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.50cal HV (bridgeport)

kahu1

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
2nd cartridge ,Bridgeport 50HV.
Other carts for comparison 20mm hispano ,.50 cal ,14.5mm russian.

cheers Bob.
 

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Very nice, does anyone have any photos of the gun for this one?

Dave.
 
Nice Cartridge Bob, I am pretty sure that '43 was the first production date for the Bridgeport factory. I think that before that the cases were still headstamped as 20mm's (as these cases were simply necked down 20mm Hispano).

I am happy to be corrected, but I had presumed that there was no actual production of a gun for the .50HV and were purely for Test Barrels. This was also around the time when the US were 'playing' with .60 cal and similar to improve performance on aircraft machine guns.

regards, Peter.
 
I am happy to be corrected, but I had presumed that there was no actual production of a gun for the .50HV and were purely for Test Barrels. This was also around the time when the US were 'playing' with .60 cal and similar to improve performance on aircraft machine guns.
I think that's probably right. The .50 HV was used in lots of test firings but was dropped in about 1943 when it was decided to focus on the .60 cartridge instead. The Hispano was modified to fire the .60 and given the designation T18, but that lost out to the T17 (MG 151 modified to .60) of which a few hundred were built, but never issued.
 
According to HW&S (Vol II pg 238-9) initial trials of the Cal. .60/.50 used the standard M8 API and M2 AP bullets (MV 3,900-4,000 fps). Other loadings were tried, but I don't think that any final conclusion was reached about a service loading.
 
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