question Ferret Mk 2/3 & .30 Browning MG

[Peter4456]

What sort of ammunition belt was used in British L3A4 .30 Browning MGs as fitted to Ferret Mk 2/3s in the 80s? Were they all canvas or did some have disintegrating link? My Ferret came with a US made .30 MG stamped '7.62' and what looks like a large lower case 'n' - is it an Israeli conversion?:???

[sirhc]

I think in the 80's Ferrets would have carried a GPMG rather than a Browning.

 

Chris

[AlienFTM]

Our Mark 1s in 1982 still used three-ohs with canvas belt ammo and our Mark 2s in Cyprus in 1977 ditto.

 

It was only a year or two back that I discovered Ferrets ever got GPMG. Ditto three-ohs which fired link ammo.

 

Come to think about it the only place I can see us having Ferret 2 in the 80s was in Cyprus and I see no reason to convert them when we had the three-ohs, the ammo stocks and no dire need to switch to 7.62.

Edited August 22, 2008 by AlienFTM
I keep thinking of more to add.

[sirhc]

Most were converted to GPMG, infact the .30 mount for a Ferret turret is a hard to find item these days because there are lots more Ferrets than mounts.

[AlienFTM]

Most were converted to GPMG, infact the .30 mount for a Ferret turret is a hard to find item these days because there are lots more Ferrets than mounts.

 

Not in dispute. My question relates to the OP's question relating to the mid-80s. I saw and heard nothing in that decade to suggest that that this was when the three-oh was replaced.

[Bazz]

The armoured car sqn at Episkopi ( A Sqn 15/19 H). 85-87, had ferrets with 7.62 gpmgs and were experimenting with fitting gpmgs as co-ax to the

Saladins. The problem with the Saladin mount as I seem to recall was the fact that the co-ax mount was on the right of the 76mm and as the gpmg feeds from the left the actual method of mounting it was very difficult, due to feeding of the ammo belt and that the ballistic trajectory of the .30 that matched the 76mm, the 7.62 was different and there was problems matching this to the ballistic graticle in the Saladins sight.

I have never seen a Browning .30 on UK service adapted to 7.62 Nato in disintegrating link.

 

Bazz

Edited August 24, 2008 by Bazz
more info

[Marmite!!]

The problem with the Saladin mount as I seem to recall was the fact that the co-ax mount was on the right of the 76mm and as the gpmg feeds from the left ......

 

Bazz

 

The co-ax on a Saladin is on th left Bazz :coffee:

[AlienFTM]

The co-ax on a Saladin is on th left Bazz :coffee:

 

I have to say that my memory agrees with that of Bazz. However it is obviously easy to ascertain one way or the other so I'll make myself comfortable on this fence.

[sirhc]

[AlienFTM]

Case proven I think. Maybe I (and Baz) are confused because also in the back of my mind is my (probably also flawed) recollection that the alignment of the 76 on a Saladin about its axis was not the same as that of the Scorpion (though I have never been able to work out through all these years, how else you could orientate the 76 other than how it is in Scorpion).

[sirhc]

The gun in the Scorpion is not the same as the gun in the Saladin, the Scorpion version is a smaller lightweight version.

[Marmite!!]

The gun in the Scorpion is not the same as the gun in the Saladin, the Scorpion version is a smaller lightweight version.

 

& loads from the other side I believe :coffee:

[Bazz]

I apologise about the mounting arrangements, my confusion is over the fact that the Gnr/Cmdr are on the opposite sides and not the co-ax.

 

Bazz

[REME 245]

There are a lot of Israeli 7.62mm Browning conversions in circulation.

 

Canada and other countries did similar conversions.