controllable, but still a hoot to shoot. I hadn't had any training on firing full auto back then though either, so that might have made a bit of difference as well.

 

As was said in the comments, The Chauchat LMG fired at about 240 RPM.....

 

I carried on once or twice, back in the day, but I don't remember ever actually firing it.

 

I carried the suppressed M3 back in the early 80s. You could beat someone to death with the can. Slow enough cyclic rate that single shots were readily deliverable on demand. As suppressed weapons go, it was pretty quiet. Bolt slap and bullet impact being a lot louder than the report. Fireable without ear protection (not that you should, just that you comfortably could).

I think the slowest automatic weapon I've fired was the MK19 40mm. Those guns are like baseball pitching machines. Slow enough velocity and rate of fire that you could track individual rounds from muzzle to downrange impact.

 

The OSS had a suppressed M3 prototype In 1943.

 

The suppressed grease guns I used from 1980 forward were .45 ACP M3A1s (so post-OSS, post-WWII).

From a recovered Cold War cache. Probably emplaced in the late 1950s or early 1960s. 1-10 SFG(A), Bad Tölz, Germany. We live fired them a lot and carried them often for training missions. Just another tool in the kit. They belonged in museums due to pristine condition & rarity, but we just used them instead. Heavily. Very "007" cool at the time.

One day at the Camp Worden LTA Range, the end cap came off the muzzle of my suppressor while firing bursts. Damn thing spewed mesh washers like a roman candle as it instantly went very loud. That particular can was just shot out and the screw-on-cap had stripped threads. DXed. No source for repair parts for the suppressor.

Quiet, reliable, and fun to shoot. With all that weight plus a very slow ROF, easy to control. But also lot of weight to haul around just to fire a pistol cartridge. Our later acquired MP5SD models were far superior for the suppressed job; more portable and far more accurate due to closed bolt operation and superior sights/trigger.

 

I owned a registered grease gun years back, sold it and bought a couple of Thompson s, a 1928A1 and M1A1. Still have remained. The M3 definitely shoots slow. But very controllable. Easy to get single shots off.

 

We used to kid that those Grease guns were great for guarding a phone booth. They weren't really much good for anything else.