M3 Grease Gun - In The Movies

One thing I’ve noticed is they rarely ever get the slow cyclic rate right in the movies with the Grease gun. It’s very slow but it also makes it very controllable and accurate.

I was in a mech infantry battalion in the 70s. We had M3A1s in our recovery vehicles. They were fun to shoot, with a slow and very controllable rate of fire. I did a report of survey on one that was stolen. Production cost of that generation was $65.

I felt like you missed out on how the grease gun was still used up into the gulf war though I can understand that information is scarce, footage and scenes in media post ww2 is also pretty low. Nice job.

I knew an old farmer in Wisconsin who had been an Army Scout in the Phillipines in WW2. He told me the Grease Gun was his favorite weapon because "once you got the hang of it, it was just like throwing a controlled stream of rocks- everything you pointed it at went down".... I shudder to think of the situations he was in where he was able to put that to the test. This comment is a tribute to him and those of his kind..gone but not forgotten.

A few M3's are still in service with the Philippine Navy but with an added picatinny rail, a red dot sight, an integral suppressor, and a modified magazine

I think the thing about the M3 that really goes underappreciated is how long of a service life it had. While it's fairly well known that the M3 was still in service during the Korean and Vietnam wars, less well known is that they were still in US service as late as the Gulf War, long after the US had adopted more modern SMG's like the Uzi and MP5. Similar to the M1 & M2 Carbine, the M3 Grease gun was the cheap military surplus arm of choice for criminals and rebels around the world, up until the 70's and 80's when the sheer quantity of AK's flooding global arms market displaced older and less numerous weapons like the M3.

Something people forget is during the Korean War both the Communist Chinese and UN forces used the M3 Grease and Thompson sub machine guns. America gave thousands of guns to the Chinese during World War Two. The fact is the Communist Chinese had major supply chain problems because they had such a large amount of different firearms from foreign countries. American military personnel actually recovered alot of captured weapons during the Korean War and found that on average Chinese soldiers carried British Russian German Japanese and American guns that were either captured or bought during World War Two and World War One. After the Korean war China would mainly buy Soviet Union weapons.

Col. Charlie Beckwith got a warehouse full of M3’s for free when he got 1st SFOD-D (Delta Force) up and running in 1977. They were superb close quarters weapons, particularly when they had a silencer attached. A skilled gunsmith could turn a run of the mill M3 into a damn fine CQB weapon. They used them well into the 80’s. If Delta thought they were worth a damn, that should be a pretty good indication of what they were really capable of.

Man, I love that bit from Fury about the Grease Gun "Now you killin' - now you ain't." Fury was a good movie.

Man sometimes I think to myself: "will this man ever run out of ideas?" So far I guess not. Keep up the amazing work

Back in the '60s, when I was a Marine, Force Recon had grease guns. We had M-14s, so we were curious about the M-3s. I never held one. One feature of them was that when the bolt was to the rear, they were ready to fire. When I joined G Co 2/2 the last input had been deployed to Guantanamo, and dug trenches and built bunkers to defend against any Cuban attempt to capture the base. One of their off-duty entertainments was to attend outdoor movies. The audience area was a concrete platform with wooden benches to sit on. A Marine with a grease gun was in the audience, and they asked him how it worked. He took the magazine out and showed them how to pull the bolt to the rear the movie started, and without pulling the trigger, he put the magazine back in. The movie started, and everyone began paying attention to it. Suddenly a shot went off and some yelling began as people hit the deck. The Marine with the M-3 evidently began playing with the trigger. The bolt went home and fired a round. Unfortunately for him, the muzzle was pointed at his foot. The bullet went through the foot, and due to the concrete under it ricocheted back up through it and hit the Marine on the bench in front of him in the back. Both Marines were squalling, due to their injuries, neither of which was fatal but assuredly painful. The grease gun also had an attachment I have seen photographed in a manual, but which I can't find any mention of online. It was a grooved piece that attached to the end of the barrel. It was bent to a smooth 90 degree angle and was supposed to allow you to shoot around corners without having to expose yourself. I haven't been able to find anything online about it, but I did find this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brWwHKcN2kc

In the dirty dozen, quite a few of the actors were WWII vets. We still had the M3A1s in our M60 tanks in the 1970s.

M3s and M3A1s were among the most proliferate loose firearms in post-WW2 Philippines. They saw frequent use with organized crime groups, insurgents, the Armed Forces and the Constabulary. They make frequent appearances in gangster films made here

In Korea, my oldest brother worked with a 105 howitzer crew, being in charge of aiming that weapon. Soon after arriving in Korea, he ditched his standard issue weapon, and started carrying a grease gun. Used one throughout his entire tour.

When I was kid in the 60’s playing army with friends, we had one someone’s dad had brought back from WW2. The barrel was welded shut, but it had the cocking lever and was fully functional. I remember one playmate who buried it in his backyard to hide it. Never saw it again. Sure wish I had it now.

You left out Steve McQeen in Hell is for Heroes. Great use of M3

They were popular in Vietnam as most contact was literal throwing distance where .45 ACP rounds from an automatic were very effective. It was so simple it was super reliable in the unforgiving jungle.

The one I saw during my time in Vietnam, at a firing range, jammed repeatedly. By then it probably was just worn out. My 45 pistol was also old, it rattled like a loose bag of parts. As he said, they were not designed for assault troops.

Thanks. I was trained to service the M3 and M3A1 in 1984 at Fort Riley during their Unit Armorer Course, and then in the 1990's my arms room had 70 of them for an anti-terrorist security contract.

I was A Field Radio Operator in Charley Co, 4th Recon, 4th MarDiv---we qualified annually on the old M-1, but our principal T.O . Weapon was the M-3.....That Stock was also a tool to remove the Barrel and slide the Heavy Bolt out....slow firing rate but a great little MG...gl