Michigan-based Trijicon won an Army contract to build an optic for the vaunted “Ma Deuce,” and the sight has made its first appearance in the field.
First announced in July 2021, the Army tapped Trijicon to deliver its Machine Gun Reflex Sight, or MGRS, specifically for use with the M2A1 .50 caliber heavy machine gun. It basically looks like a huge RMR with a flip-in magnifier.
Constructed of 7075-T6 aluminum, the MGRS is designed to withstand the jarring, rapid recoil produced by fixed and turret-mounted machine guns. It features a large, non-magnified objective lens with a 35 MOA segmented circle reticle. Centered within the reticle is a 3 MOA dot for precise aiming. A single CR123A battery powers the unit, providing more than 1,000 hours of continuous operation. A three-power magnifier is included for faster positive identification (PID) of potential targets downrange. (Photo Trijicon)
Type classified as the M155 Mounted Machine Gun Optic, or MMO, the sight attaches to the M2A1 .50 cal with a BE Meyers BOARS Mount using M1913 Picatinny rails. (Photo: U.S. Army Capability Program Executive – Ground Soldier Systems)
“Compared with the original iron sights, the M155 MMO illuminates targets, especially when the environmental elements are not the best,” said Sgt. Eleanor Osgood, a mass communications specialist with the 126th TPASE. “The red-dot sight is very useful in ensuring the round hits the target.”
U.S. Army Sgt. Eleanor Osgood, assigned to the 126th Theater Public Affairs Support Element, Michigan Army National Guard, uses the M155 mounted machine gun optic to zero the M2 Browning machine gun at Camp Grayling, Michigan, June 9, 2026. (Photo: Staff Sgt. Patrick Mayabb/U.S. Army National Guard)
The MGRS offers seven brightness settings, two facilitating the use of night-vision optics and five settings for fast adjustment to match current conditions, including a super-bright setting for bright daylight. (Photo: Staff Sgt. Patrick Mayabb/U.S. Army National Guard)
Zeroing is via 1 MOA adjustment increments, and the sight has 100 MOA total travel of adjustment. The MGRS includes two interchangeable range knobs that are ballistically calibrated for use on M2 series. When properly zeroed to the weapon platform, the range knob allows the user to dial the correct range as a mechanical BDC for more accurate engagements. (Photo: Staff Sgt. Patrick Mayabb/U.S. Army National Guard)
Assorted telescopic, night vision, and thermal sights, such as this AN/PAS-13 optic seen in 2017, have been used on the M2 series over the years, as would be expected, as the Browning-designed heavy MG dates back to the 1920s. (Photo: Sgt. Heather Doppke/U.S. Army)
While Ben Franklin theorized using airships to deliver troops to battle behind enemy lines as early as 1783 and the Union Army fielded a balloon service in the Civil War, today’s Air Force traces its origin to the heavier-than-air machines of the U.S. Army’s Aeronautical Division, founded in 1907– just four years after the Wright brothers first flew. After service in Army green during both World Wars, the Air Force became an independent branch of the military in 1947 with the first Secretary of the Air Force named on Sept. 18 and its first Chief of Staff named on Sept. 26.
A Cold War-era Colt survival gun prototype on display at the USAF Armament Museum (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
The Remington XP-100 survival gun concept. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
The Bushmaster Arm Pistol in 5.56mm was another planned Air Force survival gun that made it about as high as a lead balloon. Bushmaster did, however, put it in limited commercial production. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
You just gotta love a fiddy. Because 761-grains of armor-piercing incendiary tracer can send just the right message sometimes when folks get too close for comfort.
Aviation Ordnanceman Airman Mackinze Hallhanna fires a .50-caliber machine gun during a live-fire exercise aboard USS Kearsarge (LHD 3). ATLANTIC OCEAN (Sept. 21, 2021) Aviation Ordnanceman Airman Mackinze Hallhanna fires a .50-caliber machine gun during a live-fire exercise aboard the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), Sept. 21, 2021. Kearsarge is conducting surface warfare advanced tactical training (SWATT). SWATT provides the fleet opportunities to complete the reps and sets required for increased lethality and tactical proficiency. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jesse Schwab) 210921-N-MZ836-1025
The Navy’s third Pascagoula-built Wasp-class amphibious assault ship and the fifth to carry the name, the WWII aircraft carrier-sized Kearsarge relies on her escorts for principal defense but has twin Sea Sparrow and twin RAM launchers for taking care of close-in missiles and aircraft, as well as a pair of CIWS and four Mk 38 25mm cannons as a last-ditch along with the weapons of her embarked Marines. Oh yeah, and up to 8 pintel mounts for Ma Deuce .50 cals.
One common thing that happens all the time in the military is being issued too much ammo, such as on a live fire exercise, and intead of returning it which is a whole pain in the ass, it gets disposed of via E-tool.
Well apparently in 1945 when a B-24 unit was leaving England to return home, they left a few belts of .50 cal behind in the dirt of their borrowed RAF airstrip. Fast forward 70~ years and some aviation buffs dug up about 1,500 rounds of still very live tracer and ball ammo just three feet below the surface.
Heck, I am surprised they didn’t find a whole B-24!
