What the useful life span of a 1919a4?

[MET1]

The thought occurred to me tonite that with most parts kits, you never know how many rounds have been put through that specific weapon. Then that got me thinking, what is the life span of a 1919a4 style weapon? I know that there are thousands of factors to consider, but is there a ball park figure? Is it in the hundreds of thousands of rounds? Million? Anybody have a SWAG?

[1919_4_ME]

The thought occurred to me tonite that with most parts kits, you never know how many rounds have been put through that specific weapon. Then that got me thinking, what is the life span of a 1919a4 style weapon? I know that there are thousands of factors to consider, but is there a ball park figure? Is it in the hundreds of thousands of rounds? Million? Anybody have a SWAG?


Well to put it in to perspective one of the MP-5's at the MG store in Las Vegas has over 1 million rounds on it, but they have had to replace everything at one point in time. They even had the reciever welded on to fix the cracks. I'm sure 1919's would last alot longer than that.:coffee:

[sweetwine]

Consider how they were made, heavy duty steel parts compared to alum and plastic about 3 or 4 lifetimes my guess. :50cal:

[KABAR2]

Buy and machine an extra set of internals for spares lock frames barrel extensions are known to break have an extra semi trigger and sear. should last you a long time,

even in military application parts failed and they kept spares on hand to keep them running.

[scottd]

Like asking the usefull life span of a car......if you keep it well maintained and stay on top of repairs,it could last forever. But unlike cars, repir parts require little diagnostics and generally bolt right on. As long as the receiver holds together, it will last as long as replacement parts are around. So, to answer your question, its not X many rounds and the gun is whupped, its the condition of all its parts.

[MET1]

That makes since. So it is safe to assume that a parts kit in decent condition built correctly on a quality semi auto receiver, and used but not abused would last a lifetime of shooting a thousand rounds every two or three months? I know that some parts will need to be replaced along the road, however the receiver will not stretch or the slot for the back plate not deform to the point of having to be replaced during that amount of use right?

Anyone here have 100k through a single 1919a4 yet? If so what did you replace along the way?

[Kali Komrade]

You know the only thing I've ever heard really going bad on these guns besides the little parts here and there which is common to all weapons platforms is the rivets... and I think that is just a matter of how hard and how often you use the weapon... If you think about it they are one of the softest pieces of metal that is on our guns so it would be obvious this would be the weakest link in the chain... Yes... No... other thoughts... I just thought I'd throw that out there...

[MET1]

So what do you do when the rivets loosen?

[Dan Wilson]

So what do you do when the rivets loosen?

Take out bad rivets
Put in good rivets

Glad I could help out:green:

Dan

[Kali Komrade]

Take out bad rivets
Put in good rivets

Glad I could help out:green:

Dan

Thats very Machiavellian of you Dan....:thumb:
and thats keepin' it simple...

I've not heard of any worn out 1919a4's running in semi auto yet... Maybe someday we will get there... Once you have your gun you will know how everything fits and runs and when it starts having a hiccup you'll figure out what you need to fix or replace...

[1919_4_ME]

I dunno I havent cleand my beater 1919 for almost 2 years now and it just keeps runnin and runnin, no hic-up's or broken parts yet. Just add lots of oil and let er' rip!:50cal:

[Dan Wilson]

I don't even use oil in mine, I use MilTech grease.
Great shit, its not only grease but a metal conditioner as well.
The guys over in the sandbox use the shit out of the MilTech Oil and Grease, it will actually let the M4's and M-16 function sorta.

Besides MilTech is a great company, if the GI's over there cant get it through the supply system all they have to do is write MilTech and they will send a FREE bottle of oil.

Dan

[Pvt. Joker]

Hmm; I was gonna guess that the useful lifespan of a 1919 is until the first time you run out of loaded belts BEFORE you run out of zombies. At least, its useful lifespan to YOU ends at that point. :coffee:

[MET1]

So it sounds like it might take me a while to wear them out. That was what I wanted to hear!!

[MustangO3]

42

At least that's what I heard. Haven't gotten there yet.

[nitro6869]

i remember reading about a guy who put over 500k rounds through his gun.at the rate you're thinking about,it will probably last forever.

[Dan Wilson]

A lot of the factor to consider would be the ammo you use.
The lower velocity ammo will have a greatly reduced wear factor on cycling.
If you use typical hunting ammo (you would have to be a whole lot richer than me) with velocity's of 3000 fpm plus - the useful life will be greatly shortened.

Even using mil-spec M2 Ball (approx 2800 fps) will batter the system quite a bit, but the LC M2 ball I have been buying from the CMP is delinked 1919 ammo; even though its supposed to be at the standard M2 ball velocities, it actually comes in between 2400 and 2500 fps.
Quite an action saver when it comes to battering.

We see real obvious damage caused by high velocity battering of the receiver in the M1 Garand. It will crack or bust the heel of the receiver, the 1919 is a little better but still gets battered pretty badly on the back plate. Sure there is a buffer but its really kinda a joke, how much compressibility can you get out of a dozen or so disks of phenolic?

One thing that would probably eliminate this problem indefinably would be a spring buffer like the M16 uses, it couldn't be long but a short spring with a high rate would almost totally eliminate this battering. Wonder if there are any automotive valve springs that would work back there?

The only other part (excluding barrel) that I can think of that could get a lot of wear would be the trunnion but if you use belts or can get a trunnion guard to work then you eliminate that problem as well.

Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?
One
Two
Three
Crunch
Three, it take three licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop!

Dan

[anm2_man]

Dan

Have you performed a FPS on the HXP ball that has come into the USA over the last couple of years ? I would be interested. My son's (1919a4 FA Ramo sideplate gun), seems to hit a bunch harder than the Lake City stuff. I do not notice much difference between the Greek stuff and Lake city ammo in my ANM2. The only difference I can feel is on my tracer reloads. When I reload them with IMR4895 @ 42grns, there is a major difference between these rounds and the factory loads. You can feel it in the gun. I have hence bumped it up to 43.5 (Original war Dept loads were 44grn) and all guns seem to be happy with it. I need to buy one of those devices that reports bullet speed but I would be hardpressed using it to capture the ANM2's speed (It moves too much).

[Dan Wilson]

The HXP chrono's in right at M2 specs of 2805 fps so its an actual mil spec load BUT the LC stuff thats on the market now only runs around 2400- 2500 fps so thats why it seems to hit easier. I usually save the LC stuff for the 1919's and shoot the HXP in my M1903's, M1917's, and Garands.

Dan

[MET1]

Im way low on .06, so I am going to have it built in 8mm. I still have a decent supply of Turk, Greek (German???)and Yugo. I think the 50's Yugo is what I will be using as I think the Turk is a bit hotter with a lighter round.

[Dan Wilson]

I would recommend to build it in several calibers.
8mm, 30-06 and 308 only require a change in barrels and lock spring and booster.

Then there are the 7.62X54R and 7.62X39 mods but they run to a little more expense.

Thats one of the mostest coolest things about the 1919, more caliber options than anything else out there.

(if your signed up with the cmp you can get o6 as cheap as 25 cents a round)

Dan