50bmg cloth belt loading fun!!

[dutigaf]

well i tried it.

i recently picked up 2 brand new cloth belts for the M3 ive got coming and thought what the heck i'll give it a shot.

put 25 rounds in it, wasnt that big of a deal to do. now whether its in deep enough or not is another story. i put them in until the edge of the brass was sticking out the front of the belt.

does anyone know if thats far enough?

that seems to work fine on the 1919 at that depth. and yes i loaded it by hand also.

ive got a linker and links for the 1919 but wanted to try the belts and skip the trunnion wear. so when the belt was up for sale for the 50 i figured why not? if i dont like it i'll sell it(the belts) they are numbered in 1,25,50,75,100 inc's its actually a really nice belt. lets see if it shoots.

comments?

[Kali Komrade]

Don't know how deep to push em in... You will definetely know when you line it up on the feedway if everything is centered your good if not push em deeper... You have to much patience Duti...

P.S. Dutigaf we gotta get you an avatar... PM me your email and if you have an image you'd like to use I'll have you email it to me and then I'll fix the image for you so you can use it...

[dutigaf]

patience? me ? no you got me confused with someone else.. but as big an investment as this is. im not wanting any thing to screw it up or eat away the trunnion. but i'll let you know if this works worth a crap or not.

oh yeah ive tried the avatarthing here several times and just cant get it to go... (was just gonna use my 1919 in the garage floor anyway)

my email is no big secret: dutigaf4ne1@yahoo.com

[ptmetals]

I shoot mine quite often, and yes load them till the brass is even with the front opening. I use my m7 linker and work on one end with 1 round started in belt using a little pressure with thumb on belt pull the handle and sa zam loaded round. With a little practice you'll be loading that 100 rounder in 10-15 min. Just visualize your thumb as the wheel of a 30 cal belt loader. I like links for the cool look but belts are easy to pick up. Note lay the belt in front of the guide pins not where the links lay.

[dutigaf]

thanks for that info.....

these were new belts and very tight ... figure that after a couple of load sessions they will loosen up a bit.

im pretty close on the end of the brass and belt meeting and it took me about 10 minutes to do 25. lol looks like i will have to improve.

[Slick]

I'm almost thinking that a cloth bet linker could be made for the .50 BMG rounds that would basically be a "scaled up" version of the .30cal (single round) cloth belt linker.. I'm sure a fine-thread nut exists that would have the proper inside diameter, but two of them would likely need to be used (welded end-to-end) due to the length of the cartridge. Also a "pusher" clamp with sufficient throw would be required. I'm sure all this stuff is available - but depending on the cost of a USGI linker - it might be cost prohibitive since the larger clamps get more expensive in a hurry. Just some thoughts...

[dutigaf]

yeah your linker is fantastic looking!! but no more than this fifty is gonna get shot im just not sure if it would justify the time or money involved... since i may still wind up using links anyway.

[Kali Komrade]

Another option was that I saw that BEFU on 1919a4 had a single round beltloader like he makes for the 30 cals forsale that he makes but if a 50 cal linker will work like PT was talking about I'd go that route you might need a linker anyway right... Out here everytime I stop to look at a linker its a fifty cal so I guess there are a lot of them out there... Don't know what they go for though...

[franks71vw]

just asking and dont mean to hijack i guess but cant you just link the 50 by hand. At least for me i wont be linking 1000's of 50 at a time maybe 100-200 rds?

[dutigaf]

see my earlier posts in this thread.... was doing that to start with.

that sucks.

got BEFU to make me a single round 50 bmg loader and give it hell that way now every time.