Any Gulf War 1 Vets Out There?

[Anglesachse]

And this is what the first Bullpup looked like back in 19 something or other

 

[Sarg]

Cool, Angle, thanks. The SLR looks a little like the L1A1. And the 9mm brought a real smile to my face as I remember WWII movies and you guys carried those. Did you call them Sten Guns as well? And the last, the Bullpup, is a new one on me. Gonna steal the pic and sent it to a friend of mine.

But the Stens. I don't like a bunch of furniture on a weapon. Like it stripped down to the absolute minimum steel... like our Link Removed.45 cal M-3 Grease Gun. Sorry, thought the pic would be bigger. They get hotter faster but if you're running that much ammo through, you're in deep do-do and not worried about singed fingers.

Link RemovedBetter picture.

Link Removed L1A1. I think this one is referred to the "weapon of the free world" or some such. Was watching the news one night and there was some foofra going on down in South America and I saw a little biddy guy pop out from behind a vehicle and cut loose with one full auto. I'm thinkin how does that little guy go full with a .308 and still hang onto it. Then a friend told me about the almost lack of recoil due to it's design.

Don't get me started, we'll be here for weeks.

Sarg

 

[Anglesachse]

LOL Our SLR was downgraded to One shot and no Auto. But if you hit your target he went down, and was one of the few weapons of the day that would go straight through a wall or sand bag and get the bady trying to hide.

I know the Rhodesians used a version aswell and it was a welcome adition during the Bush Wars.

 

[steviebeegee]

Agreed, Dan. And the .223 would deflect of the smallest twig. You should have been around when those things first came out. We qualified on the M-1 and then a week later they marched us back over to the range and when the Range Sgt. held up the 16 we all thought it was a joke and laughed. It's a toy, someone said.

Not so funny to be told it was the real thing. The first contractor to make it was Armalite. And there was weld slag all over it and the plastic looked like it would break first time out. We were issued one when we got to Okinawa. I banged it around the aircraft for a few months and turned it back in.

Hell if we had to bail out, we wouldn't have been able to hang onto it when the chute popped anyway. So hell with it and I wore Smith and Wesson .38 revolvers. Kept trying to score a .45 at the black markets but never did. Don't know how many times I heard, "save the last round for yourself".

My Brit friends...would you be so kind as to post small pictures of the weapons you are talking about? I know FN FAL, L1A1, do know what a bulpup is, but the rest....

Thanks,

Sarg

 

[reddevil1111]

The action is not only recoil springs but there is a dual roller locker to the action. HK made the mp-5 famous from the same design. It has little to no recoil compared to the us m1a1 or m-14. the action locking and unlocking absorbs a large part of the perceived recoil and to boot it has recoil springs in the butt stock as well. A great design. The Germans invented the action with the 1st assault rifle the sturmguhver (I know I didn't spell that one correctly)44 it was made with stamped steel receiver that was riveted. Something the maker of the ak borrowed a few years later.
The smg is a later descendent of the sten. The bg thing to tell them apart is the smg has a machined receiver tube the sten is stamped. Very similar design. I love weapons. One of the things I had to know in the corps and it stuck.

 

[steviebeegee]

my impression of the SA80 was as much use as tits on a fish, as ud get a stoppage for not oiling the working parts and even the slightest part of would attract the sand causing yet more stoppages.
the SA80 replaced the SLR as it was semi automatic which fired a smaller high velocity round which ment the exit could be anywhere. i honest dont know how many modifications were made to this riffle but quite alot before coming in deployment. the resason for replacing the SLR was that you carry more ammo and wasent designed to kill it was more for injuring making the enemy redundant and puttind a strain om medics and supplies.
we done a demo on the AK47 by stripping it down and burring it in the sand, then digging it up and putting it back together shaking the sand out of putting a 30 round 7.62 magasine on it on fire the whole mag without one stoppage. i know it wasnt the most accurate riffle but a hell of alot more reliable than our SA80

 

[Sarg]

Stevie, a little lesson in us old soldiers. We had this thing, good or bad about the particular weapon we trained on during our era. God, you should hear from the WWII yanks go on about the M-1, you would think it was the perfect weapon. I couldn't see it as when that last eighth round went, she went PLING!!!! very loudly announcing to the enemy you were empty.

Mention a M-14 to a Marine that was in Nam and watch as that little tear form in the corner of their eye (sorry, Jar, just had to). I heard great stories of the WWII Brits and their beloved .303 Enfield.

Yes, it could very well be that the AK is the most versatile combat weapon ever devised. But it has to be the ugliest, most classless weapon ever. Yes, no doubt, Kalashnikov was a genius but Browning and Winchester were artists.

The M-16 was a .22 cal weapon. One shoots gophers with .22 cal weapons. Had we been in a "police action" with gophers, we'd a been good.

Sarg

 

[steviebeegee]

after the ww2 the lee enfeild was adapted with a long barrel and sights and was the new sniper riffle of time one hell of a kick of it it was then replaced in the 90s by the accuracy international just like something you would see at the winter olyimpics cross country ski and shoot
what always gets me in the films you knew who the enemy were because they had aks even if they were protection or specalists. which there are loads of better and more accurate riffles. but for some strange reason its an ak and the never ending magazine lol what was worse they were firing from the hip as we fire from the shoulder

 

[steviebeegee]

never fired the m16 but have fired similiar the armalite which was just as the name very light to hold in the standing shoulder aim.

 

[reddevil1111]

the m-16 is a design nightmare. The designers had to satisfy 10 design requirements including one that required the weapon look good while on parade. Most weapons are designed with 3-4 requirements. So a lot of compromise to make a better overall weapon was the end result. So its pretty accurate but not all that it could be. its pretty durable but not as good as it should be. I could keep going on and on. No other weapon was designed by a committee in the past. The designer had to incorporate ideas into the design that he would not otherwise have done.
So when it comes to weapons there is always going to be a better weapon.
Lets look at the ak-47 or a moment. Its widely popular not for accuracy but for cost and durability. The weapon was designed to run with very loose tolerances making it easy to run even if its rusty or muddy. it will sling a bullet no matter what. Beyond 50 meters its a complete ball of shit. but the other plus that so many love about it is the cost ... about 100 bucks to make it and you can bulk buy them for under 300 all day. I used to deal in guns, so I know a bit about them beyond having a chance to fire one now and again.
The flip side of the coin is that there are weapons with tight tolerances that costa hell of a lot more to make and they represent a big difference in accuracy and function. The big trade off is cost of production and that not every schmuck you see is going to be carrying ammo for the weapon of choice. Weapons like the h&k mp5 sdn. or the springfield armory socom 16 or Mossberg m590 shotgun. Those are my personal favorites. 2 were issued to me while I served in the marines and the socom 16 is my replacement for the m-16. Its a .308... and what I would call a medium range rifle. I would and can shoot it past 500 meters and that's really all you need.
There are tons of other weapons out there. some might be better or worse. The point being yeah you see a lot of ak's out there but try to understand the reason why its so prevalent. After all, you can dodge bullets all day and the one that gets you doesn't care if the rifle it came out of cost 2000 or 200.

 

[Sarg]

My first pistol. Get to guess what it is...

Link Removed

Sarg

 

[steviebeegee]

sarge i was a fusilier and in the olden days round about 17 centuary meant a flintlock musket put some gun powder in the barrel and a small metal and the fuse was lit and point at the direction and bang not really a reliable weapon but we have come a long in gun and riffle designs over the centuries. yet we lve in a word of technolgy and i sure there must be people out there make our rifles and side arms alot better.
i like the films were the assassin makes his way to the roof tops and out of a bag he makes up his fold away sniper riffle and makes a clean one shot everytime i mean does the scope always alined with the riffle as everytime we our riffles apart to clean on taking off the sight where wed had to zero them in the next time they use them.