M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle

Rifle, Caliber .30, Automatic, Browning, M1918
The M1918A2 BAR
Type	Light Machine Gun
Place of origin	United States
Service history
In service	1918–early 1970s (U.S.)
Used by	See Users
Wars	World War I World War II Second Sino-Japanese War Chinese Civil War Indonesian National Revolution Hukbalahap Rebellion Korean War Palestinian Civil War First Indochina War Bay of Pigs Invasion Vietnam War Cambodian Civil War Turkish invasion of Cyprus Thai–Laotian Border War
Production history
Designer	John Browning
Designed	1917
Manufacturer	Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company Winchester Repeating Arms Company Marlin-Rockwell Corporation New England Small Arms Royal McBee Typewriter Company International Business Machines Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori Państwowa Fabryka Karabinów
Produced	1917–1945
Number built	100,000+ (M1918)
Variants	See Variants
Specifications
Weight	7.25 kg (15.98 lb) (M1918) Approx. 11 kg (24 lb) (M1922) 6.0 kg (13.2 lb) (Colt Monitor) 8.4 kg (19 lb) (M1918A1) 8.8 kg (19 lb) (M1918A2) 9.0 kg (19.8 lb) (wz. 1928)
Length	1,194 mm (47.0 in) (M1918, M1922, M1918A1) 1,215 mm (47.8 in) (M1918A2) 1,110 mm (43.7 in) (wz. 1928)
Barrel length	610 mm (24.0 in) (M1918, M1922, M1918A1, M1918A2) 611 mm (24.1 in) (wz. 1928) 458 mm (18.0 in) (Colt Monitor)
Cartridge	.30-06 Springfield (7.62×63mm)/.303 British (7.7×56mmR)/7.92×57mm Mauser (M1918, M1922, M1918A1, M1918A2) 7.92×57mm Mauser (wz. 1928) 6.5×55mm (Kg m/21, m/37)
Action	Gas-operated, rising bolt lock
Rate of fire	500–650 rounds/min (M1918, M1922, M1918A1) 500 rounds/min (Colt Monitor) 300-450 or 500-650 rounds/min (M1918A2) 600 rounds/min (wz. 1928)
Muzzle velocity	860 m/s (2,822 ft/s) (M1918, M1922, M1918A1, M1918A2) 853 m/s (2,798.6 ft/s) (wz. 1928)
Effective firing range	100–1,500 yards (91–1,372 m) sight adjustments (maximum effective range)
Maximum firing range	Approx. 4,500–5,000 yards (4,100–4,600 m)
Feed system	20-round detachable box magazine
Sights	Rear leaf, front post 784 mm (30.9 in) sight radius (M1918, M1922, M1918A1) 782 mm (30.8 in) (M1918A2) 742 mm (29.2 in) (wz. 1928)

The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) is a family of United States automatic rifles (or machine rifles) and light machine guns 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 U.S. Expeditionary Corps in Europe as a replacement for the French-made Chauchat and M1909 Benét–Mercié machine guns that US forces had previously been issued.

The BAR was designed to be carried by infantrymen during an assault or advance while supported by the sling over the shoulder or 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, being neither a rifle nor a machine gun.

The US Army, in practice, used the BAR as a light machine gun, often fired from a bipod (introduced on models after 1938). A variant of the original M1918 BAR, the Colt Monitor Machine Rifle, remains the lightest production automatic gun to fire the .30-06 Springfield cartridge, though the limited capacity of its standard 20-round magazine tended to hamper its utility in that role.

Although the weapon did see some action in World War I, the BAR did not become standard issue in the U.S. Army until 1938, when it was issued to squads as a portable light machine gun. The BAR saw extensive service in both World War II and the Korean War and saw limited service in the Vietnam War. The U.S. Army began phasing out the BAR in the late 1950s, when it was intended to be replaced by a SAW variant of the M14, and was without a portable light machine gun until the introduction of the M60 machine gun in 1957. The M60, however, was really a GPMG, a general-purpose machine gun, and was used as a SAW only because the U.S. Army had no other tool for the job until the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon in the mid-1980s.