Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum, and I am here today at Morphy's with,
well, a very unforgotten weapon. This is an M240 Bravo.
This is the version of the FN MAG that was adopted by the US Army,
and also now by the US Marine Corps.
So the FN MAG was developed in Belgium of course by FN,
and its development goes back to the 1950s.
I actually have a previous video on a standard FN configuration MAG
that you can take a look at, I'll link to that in the end cards here.
The US involvement with the FN MAG goes back originally to the 1970s.
The US had developed a cupola [or coaxial] mounted .30 calibre machine gun,
... the M73, later the M219, that just wasn't up to par.
It was frankly not a very good gun at all.
And so the US starts looking for a replacement for it.
They find the FN MAG, and adopt it in 1977 as the M240 ... as a vehicular-mounted gun.
Now the US Marine Corps would get in relatively early
adapting that to an infantry configuration with a buttstock and a bipod.
It would take the US Army until the 1990s when there was a trial
for a new replacement medium machine gun, a 7.62mm machine gun for the US Army.
The main two contenders were the M60E4 and ... what would become the M240.
The M240 wins, it goes into service as the M240B.
And I want to show you a couple of the things that make the 240 Bravo
different from the FN MAG in other countries service.
Let's start with the receiver markings here. This is not a parts kit build or something,
this is a genuine, authentic, FN made (made actually in South Carolina) M240.
There are a grand total of 11 of these registered as transferable on the US NFA registry.
Operating controls for the 240 are really pretty darn simple.
Trigger fires. The safety is just a big cross bolt safety.
That's the fire position, that's the safe position.
You can hear that very positive clunk between settings. There's nothing subtle about this.
This is of course belt fed. And it can be fed either with a belt in the side of the feedway.
Or you can squeeze these two tabs, lift the feed ... cover and drop a belt right on there.
It fires from an open bolt, so ... lock the bolt open like that to make the gun ready to fire.
One of the other features of the US adopted version of the gun is that
the top cover can be dropped when the bolt is either in the forward or rearward positions.
And that is because this little roller bearing
is spring loaded, so I can push it down like that.
And what that means is that if this feedway is not in line with the roller bearing,
which it is not right now, I can snap this down anyway.
It'll push that roller out of the way, and when I rack the action
that roller will pop up in position ready to function normally.
The original FN MAGs, like some other belt-fed machine guns, ... you had to have
the bolt in the correct position to close the top cover. Not so much on the American version.
The 240 Bravo comes with a pretty nice standard ... iron rear aperture sight,
that's graduated out to 800 metres.
Pretty easy to adjust, these are reputed to be quite accurate even with iron sights.
The front sight there is a pretty typical square post, a couple of protective wings.
Note that we have a bird cage style of flash hider out on the end of the barrel.
And then one of the visually distinctive elements of the 240 Bravo is this upper handguard.
It's not really a handguard in that
you don't really put your hand there when you're using the thing.
And most of the other clients who buy the FN MAG don't have an upper handguard like that.
For the US this is there primarily to prevent heat mirage
when you've been firing a lot, prevent heat mirage from obstructing the sight picture.
Now this is a fairly early example of the gun, you saw that from the serial number,
but the lower handguard in current service will typically be found with Picatinny rails on it
for the use of accessories like laser aiming modules.
And speaking of rails, the top cover of the 240 Bravo
also has a Picatinny rail on it for mounting optics.
That's again something that the original FN MAG didn't have.
Of course that rail didn't really exist when the FN MAG was first developed.
But that's something that was specifically added to the 240 Bravo for the US military contract.
Now the wood stock on here is also an example of an early production example of the 240 Bravo.
While this was an option, virtually all the guns in service now have plastic stocks.
They are exactly the same shape, same configuration,
and the plastic is simply easier to sterilise or clean
in the case of an NBC type event. So that makes more sense for the military.
Now the 240 is designed to mount on a tripod, the FN MAG as well.
And these are your tripod mounting points.
That's something that's done in training. It historically hasn't been used much in the field.
But in a more static and less mobile war than where these have been used by the US,
that's certainly something that could become very helpful.
In a tripod mounted position you don't need this.
This is on there as an adapter to mount a belt box on so you can carry ammunition in the gun.
This little spring latch allows me to pull it off the side of the gun if not needed.
That's just a little mounting bracket that goes on there.
Belt-wise these use M13 links, that's ... basically the NATO standard 7.62mm link.
It was used by the M60, it's used by the 240s, it's used by the M134 mini guns.
Basically everything belt fed 7.62 NATO uses that link.
Sustained fire with a support weapon like this of course requires being able to interchange barrels.
The 240 Bravo is issued with two barrels and swapping them is really easy.
All you have to do is push in this lever, and then lift up the handle like so.
I should point out, when the handle is locked it down,
it's in the downward position to stay out of your line of sight.
If you want to use it as a carry handle you lift up on that lever, and that will allow you to
raise the handle to the centre without pulling the barrel out.
To pull the barrel out you push that lever in, pop the handle up,
and then barrel just slides off the gun.
Also I should point out here, the 240 Bravo has a single gas plug setting.
It has a rate of fire of about 600 rounds per minute.
The FN MAG has a three position setting, ... in theory it allows you to change the rate of fire.
What it's really intended to do is allow you to add more gas to the gun
if it gets really dirty to ensure that it continues to run reliably.
The US Army didn't find much problem with them running reliably
and opted to just go to a single rate of fire.
A little bit lower rate of fire for ammunition consumption,
and also to reduce the wear and tear on the gun.
And speaking of wear and tear, pull this off.
You can't really see it from here, but the 240 Bravo has a hydraulic buffer that was developed.
That reduces felt recoil a little bit compared to the earlier style of basically mechanical buffers.
The 240 developed a fantastic reputation among basically all of the troops who used it.
It's a really well liked and appreciated gun.
It's one of those infantry weapons that despite being really particularly heavy
(this thing is upwards of 24 pounds depending on the configuration),
because its performance is so excellent, it kind of gets a pass on that weight.
And I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a soldier who had used the 240,
who would not be perfectly happy to carry it back into combat again,
just because of that exceptional performance.
You know, you can try and replace John Browning, but it just doesn't always work very well.
So as I said at the beginning, if you're interested in the mechanics of the gun,
or the developmental history of the FN MAG, check out my video on the FN MAG that I'll link here.
For collectors, the 240 Bravo in its American military configuration
obviously is a particularly desirable piece,
because it is so emblematic of US combat in places recently like Iraq and Afghanistan.
There are, for the record, 17 pre-1986 dealer sample 240 Bravos (or M240s) on the US registry.
And there are only 11 transferable ones, this is one of those 11 transferable ones.
And it's basically a brand-new mint-condition gun.
So a really exceptional example to have a chance to take a look at.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video. Thanks for watching.