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Bob Suchke photos

This is a Soviet SGMB Goryunov or Chinese type 57 heavy machine gun with antiaircraft sights. The wheeled gun carriage was used for manual movement and also in a ground fire role. The MG could also be mounted on the trails for its AA role. It fires the larger 7.62 x 54R round in a 250 round non-disintegrating metallic link belt. This round is also known as 7.62 Russian and is best known as a bolt action cartridge for the older Moison Nagant rifle but it is also used in the Soviet SVD Dragunov Sniper rifle.  The SGMB Goryunov has a range of approx 1000 meters with a cyclic rate of fire of 600 RPM. This machine gun was captured by an L Co Ranger team in 1971.
 

I remember having a devil of a time trying to figure out how to disassemble that thing. It had some clever little detent on the twin grips and then you had to rotate the grips 90 degrees to get it to come apart. We had no books or manuals on the details, only recognition. I think it was a 1st Platoon team sometime around April 71 when it was captured. It was one guy, a NVA Warrant officer by himself, walking down a trail, carrying a ruck-basket of ammo. I think he was taken alive, but I could be mistaken.  I might also add, it fed from right to left as opposed to U.S. MG's that feed left to right.
Bob Suchke
 

Bob Suchke and unidentified Ranger on the B sector of the Camp Eagle perimeter firing weapon.

Mitch Costner photos

Mitch Costner behind the SGMB.