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Saving Private Ryan - Out of .40 Cal You Say?
During the last battle there is a part where the guy up in the bell tower with Jackson(Sniper) runs out of .40 cal bullets and yells, "I'm out of .40 cal!". The only problem is that as he pulls up the machine gun you clearly see the belt of bullets on the gun, showing clearly that he is not out of ammo. Why Spielberg?
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Avg. Rating:    2.8 of 10 - (52 votes cast)
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Contributed By:
Mexican on 02-11-2001
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Du Nomad writes:
He was calling for ammo because he was (for all intents and purposes) out. You always call for ammo BEFORE firing your last round. When he says "I'm out" it means he has no more reserves and what's in the gun is the last of what he has. As for saving a few round to link a new belt to, it's smart. If he burns his last few rounds, then gets reloads, it'll take him a few minutes to reload, since he'd have to flip open the breech, feed the belt in, make sure it's aligned, close and lock the breech and pull back the bolt before he could begin firing again. If he's got a few rounds left on the already loaded belt, he just needs to link the new belt and resume firing. And, BTW, others are correct in that it was .30 cal. There is such a thing as .40 cal, but it's a pistol round and is relatively new to the market (late '80's, I believe).
17 of 18 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes
BigDaz writes:
Actually it's .30 caliber. When he says he's out he only has about 3 bullets left.
The~Sinister~One writes:
maybe, just maybe, he was running low on ammo... and the ammo left he was keeping to help feed the next belt through!
dlsawyer writes:
US M1917 machinegun ejects cartridges downward through the bottom of the receiver and NOT in the belt. No belt fed machineguns put the empty cartridge cases back into the belt. None. Furthermore there was no ".40" caliber machinegun or ".40 caliber" ammunition in use by any combatant nation in WWII. The US used the M1917A1 and M1919 .30 caliber Browning machine guns in tthe light and medium machinegun roles. And the .50 caliber Browning machinegun in the heavy machinegun role. The British used the .303 caliber Bren gun in the light role. The Lewis gun in the medium machinegun role and the US .50 Browning in the heavy MG role. The Germans used various 8mm Mauser machinguns (MG34, MG42,Zb-30 etc) as infantry weapons. The German equivalent of the .50 browning (13mm MG) was only used in numbers by the Luftwaffe. The German army choosing the 4 man crew served 20mm canon mounted in armored cars or an a ground mount in this basic role instead of a two or three man heavy MG.
MattB writes:
Just like to point out that as far as I'm aware there is no such thing as .40 cal. As has been stated the gun in question was a .30 cal. machine gun.
biddy64 writes:
im not certain how the machine guns work on that website but my experience in the US army with the numerous weapons i have used the feeding mechanism is specificaly designed to shed the link system weather it be a canvas belt as in ww2 or steel links as in all modern MG's (50 cal has always used steel links). The Browning 30 cal is a smaller version of the 50cal it was designed to use a canvas belt that the round would be extracted from. you obviously have access to a computer so do some research on the weapon systems before you speak about them.
garethgazz writes:
Why would he bother keeping ammo to feed the next belt through when he hasn't got another belt to feed through? If you can see ammo in the gun then it is a slip up.
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glwheeler714 writes:
First off-- The originator of this so-called "Slip-Up" should be shot w/ a .30 cal. machine gun and/or .40 S&W. This particular case HAS a plausible explaination,and therefor violates the First rule of this website, as evident by the number of comments submited by those much smarter/more experianced than the originator. Second, Pvt. Jackson's line from the movie is; "...I'm outta .30 cal...." NOT .40 cal!!! YES there ARE such things as .40 cal. MACHINEGUNS! Maybe not in todays Armed Forces, BUT during WWII both Browning and Springfeild made .40 cal. MACHINEGUNS. Today, you say the words; '.40 cal' and most will assume that you mean the .40 S&W (Smith&Wesson)round of HANDGUN fame. Ignorance often leads to confusion, just ask the originator of this so-called Slip-Up.
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GreenThing writes:
If you had checked "how machineguns work" on, you would know that spent cartridges stay IN the belt. what's the point of ejecting cartridges if they can just get outta the other end???
2 of 13 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes
