I have a batch of Afghan based MRAP type vehicles in my stash. Whether manned or RWS turret on the roof it seems the choice is .50 cal or 40mm grenade launcher. The .50 being predominate. Am I correct in believing this is due to the .50 being more precise and less apt to cause less "collateral damage" than a string of 40 mm grenades? Just curious.

Look at it this way, when would you use a grenade over a rifle? Targets hidden behind large objects that you can't shoot thru or clearing a room or bunker? A .50 is a big round and the new rounds are just as destructive as a grenade but you can't lob them over a wall. Shoot thru the wall maybe but not get the guy hidden below ground level.

I know Ma Deuce has a 400 yard advantage range wise (2000 for M-2, 1600 for Mk-19) and , yeah, the 40 can go over things, which can be a plus. I was inquiring if the accuracy of the .50 is prefered in most cases. Great if you bloop a few over a couple buildings and take out the Taliban [auto-censored] heads. Getting the goat herder, his wife, 3 kids and a dozen goats at the same time ...... (You know how much you could pimp those goats out
for in Bakersfield?)

And I question a Mk 19's ability to clear a room or bunker .... unless you are real good and put the round through an opening.

My experience is somewhat dated but in 2005 in Iraq, the machine guns whether M2s, M240s, or M249 SAWs were preferred over the Mk 19 for the exact reasons that you mentioned above - point target accuracy of bullets vice the bursting radius of the 40mm grenade. The stability of the RWS should mitigate some of the dispersion risk of the arm stabilized systems but when trying to minimize collateral damage, bullets win over grenades.

FWIW

John

Interesting discussion. I know of a range safety officer who lost his right testicle to shrapnel from a grenade launcher while he was walking a berm behind the firing line. Never heard of that happening with an M2. Of course the Mk19 would be better for closer in targets I suppose...just thinking.....
VR, Russ

When I was a grenadier with the m203 I was pretty good putting rounds thru windows, doors, firing slits on bunker, vehicle doors, windows and hatches. Dropping them into fighting positions. Now they got air bursting grenades so you can drop a few from a mk19 behind a wall of concrete and sandbags a .50 can't penetrate and that's put paid on the target. Putting grenades into a bunker it's not just the shrapnel that kills its the concussion too. So a grenade thru a door or firing slit set to air burst will clear a room or bunker with the blast and shrapnel faster than a .50