at ordinary targets 100 to 250 rounds a minute, according to the nature of the target, has been found to give the best results in practice. The "rate of fire" of a gun must not be confused with the number of rounds that can be fired from it effectively in one minute; the necessity for frequent pauses to observe the effect, to correct the elevation and direction of the fire, prevent a greater number than from 150 to 250 shots being fired effectively in one minute from a gun whose rate of fire is 450 shots a minute. Colonel Mayne, in his book The Infantry Weapon and its Use in War, says: "The machine gun now in use can fire about 600 rounds a minute, or ten a second. This is a far greater rapidity of fire than is really necessary, for it means that a man or horse is struck several times before falling. It is a good thing to be able to fire 600 rounds a minute on occasions (such as for range firing, but a far slower rate of fire (say 100 rounds or even less a minute) is ample for all ordinary tactical purposes against living beings and animals, whilst causing an enormous saving of ammunition."
The extreme range of this type of gun is for all practical purposes the same as the infantry rifle—about 3,500 yards—though it is more effective at the longer ranges than an equal volume of rifle fire, owing to the ease with which the firer can elevate and aim the gun on its mountings and the stability of this mounting, which causes it to have a beaten zone of only
