File:Army_Heritage_Museum_B.A.R..jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Key facts
- Type
- Light machine gun Automatic rifle
- Place of origin
- United States
- In service
- 1918–1973 (United States)
- Used by
- See § Users
- Designer
- John Browning
- Manufacturer
- List of manufacturers Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company Winchester Repeating Arms Company Marlin-Rockwell Corporation New England Small Arms Royal McBee Typewriter Company IBM Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori Państwowa Fabryka Karabinów FN Herstal
- Unit cost
- $319
- Produced
- 1917–1960 (original BAR Only) 2013–present (HCAR)
- Number span no built
- 351,554 M1918 : 102,174 M1918A2 : 249,380
- Variants
- See § Variants
- Mass
- 7.25 kg (15.98 lb) (M1918) approx. 11 kg (24 lb) (M1922) 8.4 kg (19 lb) (M1918A1) 8.8 kg (19 lb) (M1918A2)
- Length
- 1,194 mm (47.0 in) (M1918, M1922, M1918A1) 1,215 mm (47.8 in) (M1918A2)
- Barrel length
- 610 mm (24.0 in)
- Cartridge
- 7.62×63mm (.30-06 Springfield)
- Action
- Gas-operated , long-stroke gas piston , rising bolt lock
- Rate of fire
- 500–650 rounds/min (M1918, M1922, M1918A1) 300–450 or 500–650 rounds/min (M1918A2)
- Muzzle velocity
- 860 m/s (2,822 ft/s)
- Effective firing range
- 100–1,500 yards (91–1,372 m) sight adjustments (maximum effective range)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- automatic rifle
- Named after
- John Browning
- Country of origin
- United States
- Designed by
- John Browning
- Conflict
- Arab–Israeli conflict
- Image
- Army Heritage Museum B.A.R..jpg
Show 7 more facts
- Commons gallery
- Browning M1918 (BAR)
- service entry
- 1918-01-01
- ammunition
- 7.62×51mm NATO
- total produced
- 100000
- Commons category
- Browning M1918
- service retirement
- 1970-00-00
- inception
- 1917-00-00
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Browning automatic rifle (BAR) is a family of American automatic rifle used by the United States and numerous other countries during the 20th century. The primary variant of the BAR series was the M1918, chambered for the .30-06 Springfield rifle cartridge and designed by John Browning in 1917 for the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe as a replacement for the French-made Chauchat and M1909 Benét–Mercié machine guns that U.S. forces had previously been issued.
The BAR was designed to be carried by infantrymen during an assault advance while supported by the sling over the shoulder, or to be fired from the hip. This is a concept called "walking fire"—thought to be necessary for the individual soldier during trench warfare. The BAR never entirely lived up to the original hopes of the War Department as either a rifle or a machine gun.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “M1918 Browning automatic rifle” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.