http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQxIi-oaa0c

Chris Costa of Magpul Dynamics fame is best known for his aggressive stance with firearms. No, not politically speaking, I mean his actual stance. He’s a supporter of an aggressive forward grip on the firearm that wraps most of the way around the barrel, commonly referred to as the “Costa Grip.” He says (and I agree) that this gives the shooter more control over the weapon, even when that weapon is a fully-automatic M60 machine gun. What I like the most is when the gun runs dry, he instinctively starts running the immediate action manual of arms for his M4 — turning the whole gun and looking into the ejection port for a jam, as if preparing to clear it and get the gun running. Muscle memory.

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29 COMMENTS

    • No one needs that aggressive a stance. That’s an assault stance! All it’s good for is kill people, dozens, hundreds at a time!

      We need common sense stance control laws.

    • If someone handed BOB Costas a gun like that M60, I imagine he’d probably just wet his pants, shriek like a frightened monkey, fumble with it, and ND a round into the nearest unlucky shrub / tree.

      IT’S A SCARY G-G-G-G-G-GUN!

    • I’m in a bad mood so: You guys have gone Hollywood movie fan. More guys have shot more M60 than you’d believe. Since this post is a day-old, I feel free to bloviate. M60’s were the standard MG in RVN for both infantry and chopper crews. No beards needed. Chris Costa hasn’t shot a string of fire in combat, ever. It’s show time. We shot 100 times that little bit just getting into and out of LZ Lolo, 3/18/71, extracting the 4/1/1/ ARVN during Lam Son 719. Full boxes gone in four minutes. I inserted a team containing a 21-year-old green beenie CCN medic, who was carrying a hand-held (no tripod) M60 which had been cut back to the gas cylinder. They ran in Laos a bit northwest of Khe Sanh for three days. We were there to pull him out. He got out the next year, finished college, went to med school, and retired as Command Surgeon of USSOCOM in 2004, and still likes good Scotch. On a shoot-down of a 173rd AHC chopper on one of these CCN forays a fine crew chief pulled his M60 aero version off the mount and used it for ten minutes, hand held, until the backups could pull them out. The emergency landing zone was under fire the entire time and the chopper itself had been taken out by an RPG. He expended an ammo box full hand-held with aviation triggers, which is a bear. OK, I’ll lay off. MG’s as toys gets to me. I’m sure you’ve heard that once before. The showtime trainer BS just strikes me as cheesy. Only because the little bits are novel does it strike you as cool. After three or four months of M60 every day with somebody shooting back, its just different. 6-8 sorties a day over enemy fire for week after week, and it just seems lame to watch 40-50 rounds peeled off. The barrel hadn’t even started to turn red. There, I feel better. Thank you.

      • Thank you for your service to our country! You and people like you who have put yourselves on the line are the backbone of this great nation.

      • I’m going to leave out the “thank you for your service” bit, not because the sentiment is wrong, but simply because it’s almost becoming rote, and thus without meaning.

        “I was/am in the military” automatically seems to lead to “Thank you for your service.”

        Maybe “I don’t understand” because I’ve never been in the military, and maybe you guys appreciate it every time you hear it, regardless of the perceived level of sincerity, because “at least they’re bothering to say it.” If so, I’ll accept the correction.

        What I am going to say is this: Thanks for the story. It’s always interesting (to me) to hear about something I can’t possibly imagine from guys who were there, whether we’re talking about Vietnam or Korea or WWII or the sandbox. I think you guys did something, not that I can’t do, but that I didn’t and probably never will do, and therefore provide a perspective I’d never come to on my own.

  10. I get depressed by this.

    That sunshine and plethera of ammo makes me yearn for an escape to warmer climes.

    Now back to reality. (adjusts Starbucks drip here in dreary Seattle)
    Stares at empty Ammo shelf in garage.

  11. Love to see the M-60 in action one reason the SEAL never gave them in for a M-240 is that there are lighter and shorter far better for Spec Ops than the over sized M-240s are.

    • The lightness is the main reason, you can still actually shoulder fire it thus giving greater firepower to smaller elements. I hated my 240 which was only vehicle mounted. I felt bad for the guy’s who had to sling a 240 on foot. F’that.

  13. I agree that grip/stance does help a lot when standing still engaging single/multiple close range targets in rapid succession.

    However when moving or shooting long distance it is not all that at least for me.

    Great video either way.

  14. Love it. Now I can point to a video when people say you can not shoot a M-60 standing up.

    Yeah, somebody should have taught him how to clear before they handed it to him. Bad example. There could have still been a round in the chamber. Minus cool points.

    1. Pull charging handle to the rear and return forward.
    2. Engage safety.
    3. Observe chamber.
    4. Lift feed tray cover.
    5. Remove loose links and, if any is left, the ammunition belt.
    6. Close feed tray cover.
    7. Observe chamber again.
    8. Release safety.
    9. Pull charging handle to rear, pull trigger and ride the bolt into battery.
    Gun is now cleared.

    NB: The safety will not engage when the bolt carrier group is forward. If it does, you need to go see the armorer.

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