M249 SAW

The M249 SAW is a light machine gun featured in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Defiance.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
"Fully automatic with a high rate of fire. Effective at medium to long range."

- Weapon description

Campaign
In the campaign, the M249 SAW is used by the Special Air Service and the United States Marine Corps. The weapon is available in "Charlie Don't Surf", "The Bog", "War Pig", "Heat", "The Sins of the Father", and "Ultimatum". The M249 SAW is the preferred weapon of Ssgt. Griggs. It is far more effective than the RPD in Single Player, dealing the same damage at a much higher rate of fire, although ammo is harder to come across due to the gun's rarity.

Multiplayer
In multiplayer, the M249 SAW has a very high rate of fire compared to the RPD and M60E4 but is offset by low damage. A Red Dot Sight, Grip, or an ACOG Scope can be attached to the M249 SAW.

It excels in Hardcore modes, where it delivers one-hit kills when not firing through cover or at targets with Juggernaut. Using the SAW with Double Tap boosts the rate of fire to nearly 1250 RPM. The Grip attachment for the SAW, in addition to decreasing recoil, greatly increases the weapon's hipfire accuracy to levels similar to assault rifles. If the Grip is used in conjunction with Steady Aim, the SAW can remain fairly accurate from the hip even at long ranges, and in combination with Double Tap in a Hardcore gamemode, the SAW can absolutely decimate the enemy at any range, even from the hip, as it delivers one-hit kills at any range and the sheer volume of fire in such a small area renders light cover and Juggernaut irrelevant.

Also, the SAW, like the other two light machine guns, is very effective against enemy helicopters. But due to its lower damage, it will take slightly over one belt of ammunition to shoot down a helicopter without Stopping Power. However, the mounted version of the SAW only takes around 3–4 seconds to down an enemy helicopter, even without the added damage of Stopping Power.

A common tactic in multiplayer is to use a Grip or an ACOG Scope, Steady Aim, and Double Tap with the weapon. Its incredibly high rate of fire combined with superb accuracy makes it extremely effective in most situations.

Weapon Attachments

 * Red Dot Sight
 * Grip
 * ACOG Scope

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the SAW returns only as a mounted machine gun, in the level "The Hornet's Nest" and "Whiskey Hotel. In "Whiskey Hotel," there is a mounted SAW to the left of Colonel Marshall that the player can use. Also in "Whiskey Hotel", there is one on top of the White House, accessible only through noclip, and one that no one is using that looks like a searchlight with a M249 behind it. The use icon of this SAW is the same as that of an MG42. In another room there is one being used by a Russian, which will disappear if he is killed, although when he is using it you can as well. It will fire at a higher rate then normal and fire of its own accord. In addition to this on top of the West Wing of the White House, there are three M249's. Two normal ones being used by the Russians against the Ranger and another coupled with a searchlight.

However, using cheats, it is also possible to get the SAW on "Just Like Old Times" as well, though it is still mounted. It is on the catwalk where the player walks with the Riot Shield. If the Shadow Company soldier using it dies, it will disappear. Its appearance is identical to its Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare counterpart. The pickup icon for the M249 is also used for other mounted machine guns, such as the M2 Browning Machine Gun.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized
The M249 is available as one of the three machine guns in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized along with its new jet-black finish, with the others being the M1919 and the MG4, though the M249 and MG4 are the only portable ones. Compared to its console counter-parts, the M249 performs in a similar fashion, having only a slightly lower rate and higher minimum damage. However, its sprinting speed is the same as all other weapons, something LMGs usually aren't capable of, though normal walking speed remains hindered.

Campaign
In the campaign the M249 is first introduced in "Needle in a Haystack", the second American mission, though it doesn't see action for the rest of the US side of the campaign. On the other hand, the M249 is used a bit more frequently by British forces in the levels "Hostile Territory" and "Informant Extraction". It is generally a very effective weapon, killing most enemies in two shots, more on higher difficulties. However, one should take accurate shots with it, as it only has 100 rounds of reserve ammo, 200 rounds in total, which is considerably small for an LMG.

Multiplayer
It is the last weapon unlocked in multiplayer for the Coalition faction, taking 500 kills as the Coalition to unlock. Unlike its single player counterpart, it takes four shots to kill. Despite this, its high rate of fire and lack of recoil make it a very accurate weapon. However, the reduced movement speed is still a large problem for many players, so this weapon is rarely seen.

Call of Duty: Black Ops
The M249 can be found by using "noclip" on PC in the mission Vorkuta in Call of Duty: Black Ops. It can be seen being used by the prison guards that fire on the escaping prisoners. If the guards stop using the M249, however, it will continue to fire by itself. When Molotov cocktails are launched at the guard tower, the M249 machine gun is destroyed along with the Vorkuta prison guards. Its pick-up icon is also used in the mission S.O.G.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Defiance
The M249 SAW returns in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Defiance. It has the same model and stats of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized variant, except it now has recoil.

Campaign
It is used by the U.S. National Guard and S.F.S.G. troops and is one of the starting weapons in the missions Running For Cover and Dam Approach. The M249 SAW is the only LMG used by friendly forces and is never dropped by any killed NPCs. The ammo for this can only be resupplied at ammunition boxes.

Multiplayer
The M249 appears in multiplayer and can be unlocked with 500 kills in total.

General

 * The mounted SAW's ammo belt doesn't move when firing, but the normal M249's belt does.
 * In third person, the weapon looks rather smaller and slimmer than in first person.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

 * The Create-A-Class picture lacks the rear iron sight.
 * In "Charlie Don't Surf", an OpFor soldier will use an invisible mounted SAW. But when he is killed, the player can pick up and use the SAW like it was unmounted.
 * In "The Sins of the Father", when the Blackhawk destroys the machine gun nests in the building, unusable M249s drop. If shot, they will move.
 * When allies reload the M249, they do so much more quickly than the player does, reloading a fresh magazine from underneath like an assault rifle instead of opening the top of the gun.
 * The M249 seems to be Griggs' weapon of choice. He used it in all missions except for "The Sins of the Father", where he used a suppressed M4A1.
 * In the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare campaign, the M249 does not use depth of field even with the option on, while in multiplayer it can.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

 * If the player fires the M249 against flat surface (such as the wall of the White House) the bullet hit pattern will make a spiral, as if the player was firing a minigun.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

 * In Call of Duty: Black Ops, in the mission S.O.G., if the player looks at the Jeep after getting out for a certain amount of time the pick-up icon for the M249 will appear.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized

 * In the survival mode on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized its magazine capacity is doubled up to 200 rounds per magazine which, coupled with decent rate of fire and high damage, make the M249 an extremely versatile weapon.
 * The M249's iron sights are slightly misaligned.

Video
Video:M249 in Black Ops Vorkuta

A video showing the M249 during Vorkuta.