Korean War Field Innovation Quad .30 Caliber Anti-Personnel

By Dean Weingarten

By Dean Weingarten

Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- I received this photograph from a source who was looking to identify what type of “gun” it was. I believe it is a field improvisation of four .30 caliber M1919A4 machine guns in a linear quad mount. It is designed for use on ground targets.

You can see that the quad .30 calibers command a significant amount of the terrain in front of them. The .30 caliber has a maximum effective range of 1,500 yards, a bit short of a mile. As a quad mount, that range would be increased a bit.

There is no way to elevate the muzzles far enough for effective anti-aircraft fire. The base of the Korean mount is from the M63 Anti-Aircraft mount for the M2 Browning .50 caliber machine gun. (H/T to archy on freerepublic).

The other quad mounts that I have seen were designed for anti-aircraft fire.

The Soviet quad mount of 1910 Maxim machine guns is set up for anti-aircraft fire. The image is from a display in a Russian (Soviet) Museum.