TRANSCRIPT of this video from 00′:28″ – hereafter:

At its core, a machine gun is a gun. Its job is to shoot a bullet.

A bullet is a slug of metal – usually either steel or lead. The bullet is packaged in a metal casing, and the casing is filled with gunpowder that is going to explode and fire the bullet out of the gun. The bullet casing also contains a primer – a small charge that explodes when you hit it. When this small charge explodes, it lights the main charge of gunpowder.

Most machine guns are rifles with long-grooved barrels. The barrel gets the bullet heading in the right direction, and the grooves spin the bullet so that it flies straight. At one end into the barrel is a mechanism called the firing pin. When you pull the trigger, the firing pin hits the primer, and makes the bullet fire. The bullet comes screaming out of the barrel at roughly the speed of sound.

The machine-part of the machine gun is the bullet-powered engine. When the shell fires, the bullet goes one way, and the shell casing goes the other. It is a perfect example of equal and opposite reaction. The energy of that shell casing can be harnessed to drive a spring-operated bolt.

The bolt does three things. As the bullet fires and starts driving the bolt back, the bolt can extract the casing and eject it from the gun. Then, as the bolt starts moving forward again, it can ram a bullet into the barrel, and then hit the bullet with the firing pin. The newly exploding bullet starts a cycle all over again.

A typical machine gun can shoot anywhere from one hundred to six hundred rounds per minute depending on the size of the gun and the size of the bullet.

So, that’s how machine guns work.

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Tags: American, Armament, Arms, AUDIO and SCRIPT, Barrel, Bolt, Bullet, Bullets, Casing, Charge, Explode, Firearms, Groove, Gun, Gunpowder, LISTEN, Machine Gun, Mechanism, PLS 2222, Primer, Reaction, Recce 233 Savoie, Rounds, Shell, Shells, Slug, Spring, Video, Weapon