Machine gun: There have been two main

There have been two main machine gun eras: The era of manual machine guns and the era of automatic machine guns. The technical development itself is marked by a series of developments of specific automatic features, as well as technical developments (such as linked ammunition). A machine gun (MG) is a fully automatic and rifled firearm designed for sustained direct fire. Automatic firearms of 20 mm (0.79 in) caliber or more are classified as autocannons rather than machine guns. Machine gun : the development of the machine gun from the nineteenth century to the present day by Popenker, M. R Publication date 2008 Topics Machine guns -- History, Machine guns -- Design and construction, Maschinengewehr, Machine guns Publisher Ramsbury : Crowood Collection internetarchivebooks; inlibrary; printdisabled Contributor Internet ... As a class of military kinetic projectile weapons, machine guns are designed to be mainly used as infantry support weapons and generally used when attached to a bipod or tripod, a fixed mount or a heavy weapons platform for stability against recoil.