Does anybody know of a good animation or drawing that shows how belt fed machine guns (specifically the M2) strips the links from the ammo?

I am wondering this because I just held belted .50 for the first time and noticed the links are high up on the neck of the round, unlike belted .308 which is closer to the base of the round. The .50 links are also pretty damn strong, alot thicker metal than I would have guessed.

Does the M2 really push the rounds all the way through these links? and doesn't it damage the links or the cases?

Does the link stay around the bolt when it closes and then discarded when the case is ejected or is it ejected previous to the round being chambered?

I've always wanted to shoot a M2 but now I just want to see one more than ever just to figure out how the hell it works mechanically.

Thanks ahead of time.

Its been a long time, but if I remember correctly the M2 strips the round out backwards of the link, discards the link and feeds that round into the chamber, then repeats the process over and over.

Again, if I remember correctly the 7.62 is set up to shove the round forwards out of the link and discard that link and on and on.

If I can remember where I put it, I have the military FM on the M2 Browning Machine Gun.

It does, indeed, pull the rounds rearward from the links, whereas the M60 and others push the rounds through to the front. The 20mm guns also draw their rounds out the rear.
Anyway, on the breechblock is a grooved face tall enough for two positions. The grooved is wide and deep enough to fit the rim of the cartridges. If I remember it correctly, when the breech block moves forward, it is chambering and firing one round, and the block moves up onto the rim of the next cartridge in the belt, which is above the chamber. After firing, when the barrel and breech block moves rearward, it draws the round from the link. The barrel stops and the breech block continues, finishing clearing the rond from the link, and extracting the empty from the chamber. Either at the end of travel, or at the beginning of forward travel (can't remember which), the block moves downward, aligning the new round with the chamber, and the empty below the barrel. As it goes forward, it chambers and fires the round, and moves up to grab the next round in the belt. The whole cycle repeats itself, and when the next empty is pushed forward under the barrel, it pushes out the one before it, where it falls out the front of the receiver.
This is a somewhat simplified explanation, and some details may not be exact, but this is the jist of how it works. I also have the manual on the M60. It works somewhat differently.

FYI: When John Browning was asked to design a gun and cartridge suitable for anti-material warfare, he just took the 30 Gov't round (the 30-06), and scaled it up, increasing the bore size to .50, and scaling everything else the same amount.

hmmm

thanks for the info!

I'll see if I can't Google the FM on them, I didn't think those kind of nitty-gritty details were in there.

Here you go.

Click to view attachment

That's awesome! Thanks bobash that's exactly what I was looking for.