It's getting painfully obviuos that Mythbusters are not what they used to be. Ideas running low? Last season or so has been more about shooting and blowing stuff up then actually investigating interesting myths. Miniguns are interesting and fun, but using that setup as frequent as they have been doing makes me annoyed. It just goes to show that the whole program idea has been reduced into "what-can-we-put-in front-of-a-gun-now?" Of cause you can bring down a tree using guns and enough ammo. It's just silly. Give it enough time and you can use a pea shooter. Grow up and start giving us interesting myths!

I watched the show last night and I think that The Gang should use the M2 .50 calibre machine gun, AKA the "Ma Deuce." I was on active duty for twenty years and during that time, I have witnessed and participated in the cutting down a few trees, but it was always with the .50 cal. I'm sure the M240B, M249 with enough ammunition can cut one down, but let's Ma her due. After all, one shot of her little brother, the sniper rifle, shot a geyser of water to ceiling of the pool, coating it quite well in good old fashioned H2O!!

one would assume that a person would notice their increasingly light powder keg, yes?

Not to criticize the use of a Minigun to cut down that tree, It was AMAZING, but I saw another show where a guy cut down a tree with a WWI era Maxim, and Grant and the other guys did it wrong, you are supposed to use short bursts, not long ones like Torre(sp?) used with the M249 SAW.

Just thought I'd say so.

quote:

Originally posted by Richard Evans:
...Also, it would have been interesting to compare two other machine guns along with the others: a 30 cal Browning from WW2, (which fires a simular bullet to the gatling, but at a much slower rate of fire), and a Browning M2 50 cal, which also fires slow, but has such a huge bullet that each one does a lot of damage.
It would also be interesting to see what a smaller machine gun, like a H&K MP5 in 9mm would do against smaller trees as well.

Richard, I agree, I don't think the Thompson was even a contender. I would rather have seen the H&K and/or an Israeli Uzi (9mm) or the new Tavor Assault Rifle in micro configuration, which shoots either the NATO-standard 5.56mm or the 9mm.

Additionally, so unwary viewers are caught off guard, the fire in the tree was not caused by the rapidity of the bullet hits. Rather, the Mini-gun was firing tracers, which were able to be seen from several camera angles.
You gotta love a DVR for multiple instant, slow motion and nearly frame-by-frame replays!

ya i think most guns can cut thru a tree dependin on the size of the tree. the smaller guns they used would have had no problem cutting a tree with a 5-15in trunk the size they used was massive and i dont think most would waste that much ammo on that big of a tree

quote:

Originally posted by darkspartan192:
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

however.....the money they spent on all them gatling gun rounds would cost more then say just a belt of .50 cal ammo that it would take to knock down a tree... my biggest gripe bout it though is they used alot more ammo with the gatling then the other two so it seems the saw and thompson are not able to do it. i personly think they shouldev ended it fast by getting a m242 and use a single 25mm round, itd be over for much less the price and if they can get their hands on a gatling a 242 shouldnt be too hard.

Well you didn't cut down a tree, you cut down a tree stump....

With most of the tree's weight not present, no wonder you had trouble with the smaller machine gun.

I've split pine trees with a 12 gauge shotgun using slugs,(solid led ball) makes a 2-3 cm hole going in, and a 35 cm hole going out... makes felling trees simple...

I want to see that mini gun again. Maybe they should try to mow a house down like in the movie (The Gauntlet) with Clint Eastwood.

quote:

Originally posted by dan110:
It's getting painfully obviuos that Mythbusters are not what they used to be. Ideas running low? Last season or so has been more about shooting and blowing stuff up then actually investigating interesting myths. Miniguns are interesting and fun, but using that setup as frequent as they have been doing makes me annoyed. It just goes to show that the whole program idea has been reduced into "what-can-we-put-in front-of-a-gun-now?" Of cause you can bring down a tree using guns and enough ammo. It's just silly. Give it enough time and you can use a pea shooter. Grow up and start giving us interesting myths!

It is all shot in one go notice the dress Kåri is wearing and her long hair. They simply gathered any myth they could find and did a lot of shooting

Just considering all the 50 caliber myths that appear on the forum, I would have expected a 50 caliber machine gun test.

Natonal Geographic Channel shot throgh a tree with a Vickers Machine Gun on their show on Machine Guns(The Vickers Machine gun is the British copy of the Maxaim Machine Gun) and took only 420 rounds of .303 bullets to make it fall over. The most important thing about this thing is that you need for this myth is to have time and a nice amount of ammo. Also I would be better if they hade some of the old Water-cooled Machine Guns.

It is completely possible to cut down a tree with a M249. I've done it... Ft. Bragg MOUT range, tree was about 7-8" thick. Range cadre placed me with the tree directly in my way and refused to allow me to move.

One my sergeants was sitting next to me and we started joking about just cutting the thing down with my SAW. We soon got to betting how many mags it would take (they'd "forgot" to order belt ammo and all we had for the SAW was loose rngs)

Been years since it happened, but it only took 5-6 mags and the cadre freaked the hell out over it. Luckily, my chain of command saw the humor in sawing down a tree with a SAW...

I'd bet a trained AND experienced SAW gunner could have made that weapon dance compared to Tory. Shorter, tighter bursts, etc...

oh it's definitely plausible with the smaller calibers too.

In my younger days, i managed to get a 7" tree to fall with 2 clips of .223 nossler ballistic tips (like hollow points) through a ruger mini 14. (not the most accurate ruger at all btw... fire one and you'll understand why the A team never hit anything in their show! lol!)

hello a .50 cal with armour rounds! and who the **** cares, it's called an M4 with a gernade laucher, the battle field tree decimater of choice. Also just a hum v and chain or an artillery round. Still just a regular .50 cal and most defintly a .50 cal with armour tipped rounds, heck a saw with titatium rounds might would do it if u used just a regular m249. anyway who cares someone on ur team has a gernade launcher.
All The Way!
Fort Bragg, NC

Even with the cost of gas these days it is still cheaper to use the chainsaw than a machine gun. I never really had any doubt that it would work, it's really just a matter of how much time your willing to spend on one tree. And how many rounds you have. I really don't see anyone plowing through a jungle using this method.

you can cut a tree down with a s.a.w. the trees were not pine trees like was said they were oak trees. and i have personally cut down pine trees with a s.a.w. before. when i was doing live fire training in the army. i have cut down trees up to 1.5 feet. with 200 rounds.

I've seen video of it done with an Uzi (9mm), as well as a Thompson. Uzi took about 500 rounds to chew through a railroad tie, and the Thompson did the same in about 350 or so.

My grandfather, myself, and my two little brothers chewed a tree down with .22LR and .30-30 in an afternoon of shooting (maybe about 500 rounds total, most shots hitting the tree which was maple and about 2 foot thick).

Yeah, I think having a top to the "Tree" makes a difference, but it's still easy with a bit more ammo to chop one in half with really big logs. (as they showed with the Dillon Aero Mini-gun, possibly provided by Dillon themselves?)

For those who are complaining about cost, the ammo they used in the guns they used is rather in-expensive. 1000 rounds of .45 ACP goes for about $350-$375 (for four 250 round boxes of Remington UMC). In comparison, 1000 rounds surplus M193, 55gr 5.56x45mm goes for about the same. 7.62x39 is actually cheaper at roughly $225 per 1000 rounds.

what I don't see is why they didn't mount the Thompson in a shooting vise and go through a thousand rounds with some measure of accuracy. No offense to Torre and Grant, but they aren't machine gunners, and their untrained accuracy sucked.

I've also cut down a 20 inch thick live tree using about 250 rounds (7.62x39FMJ) thru an SKS at about 100 yards. All it takes is consistent aim in a straight line across the tree.

eb