M249 SAW

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

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

- Weapon description

Singleplayer
In single-player, 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", "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 rarity.

Multiplayer
In multiplayer, the M249 SAW has a relatively 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 (but note that because the SAW does exactly 30 damage, the same amount of health as is in Hardcore, anyone using Juggernaut will take two hits to kill, and if the bullet even touches another surface before hitting the target it will not be a kill, although a second bullet will put them down). Using the SAW with Double Tap brings the rate of fire to nearly 1250 RPM (only the P90 and Mini-Uzi are also capable of over 1200 RPM in this fashion). The Grip attachment for the SAW greatly increases its hipfire accuracy, bringing it to a level in-between assault rifles and SMG's (in addition to decreasing its recoil). This is actually a greater increase than Steady Aim would provide. If the Grip is used in conjunction with Steady Aim, the SAW remains 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 a tight cross-hair 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 per bullet, it will take slightly over one belt of ammunition to shoot down a helicopter with full health without Stopping Power. However, the mounted version of the SAW only takes around 3–4 seconds to down an enemy helicopter, regardless of using Stopping Power or not.

A favored multiplayer tactic 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 is more than adequate in most situations.

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", if the player uses a jump hack or noclip and gets to the top of the White House, there is one under a large piece of concrete, and one that no one is using that looks like a searchlight with a M249 behind it and has the use icon of an MG42 that disappears after being shot. In another room there is one being used by a Russian, if he is killed it will disappear, 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 building where Sgt. Foley says "Take out those MG's" there are 3 M249s, 2 normal ones being used by the Russians to tear up the Rangers and one searchlight one with again, the icon of an MG42. It seems that the developers used mounted MG's as searchlights.

However, using a cheating or hacking program, it is also possible to get it 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 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 has one of the three machine guns in Modern Warfare: Mobilized, 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.

Singleplayer
In single player 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 a 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, more at longer ranges. 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. 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.

Videos
300px|A video showing the M249 during Vorkuta.

Trivia

 * 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 the SAW like it was unmounted.
 * The Mounted SAW's ammo belt doesn't move when firing, but the normal M249's belt does.
 * In "Sins Of The Father", when the Blackhawk destroys the machine gun nests in the building, unusable M249s drop. If shot, they will move.
 * In Modern Warfare 2, if the player fires the M249 against flat surface (like the wall of the White House) the bullet hit pattern will make a spiral, as if the player was firing a minigun.
 * In the Modern Warfare 2 mission "Whiskey Hotel", a nearby Ranger can be heard to say; "Keep hittin 'em with the 240B's!", incorrectly referring to the mounted M249 as an M240B.
 * In third person, the weapon looks rather smaller and slimmer than in first person.
 * In Modern Warfare: Mobilized, the M249 has a dark green ammo box as opposed to the regular light blue ammo box.
 * The third person sound of the mobile M249 from Call of Duty 4 is the same as that of the M240 in Modern Warfare 2, but their first person sounds are different.
 * In the survival mode on 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * An M249 SAW with no ammo will still appear to have bullets in its ammo belt.
 * As stated above, in MW2 use of the M249 SAW by the Russians is unrealistic, as it is an American weapon. Although they could have been abandoned by the Americans when the Russians captured the White House.
 * The pick-up icon for the M249 SAW in Modern Warfare is similar to the MG4 pick-up icon in Modern Warfare 2.
 * The M249 seems to be Griggs's weapon of choice. He used it in all missions except for "Sins of the Father", where he used a suppressed M4A1.
 * In the Modern Warfare campaign, the M249 does not use depth of field even with the option on, while in multiplayer it can.