All ammunition must travel to the battlefield. That travel is hard on linked ammunition. Vibration caused by the continuous shaking of rough roads or mishandling can cause belted rounds to shift in the links. These are referred to as mislinked rounds and they are a common source of weapon malfunction.
When a round shifts, becoming mislinked, it moves out of alignment (either for or aft) in relation to the other rounds in the belt. Consequently, that belt becomes too wide to enter either a feed chute, if one is being used, or the feed port on the weapon itself. The result is a feed stoppage, the cause of which usually going undetermined.
Like all belt-fed weapons, the M134's feed system is sensitive to mislinked ammunition. To combat mislinked rounds, a Round Repositioner is installed at the magazine's exit. The inside of the Round Repositioner is shaped like a funnel allowing it to reposition any round not properly linked prior to entering the feed chute.
Part Number: DM0050
NSN: 1005-01-528-9345
