Can you REALLY cut down a tree with a machine gun?

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MythMod

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heyheyheyheyheyheyhey. woah. hold up. i saw a show on the history channel(i think) and they chopped a tree down with a machine gun. so confirmed. i cant wait to see what the mythbusters get, though.

i think the show was weaponology

Haha! That was awesome!!!

my brother and i love guns, and we went to my uncle's house to shoot some of his, we had a mousin nagant ( cant remember if tis spelled right ), which i beleive is a 762x54r WWII sniper rifle, 9mm pistol, ak 47, and for fun, a .22 and we were able to shoot down a tree, it took a good 300-350 rounds for all of them together to take it down, but it was possible.

so you can even take them down with out a machine gun =D

Here's a slight variation on the myth:

G. I. Joe #56, February 1987

A team of Joes is in a fictional South American nation known as Sierra Gordo in order to knock out a Cobra base.

Upon seeing that the base is a new type of pre-fab building, the Joe team decide to capture the segments for analysis. That means taking the building apart (easily done by team demolitions guy Tripwire) and moving them over to an abandoned rail line; team leader Flint has spotted a junked coal-burning engine that has a flat car attatched to it.

Thing is, the Joes have nothing to lift the segments onto the flat car.

And so, heavy weapons guy Roadblock busts out with his .50; not only is he able to cut some trees down, but he effortlessly strips the trees of all their branches. The Joes then use some rope to turn the trees into a makeshift crane, and improvise a counterweight system using a net and some rocks.


So here's the new question: could a .50 cal infantryman's machine gun (yes, it's established as such elsewhere within the fiction) also be used to take down some trees?

Of note is that Roadblock is so physically strong that he can not only wield the weapon in his hands but he can actually fire it while standing and not have any trouble due to the recoil. This may or may not make a difference.

i think the one they used on the show was a browning??? maybe.

Yes you can really cut down a tree with a machine gun. The only part I had a problem with was when they said it was confirmed but only if you have a Mini gun that isn't true at all they could have cut both of those trees down with the Tompson and the SAW they just need more time with each gun and more ammo. If they would have done a looking around on the net you can find old army film from WW2 of them cutting down a tree with a Browning M1919 .30 cal

It was very cool to see them shoot the trees down but they looked kind of dead. They should've cut down some live trees.

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly used a notoriously inaccurate weapon (Thompson Model 1917), a pea-shooter (SAW) and a chain gun (quantity vs quality). Why wasn't a Ma Deuce (Browning 50 Cal Heavy MG) used? It does 450-600 rpm at 2790 fps. One would think throwing 450 half inch diameter lead slugs a second at anything would cause some serious damage. It was orginally designed as an anti-tank gun, by the way.

This is truly possible provided that you have the time and ammo to waste. I can vouch for this as while I was in the reserves (approx 1974) I was assigned to the confidence course at Ft Leonardwood, MO. with the 8th Armyfrom Wisconsin. The fiinal position in the confidence course was the live fire station over a large pond with some trees arround it. Being bored reservists we decided to try to cut down a tree accross the pond. we marked the tree and then toted several ammo cans of M-16 clips to our supervision points and as the trainees came thru we each (2 of us) stuck a full clip into the m-16 and ran the clip out on the tree. And it worked the tree came down after 9 days of pounding and about 4000 rds per day for 36,000 rds. We were told it could not be done.

Chopping down trees with a gatling gun is all well and good (...not to mention a helluva lot of fun to watch), but I'm curious why rounds that are specifically made to be used against structures, like the .50 cal or the 20mm weren't used? Rounds like the .45ACP (...for the Thompson), the 5.56mm (...for the M249 SAW) and the 7.62 (...for the M134 gatling gun)are used for, er...."softer" targets,like humans and light vehicles.

And here I figured their "secret" shooting range was in Nevada.

HOLD UP! A british Vickers MG(303 cal.) can chop down a tree. Its the size of the round and not the speed of the gun that cuts the tree down. I have seen vidio of it being done. So they messed up big time! A minigun is not the only MG that can down a tree!

Here is the vid.

Yes a .50 cal machine gun can cut down trees it just takes some time. Now i'm just guessing that you are talking about the Browning M2 .50 cal machine gun. I am going to have to say that wielding this gun like a Tompson or even the SAW is very unlikely for two reasons one being weight. The browning M2 weighs 87 lbs thats a lot of steel to lift and carry around all by your self, and two being the recoil would be enough that combined with the weight it would make it to hard to control and unlikely to stand and shoot thats why the military uses it on a tripod

for those of you who want to (safely) shoot down a tree w/ a machine gun, you can do it in the game "crysis"

They didn't mess up big time. Yes the size of the round plays into the cutting down of the tree, but that not the only thing. The number of rounds had a very large part also. In the 45 sec they fired that mini gun the put 2,250 rounds into that tree. They only fired 50 rounds from the Tompson and 200 out of the Saw so they are not comparing apples to apples if you look at it that way they need to put more rounds throught the other guns at some trees

quote:

Originally posted by Navy1941:
HOLD UP! A british Vickers MG(303 cal.) can chop down a tree. Its the size of the round and not the speed of the gun that cuts the tree down. I have seen vidio of it being done. So they messed up big time! A minigun is not the only MG that can down a tree!

Here is the vid.

THATS THE SHOW!!!!!!!!

Ya ok ... I cant exactly remember what they said the SAW fired but it wasnt right ... the M-249 Squad automatic weapon fire a 5.56mm round same as the M-16 and is belt/Mag fed for the purpose that if a soldier on the Saw runs the belts out he can "as a last resort" use the Magazines he would have on him that were for use of his M-16. and ohh yea you fire enough rounds a any tree ... it will come down no question.


1/79 FA B-BTRY 1st PLT "Devil Dogs"

you guys are forgetting one thing, the price, if they are not able to get the ammo donated to them, then its going to be very costly to get what you guys are talking about, ya i know they have bought tons of expensive stuff already and destroyed it, but they pretty much had no other way, like cars.

but on this myth, they did have other options, some cheaper options, the ammo for the guns they used cost way less then the .50 and the 20mm, either way, the myth was still confirmed with a smaller weapon, a way that they saved alot of money off of, i dont see why you guys are complaining about them not using a more powerful weapon when it was still confirmed, and saved them money.

say you ran the show, say you had to pay for everything, would you pay a few hundred dollars for the something that will get the job done, or will you pay thousands of dollars that will confirm the myth just as easily as the few hundred dollars of stuff did, its just a waste of money

i copletely agree with ariley, the other guns could have worked as well as the minigun it just needed more rounds. unfortunatley adam and jami did not give it that chance