Stoner 63 - Black Ops Multiplayer Weapon Guide

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In this episode we're covering the Stoner63.

It's a fully automatic weapon, unlocked once you've purchased all of the other LMGs.

The Stoner 63 is an American weapon - named for its lead designer, Eugene Stoner: the mind behind the M16 rifle.

The Stoner 63 was one of his later designs, with the first models produced in 1963.

The concept was for a flexible weapon platform that could be used in a number of configurations - from carbine, through assault rifle to machine gun, and everything in-between.

After leaving Armalite and instead working with Cadillac Gage, Stoner produced his first prototype: originally chambered for the 7.62mm NATO round, and known as the Stoner M69W. This name was chosen as it is an ambigram, reflecting Stoner's vision of a fully invertible reciever.

The follow-up design to this prototype was called the Stoner 62 - but the smaller 5.56mm intermediate cartridge was eventually chosen for mass production, leading to the Stoner 63 design.

In 1963, the rifle was submitted to DARPA - the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - for trials.

Although praised for its flexibilty, potential ammunition capacity and light weight, the design fell short on the reliability front - leading to the improved Stoner 63A design.

This design saw use with the US Navy Seals, and with a company of US Marines, designated as the XM22E1.

In 1970, the US Army issued the Stoner as the XM207 to Army Special Forces units for evaluation - however by this point the Stoner was losing ground to Colt's improved M16 rifle designs, and in 1971 the design was dropped entirely.

Ultimately, the role Stoner hoped to fill was satisfied by the M249 in 1984 - the Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW.

The Stoner fires the NATO standard intermediate cartridge, the 5.56-by-45 millimetre.

Some variants were designed to fire a disintegrating belt of ammunition, but the assault rifle variant featured in Black Ops uses a 30-round magazine, as used on the M16.

Damage is moderately high, with no drop in damage at a distance - meaning that you'll never need more than 3 shots to kill with the Stoner.

Two headshots will also result in a kill.

Rate of fire is the highest within the LMG class - as fast as most SMGs, or the FAMAS, at 937.5 rounds per minute.

This gives the weapon a keen time to kill, and will mean that the Stoner can effectively compete in close-range gunfights.

This rate of fire does mean you need to watch your trigger finger when it comes to controlling recoil - while the Stoner is relatively easy to control, holding the trigger down will quickly draw you off target.

Burst firing is essential at a medium to long range, otherwise you'll do naught but quickly deplete your magazine.

The Stoner's aim time is unusually quick for an LMG - true to the real-life assault rifle role, the Stoner will aim as quickly as an assault rifle in-game: taking just 250 milliseconds, instead of 350.

Reloads are a little slow, however - more in line with an LMG, at 3.2 seconds to complete.

Still, 3 seconds is relatively manageable as long as you're in a safe place.

The Stoner63 is a weapon that straddles both the assault rifle and LMG categories: with a fast rate of fire, and moderately quick handling, it's capable of repelling enemies up close, as well as providing support fire over long distances.

Unlike the assault rifles, the Stoner's damage is consistent at any range, meaning that you retain the 3-shot kill potential at ranges where most weapons require 4 or 5 shots to kill.

Of course, to use this firepower effectively you must be able to control the Stoner's considerable recoil by burst-firing - and while you'll have an advantage over most weapons at range, a sniper rifle or low recoil weapon may be able to eliminate you before you can get 3 shots on target.

In addition, you have to cope with the slowed movement and poor hipfire performance of an LMG - while the Stoner might have some traits of an assault rifle, sprightly it is not.

Still, it does have an interesting balance of traits - and in terms of sheer firepower not much can come close to this weapon.

Position yourself correctly and unleash a torrent of lead upon your foes: and this Stoner...

...will smoke your opponents.

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S01E101 - HS10 - Black Ops Multiplayer Weapon Guide