Band Of Brilliance

The MG42 is a mounted weapon that can be found hanging from various areas in the game, in singleplayer and multiplayer. It can't overheat, so just hold down the fire button and it'll do the rest. It doesn't have great accuracy, but the sheer amount of bullets it puts in the air easily compensates for that.

If you're under attack by a MG42, throw a smoke grenade in front of it, then run past it. While the user may still be firing, he'll have much less accuracy than before. If your marksmanship is good enough, you can blow the firer away before he has a chance to notice you.

In United Offense, it can be found mounted on Axis vehicles. Be careful, these can overheat, so it is best to fire in short bursts.

Tanks can dispose of MG42 gunners with their cannon. However, that's really over-the-top and a waste of ammo, since your machine-gunner could take him down just as fast without having to use the cannon.

Exactly like how they are in Call of Duty with a new appearance and same rate of fire. "Spray and pray" is a common tactic that any player will use. Due to the aggressive Germans counter-attack, an MG-42 is the saver option that you could have.

Exactly like in Call of Duty 2, however firing for prolonged periods of time will cause it to overheat. Since there are vehicles in this game because of United Offense, you can blow away MG42 firers with a cannon blast. It could now aim with it's iron sight but just the V-notch, not the front sight.

In multiplayer, they are equipped on Axis vehicles (ie: Kubelwagens and Panzer IVs).

The MG42 is often found mounted on walls, or found with a bipod. It holds more ammo than its multiplayer counterpart and is oftentimes extremely useful due to its ability to fire a large amount of bullets and that it only takes at least 2-3 shots of any weapon to down an enemy in singleplayer. Many of these can be found in the level Their Land, Their Blood, which is helpful when navigating the trenches. Picking up the FG42 in the beginning of the level and then picking up the MG42 makes the level a whole lot easier.

The bipod allows the weapon to be mounted with better accuracy and less recoil, as such the weapon is usually mounted somewhere on a wall in the Soviet Red Army Campaign missions.

But a mistake of the weapon that Treyarch missed is that the weapon weakness is overheating. Carrying it around won't make it overheat, but wall mounting will. In multiplayer the MG42 is unlocked at level 33 and has decent damage and a high rate of fire. It is very similar to the M249 SAWfrom Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, as they do the same damage and have almost the exact same rate of fire, with the MG42 firing a bit faster. Like the Browning .30 cal, the MG42 holds a relatively large cylindrical drum magazine containing 50 rounds although its high rate of fire quickly drains ammunition, which can be a problem as, characteristic of most machine guns in Call of Duty, it has a reasonably slow reload time. It can be used effectively at long range, and recoil is not too much of a problem unless shooting from a distance. As with many machine guns, it is common that one would burst fire when attacked at long range. When fitted with a bipod, it can provide very effective covering fire when mounted on cover.

The MG42 is finished reloading once the drum is reattached to the gun, so double tapping the weapon switch button ("Y" for theXbox 360, "Triangle" for the Playstation 3, and 1 or mouse wheel for the PC) afterwards effectively cuts the reload time in half, eliminating the need for Sleight of Hand. The concept of add time applies here. This tactic is known as reload canceling.

Trivia

• The MG42 appears in Call of Duty 4's weapon files, along with its CoD2 textures, and appears on the level The Bog and Sins of the Father. Although this could perhaps be a modern MG3 as they are almost identical in exterior appearance.
• The MG42 was the fastest firing machine gun in World War 2, and still is the fastest firing single-barreled machine gun in world history.
• It would be difficult, but not impossible to fire the MG42 from the shoulder or a standing position. While it was heavy, one man could still carry it and fire it if he used the proper stance. Though not ideal this was taught to gunners as one method of using the weapon. The bipod merely supported the weapon's weight and stabilized it (when it was even used, sometimes the gun would simply be laid on top of something).
• Another method of using the MG42 was to place the barrel of the machine gun on the shoulder of a kneeling comrade. This method required the kneeling comrade to wear a leather pad or thick blanket on his shoulder, or the heat of the barrel would cause severe burns.
• In the games, the mounted MG42's lacks a magazine or an ammo belt, therefore, you're dry firing (but only in a technical sense, as bullets still hit the enemy).
• In Sins of the Father and The Bog, the "use" symbol for some mounted MGs is the picture of an MG42.
• The MG42's you can walk around and use are noticeably smaller than ones that are mounted and can't be taken.
• Even if you fire all the rounds in the MG42's drum, it still reloads the same way as you manually reload (i.e. press the reload button)