Machine guns are usually divided into heavy-duty machine guns, light machine guns, and sub-machine guns. Heavy machine guns (HMG) are placed on the ground, supported on a tripod, or on a vehicle. Machine gun : the development of the machine gun from the nineteenth century to the present day by Popenker, M. R Publication date 2008 Topics Machine guns -- History, Machine guns -- Design and construction, Maschinengewehr, Machine guns Publisher Ramsbury : Crowood Collection internetarchivebooks; inlibrary; printdisabled Contributor Internet ... A machine gun (MG) is a fully automatic and rifled firearm designed for sustained direct fire. Automatic firearms of 20 mm (0.79 in) caliber or more are classified as autocannons rather than machine guns. machine gun, automatic weapon of small calibre that is capable of sustained rapid fire. Most machine guns are belt-fed weapons that fire from 500 to 1,000 rounds per minute and will continue to fire as long as the trigger is held back or until the supply of ammunition is exhausted.
