M240 Clear In Sequence

Video by Sgt. Maj. James Denton 1st Battalion, 158th Infantry
M240B From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The M240, officially Machine Gun, 7.62mm, M240, is the US military designation for the FN MAG (Mitrailleuse d'Appui Général, meaning General Purpose Machine Gun), a family of belt-fed, gas-operated medium machine guns firing the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge.

The M240 has been used by the United States Armed Forces since the late-1970s. It is used extensively by infantry, most often rifle companies; as well as ground vehicles; watercraft; and aircraft. Despite not being the lightest medium machine gun in service, it is highly regarded for reliability, and its standardization among NATO members is also seen as a major advantage.

All variants are fed from disintegrating belts, and are capable of firing most types of 7.62 mm (.308) NATO ammunition. M240 variants can use non-disintegrating belts (following replacement of a few easily swappable parts). There are significant differences in weight and some features among some versions which restrict interchangeability of parts. The M240s used by the US military are currently manufactured by FN Manufacturing, a US-based branch of FN Herstal.

The M240B and M240G (see Variants section) are usually fired from an integrated bipod, a vehicular mount, an M192 tripod that is mostly used by the U.S. Army; and the M122 tripod (a slightly updated M2 tripod) that is mostly used by the U.S. Marine Corps.

[maffysdad]

As if that soldier hasn't done that a thousand times, you could see they were taking that slow for us...

[mmi]

Can anyone explain to me why locking the bolt to the rear prior to clearing the ammo source makes sense? FN claims it was a cookoff caution, but i fail to see what defense locking the bolt to the rear offers if a round on the feed tray cooks off. All i see it doing is opening the possibilty for the weapon to fire by mistake, or mechanical failure.