Serial Number 324 comes to Anniston Army Depot for service.

[Averageman]

Made in 1921-1922, this M2 is 90 years old.
http://weaponsman.com/?p=27033
Nobody really knows, but this one came in to the Anniston Army Depot for conversion. They’d already stamped it M2A1 (as can be seen in this close-close-blow-up, along with the original maker marks of “Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Mfg Co, Hartford”) when they realized it wasn’t just any M2 heavy machine gun. It was older than the oldest one they had kept as a museum display! Serial Number 324 was probably made in 1921 or 1922, and had never been overhauled before.


To think that it is 90 years old and had never been overhauled is pretty amazing.

[SeriousStudent]

Very cool! They should put that one in the museum, and call it "Grandma Deuce."

[C-grunt]

In 2005 we had a M2 on gate duty with a 4 digit serial number. Shit ran like a top.

[Firefly]

Now that's an old soldier. No telling where it's been or who it's turned into paste

[SteyrAUG]

One more example of why Browning was a genius.

[Firefly]

One more example of why Browning was a genius.

Not to derail Steyr, but in 2064, I'm sure some kind of AR will be killing some kind of a bad guy. But indeed, we don't see many of his ilk very often. Only in America

[Moose-Knuckle]

Way cool story, thanks for sharing. And yes JMB was a mental bad ass.

Edit to add: This also serves an example of American quality from that time.

[Averageman]

I was working there a couple of years ago and Anniston is a pretty interesting place to spend some time and work.
First, There are very few places where you can look up and see a Tank hull moving overhead. Kind of disconcerting to say the least.
Second, One moment you are seeing M88's being disassembled, turn the corner and someone else is dropping out of spec M4's in to a giant schredder.
Third, If you go out looking for a part that might not be on hand you can go look in the Tank Graveyard where hundreds of Tanks are waiting for rebuild or demill.
It's a pretty cool experience, I didn't get around to the small arms shops as I'm sure they was security for them and I didn't wander out of my zone too much as they were demilling some chemical weapons at the time.

[Big A]

Very cool! They should put that one in the museum, and call it "Grandma Deuce."
That is f'in brilliant SS.

[SteyrAUG]

Not to derail Steyr, but in 2064, I'm sure some kind of AR will be killing some kind of a bad guy. But indeed, we don't see many of his ilk very often. Only in America

Perhaps. But the critical difference is the M2 has only seen one upgrade "A1" and a 90 year old example is still fielded. I know there were a few XM-177s in reserve groups in Iraq who were mostly guarding supplies and things like that. But I don't think we will see anything with a fixed A1/A2 carry handle in the near future let alone 50 years from now.