M7 (76 mm)

The 76 mm M7 on the T55E1 gun mantlet.

Description

The 76 mm M7 is an American tank cannon.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• M6A1
• M10 GMC
• ␗M10 GMC
• ▄M10 GMC
• T1E1
• T55E1

General info

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Available ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
M79 shot	AP	134	132	121	109	99	89
M42A1 shell	HE	17	16	15	13	12	10
M62 shell	APCBC	149	146	133	119	106	94

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
M79 shot	AP	792	6.8	-	-	-	47°	60°	65°
M42A1 shell	HE	853	5.84	0.2	0.1	390	79°	80°	81°
M62 shell	APCBC	792	7	1.2	14	63.7	48°	63°	71°

Comparison with analogues

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Usage in battles

The M7 is a good gun that gets the most utility used at longer ranges: while it is theoretically possible to use it in brawls or at close ranges, only the M6A1 or the T1E1 have either the armour or turret rotation speed to make this work. It performs well against equivalent guns, and can reliably knock out enemy vehicles from the front.

Due to the fast reload and good penetration, the M7 is perfect to trade shots with enemy tank destroyers or far away targets, especially early T-34s equipped with the 76 mm L-11, which has poor long range performance. Additionally, the ammo reserve is perfectly sufficient to allow for extended periods of contact with the enemy.

A notable challenge for the M7 is the KV-1 series of tanks, which are well armoured and tend to have decent guns. In which case, fire should be directed to the tracks to disable it, hopefully causing it to expose the vulnerable side armour. Failing that, the flat parts of the armour on the front of the turret are also valid targets, as well as the turret ring and the driver's port, though these shots can be particularly difficult to make.

The HE shell has some utility at its tier, as there are still plenty of lightly-armoured and open-topped vehicles that are vulnerable, including the SARC MkVI (6pdr), the Italian M42, and the Wirbelwind. The M62 shell is the ideal against most targets, as the M79 has worse post-penetration damage and is less likely to knock out the enemy tank.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Good penetration for ranks II and III
• Reloads quickly
• Has shells with decent amounts of explosive filler

Cons:

• No smoke shell

History

Examine the history of the creation and combat usage of the weapon in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the weapon and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Weapon-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />.

Media

Images

• 

  The 76 mm M7 breech on the T55E1.

Videos

Top 7 best rounds discusses the M62 at 3:41 - War Thunder Official Channel

See also

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• reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;
• references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.

External links

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• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.

USA tank cannons
20 mm	M139
25 mm	LW25 · M242
37 mm	M3 · M5 · M6
57 mm	M1
75 mm	M2 · M2 Howitzer · M3 · M6 · M1897A4 · XM274
76 mm	M1 · M7 · M32 · T185E1
90 mm	M3 · M3A1 · M36 · M41 · M54 · T15E1 · T15E2 · T54 · T208E9
105 mm	M4 · M68 · M68A1 · M68A1E8 · T5E1 · T5E2 · T140E2 · T140E3 · XM35
106 mm	M40A1C
120 mm	M58 · M256 · T53
152 mm	M81 · M162 · XM150E5
155 mm	M185 · T7
165 mm	M135
	Foreign:
20 mm	Rh202 (Germany)
57 mm	6pdr OQF Mk.III (Britain) · ZIS-2 (USSR)
105 mm	Sharir (Israel)
120 mm	IMI MG251 (Israel)

China tank cannons
30 mm	ZPL02 · ZPZ02
73 mm	Type 86
76 mm	M32K1
85 mm	Type 56 · Type 63
100 mm	PTP86 · Type 59 · Type 69 · Type 69-II · ZPL04
105 mm	88B-105T · Type 83 · WMA301 · ZPL94 · ZPL98A
120 mm	122TM · PTZ89
125 mm	Type 88C · Type 99A · ZPT98
130 mm	PL59A Gai
152 mm	PL66 Gai
	Foreign:
20 mm	KwK30 (Germany)
37 mm	M6 (USA)
45 mm	20-K (USSR)
47 mm	Type 1 (Japan)
57 mm	Type 97 (Japan) · ZIS-2 (USSR)
75 mm	M2 Howitzer (USA) · M3 (USA) · M6 (USA)
76 mm	D-56T (USSR) · F-34 (USSR) · M1 (USA) · M7 (USA) · ZIS-3 (USSR)
85 mm	ZIS-S-53 (USSR)
90 mm	M3 (USA) · M41 (USA)
100 mm	D-10S (USSR)
105 mm	M68 (USA) · M68A1 (USA)
115 mm	U-5TS (USSR)
122 mm	A-19 (USSR) · D-25T (USSR)
152 mm	ML-20S (USSR)