 | Dumb question....| Aviation Discuss Dumb question.... in the World War II - Aviation forums; Okay...I'll be the first guy to admit that I am a FNG and this may very well be ... |
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05-24-2005, 07:51 AM
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#1 | | Member
Join Date: May 2005 Location: West Palm Bitch, FL
Posts: 40
| Dumb question....
Okay...I'll be the first guy to admit that I am a FNG and this may very well be a dumb ass question so I apologize in advance. I have always wondered the differences between a machine gun and a cannon? Is it caliber? Feed? Charged warheads? I don't know. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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05-24-2005, 10:32 AM
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#2 | | Master of Ewes
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 19,959
Country:  | i honestly can;t gove you a proper answer to that one, but there is no such thing as a dumb question here (unless it's from CC), you've admited to you being new to it, and so you can't be expected to know, and if you don't ask you'll never find out, i can almost garantee that someone on here will be able to help you out, we're all here to help and learn, so don't be afraid to ask any questions, it's the only way we learn........
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05-24-2005, 10:37 AM
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#3 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: UK
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Country:  | I always thought that a cannon had the ability to fire explosive rounds at over 50 rounds a minute below this rate it becomes a QF weapon.
of course i could be talking a load of bollocks.  | |
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05-24-2005, 11:10 AM
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#4 | | Konfused with a 'K'
Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Turin, Italy
Posts: 20,412
Country:  | I must admit ive never knows this either. I just thought that if it was 15mm or above it was a cannon  It probably something to do with the rounds itself though, as Trackend said 
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05-24-2005, 12:06 PM
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#5 | | Member
Join Date: May 2005 Location: West Palm Bitch, FL
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| Quote: |
Originally Posted by trackend I always thought that a cannon had the ability to fire explosive rounds at over 50 rounds a minute below this rate it becomes a QF weapon.
of course i could be talking a load of bollocks. | That's what I kinda thought it was...larger caliber, explosive rounds but the F-16 is equiped with a 20mm cannon...does that shoot explosive rounds? I never thought it did...I'm confused!
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05-24-2005, 01:00 PM
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#6 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: UK
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Country: | It's a bit complicated isn't it guys escpecially if you start bringing in the Genver convention that limits explosive, Incendairy,tracer and ball round ratios in a load. and bans dum dum rounds and I think DU is out side it as well | |
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05-24-2005, 01:07 PM
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#7 | | the old Sage
Join Date: May 2004 Location: Platonic Sphere
Posts: 8,665
Country:  | Most likely 15mm and larger. .50 cal US would be the limit / 13mm of the mg.
and yes most 20mm and 30mm fire AP and AP-I along with HE and HE-I
Even in Iraq the airborne 105 auto sprays AP and HE rounds
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05-24-2005, 06:20 PM
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#8 | | Senior Member
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Country: | It's size, above 13mm it's a cannon.
__________________ "When you go home tomorrow, don't expect anyone to know what you have been through. Even if they did know, most people probably wouldn't care anyway. Some of you may get the medals you deserve, many more of you will not. But remember this, all of you are now members of the front-line club, and that is the most exclusive club in the world." - Lt. Col. Matthew Maer CO 1st Battalion, the Princess of Wale's Royal Regiment. Camp Abu Naji, Oct. 2004  To those in that club. | |
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05-24-2005, 08:50 PM
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#9 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Lancaster, UK
Posts: 283
| This is a really tough one to call, as you may have guessed My 0.02 is that anything 15-76mm is a cannon...I have never seen an account of anything less than 15mm firing an HE round. To my mind, a cannon fires HE as well as the ball/AP/AP-I rounds fired by an MG. It is not necessarily automatic, but anything over 76mm, I would tend to class as a gun or mortar, obviously depending on design. Like I said, a very tough topic to call though.
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05-24-2005, 09:59 PM
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#10 | | Minister of Whoopass
Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Long Island Native in Mississippi
Posts: 12,536
Country: | If u combine the top 3 posts, u have ur answer.... All three are quite correct.. It has to do with calibre of round....
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05-24-2005, 11:31 PM
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#11 | | the old Sage
Join Date: May 2004 Location: Platonic Sphere
Posts: 8,665
Country: | BombTaxi German Luftwaffe mg 131's/ 13mm could fire AP as well as HE and HE-I. this to be found in veteran pilot and crew accounts for day as well as night fighters during the war. have seen yellow bodied HE 13mm rounds
E
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05-25-2005, 02:35 AM
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#12 | | Senior Member
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05-25-2005, 07:05 AM
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#13 | | Senior Member
Join Date: May 2005 Location: Somewhere near nothing.
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| Re: Dumb question....
Quote: |
Originally Posted by unpunk01 Okay...I'll be the first guy to admit that I am a FNG and this may very well be a dumb ass question so I apologize in advance. I have always wondered the differences between a machine gun and a cannon? Is it caliber? Feed? Charged warheads? I don't know. Any help would be greatly appreciated! | Here is a dumb ass answer for you, "Cannons are just big ass guns".
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05-25-2005, 09:46 AM
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#14 | | Master of Ewes
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 19,959
Country: | rather ironically that's more true than you think as the breech, or "ass" of cannons is generally larger than that of MGs.........
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"Reminds me of the time I sank the Tirpitz" comments a Spitfire pilot, "One pass of course, old boy." | |
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05-25-2005, 04:55 PM
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#15 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
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Country: | Don't be a turd, lanc. I know it's hard but really that was weak.
__________________ "When you go home tomorrow, don't expect anyone to know what you have been through. Even if they did know, most people probably wouldn't care anyway. Some of you may get the medals you deserve, many more of you will not. But remember this, all of you are now members of the front-line club, and that is the most exclusive club in the world." - Lt. Col. Matthew Maer CO 1st Battalion, the Princess of Wale's Royal Regiment. Camp Abu Naji, Oct. 2004 To those in that club. | |
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Thats me told then! Cheers for that info Erich! 
