Repacking Belt Cases?

[outlawled 9]

Hey, guys.

I'm working on an update to my magazine repacking mod which will make it a bit more realistic.

I was wondering if any of you knew exactly how repacking belt cases worked.

I'm assuming that in order to repack two belts, you just clip the belts together instead of repacking each bullet individually, right?

Someone mentioned to me, though, that you have to remove a bullet for every two magazines you clip together.

By removing the bullet, you now have an extra clippy...thing that you can use to clip that belt to the other belt.

Is that how it works?

Does anyone have experience doing this in real life?

EDIT: I just realized this probably isn't the right section for this. Sorry, can someone move it or something? =/

Edited April 4, 2013 by Outlawled

[machineabuse 11]

Belted ammo is clipped together with spring steel links that snap around the body of the case and index in the rim. So yes you can unlink and link belts at whim.

Automatic riflemen can also link up the current belt in the weapon to a fresh belt so they don't actually need to reload as such.

This is of course for disintegrating link as used by weapons such as the M249. Continuous link such as used on most sovbloc beltfeds are a different headache :)

So say you had two partially used belts for the OPFOR LMG that amounted to a bit more than a full belt, you would link the two belts together and unlink the excess so that you'd be able to stuff the belt back in the ammo box. If the recipient belt was already in the weapon you wouldn't even need to unload the weapon to do it as long as the remaining rounds where still sticking out the belt chute.

Edited April 4, 2013 by Machineabuse
adding use case scenario

[outlawled 9]

Okay, so you don't need to remove a bullet to clip two belts together.

Thanks, Machineabuse.

Edited April 4, 2013 by Outlawled

[zimms 22]

As Machineabuse said, it depends. For some continuous link belts you might hav to take one bullet out temporarily to be able to put the belts together, but you can insert the bullet again when you are done.

Continuous link belts are a real pain in the ass in the woods :p

[kamaradski 10]

Hi Outlawled,

It depends, UK and USA modern ammo uses the quick-clip variant of the belt chain. Here the first bullet of the chain has a opening and the last bullet had a extra bit that then clicks on the next one. Here it's just a matter of clicking as the chain is always ready to be extended or shortened. Removing the bullets from the clip can be done by sliding the case downwards. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVWVu3_DVmc or )

Older German (WW2) ammo can use a different belt, here every bullet gets his own clip that has some sort of wire binding on both sides. This type takes slightly longer to extend\shorten. Removing the clip is done by sliding the caseing down for about 0.5cm and then flip it out.

The older russian ammo like the PKM is kinda simular:

And older USA ammo can also be from fabric: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh-BlCTK3lo , and cannot be linked only shortened or induvidually newly seated in a fresh belt.

[outlawled 9]

Interesting. I probably won't be able to dynamically tell what kind of links the belt cases in the game use, so I'll just assume they all use the "quick-clip" variant. Thanks for all the responses, though, guys.

[machineabuse 11]

The caseless ammo used by the LMG is based on the LSAT Caseless Telescoping concept. The kind of linkage that ammo is designed with is similar to standard NATO link designs.

[Mac 1]

Okay, so you don't need to remove a bullet to clip two belts together.

Thanks, Machineabuse.

The bullet is what holds the links together

[[frl]myke 14]

I think this fits better here, else drop me a PM.