LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Sig Sauer gave a live-fire tour of its new .338 Norma Magnum machine gun — a lightweight weapon that U.S. Special Operation Command recently selected for evaluation.
The Sig MG 338 general-purpose machine gun weighs just over 21 pounds and fires at a rate of 600 rounds per minute, delivering potent .338 Norma Magnum rounds out to ranges of 1,500 meters. The Army and Marine Corps-issue M240 machine gun in 7.62 x 51mm NATO can weigh up to 27 pounds, and has an effective range out to approximately 800 meters.
“Our impetus is we wanted to provide one machine gun that could do both jobs,” Sig Sauer’s Jason St. John said Sunday at Sig’s pre-SHOT Show 2020 range day.
“So, the .338 Norma Magnum, when you compare it to 7.62mm — 7.62 has an effective range of 800-plus meters and .338 Norma Magnum is going to have 1,500-plus meters. So you have twice the distance and a system that is about four pounds lighter than what we currently have.”
The new machine gun has come a long way from the prototype that Sig unveiled at SHOT Show last year. Earlier this month, Sig delivered 10 MG 338 machine guns, .338 Norma Magnum ammunition and its proprietary suppressors to U.S. Special Operations Command for evaluation, St. John said.
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