Even though the terms are frequently used as if they were synonymous, machine guns and sub-machine guns are two different critters. The difference generally can be summed up in two words — size and caliber. The classic 'tommy gun', as seen in untold numbers of gangster films set in the Prohibition era, and the US Army's M3A1 of WWII — the so-called 'grease gun' — are sub-machine guns, as are modern Uzis.Big RR wrote: ↑Mon Nov 01, 2021 6:32 pmBSG--I can't speak for everyone here, but I do think a submachine gun is fully automatic (meaning it fires multiple rounds while the trigger is depressed) as opposed to semi automatic (where a single round is fired each time the trigger is depressed). I did a quick google search and it states that submachine guns are fully automatic.
'True' machine guns like the water-cooled Browning M1917 or the .50-caliber M2 (the 'Ma Deuce') fire larger, full-powered rifle cartridges, quite often through a belt-fed mechanism. They are also larger and less-likely to be able to be carried and fired by a single person, requiring a tripod, bipod, or other form of mount, and in many cases required a 'feeder' or 'loader' to supply ammunition to the weapon, or a large, boxy ammunition supply system connected to the weapon to contain the belt(s).
But they are fully automatic, in that both will cycle and fire rounds so long as the trigger is depressed and there is ammunition in the weapon, as opposed to a 'semi-automatic' where one trigger pull fires one round, and then the weapon ejects the spent cartridge and chambers another one, ready for the next trigger pull.
-"BB"-