Both are amazing guns, which one is better?

Browning Automatic Rifle - YouTube
On one hand you have the BAR, which is a solid 20 pound chunk of American made steel, and ready for just about anything you can throw at it. Plus it fires the 30.06 round which is powerful as can be.

When you fire a BAR, and I have, its pretty inspiring. The rifle weighs a ton, but the action is like a solid chunk of steel working. Its chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk as it cycles and fires. An extremely reassuring piece of gear. You really feel like you have a solid 20 rounds at play with a BAR.

Facing the German MG-42 Machine Gun! - YouTube
OTOH you have the MG42 which fires the formidable 8mm Mauser round. A very powerful and unpleasant round to be around. Hitlers buzz saw threw them out at over 1200 a minute.

So in WW2 which rifle takes it? You have the German or the BAR designed by the legendary John Mosses Browning.

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Depends on what you want to use it for. As a trench broom, the BAR wins. For defensive use, the 42 takes it with massively better sustained firepower. Considering the BAR got replaced with an updated version of the MG42, I'd say the 42 takes it overall.

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BAR. 1200 RPM is too freakin much.

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MG42. Physically formidable, as well as psychologically. Just thinking about that noise haunts me, let alone troopers who actually had the 'opportunity' to get personal with it. I don't think ze Germans made psych strengthening tapes about the BAR.

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Different horses for different courses.

Bar = squad level fire support for fire team fire and maneuver. Works best when coordinating with second BAR team.

MG 42 Excellent defensive weapon and more of a platoon level weapon.

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x2

The question should be MG42 vs 30cal or 50cal as crew serviced machine guns

or BAR vs MP40 or STG44 as squad infantry support

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Isn't it how many rounds hit the target that is important?

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Let's ask those who were shot by them which they preferred.

I think the BAR was retired due to it's massive weight, in both the rifle and the gear required. Since the M-60 is simply our version of the M-42 and since that is what replaced it, I think it's the winner because imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Not when you're throwing that much lead into the air.

Isnt the BAR a world war 1 trench gun? its like a 30 year older design than the MG42 I thought. Excellent for the time, and certainly a good assault weapon with a powerful punch against bolt action rifles in a trench, but made for a different era

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While it may have been born in the trenches, it was an incredibly effective weapon for the type of house-to-house fighting we encountered in Europe during WWII, because of the effectiveness of the 30-06 in penetrating walls. But the Garand was a 30-06 as well, so it's only real advantage was it's automatic firepower. Most soldiers saw them as just having to haul a lot of extra weight around for pretty much the same firepower as a Garand, effort that would be better spent hauling a .30 cal Browning MG, which was belt-fed and offered much greater sustained firepower over the constant clip change outs required by the BAR.

Maybe the question should be...

VS

The modern MG-3 versus the old M-60pig

That is an awesome weapon.

You of all people know that the 2nd choice is not a rifle

Not really. The German philosophy was not defensive in 1934 when the MG34 was instituted. The weapon was a GPMG, that is general purpose machine gun. Used on a bipod from prone, or a tripod for long distance, or just held in the hands for close quarters. The German infantry squad was centered on the MG34/42 and the riflemen were there to support the machine gun, not vice versa.

- Peter.

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