Posted on 07/15/2020 3:47:21 AM PDT by AggregateThreat
Swiss K31, not M31
Yep,that’s the Scout. I was a little leery of it at first but after working with it,it fits like a glove. I’d like to try a regular M1A1 but haven’t had a chance yet. I actually got to use a M1 for night exercises firing blanks in Staging but then Tet68 blew up and we were cut a week short.
ping
RE Scout:
Nice looking piece. When finances lighten up a bit, I’d like to get one.
I would change one thing on that list:
“You can repair your rifle by taking it to the nearest village blacksmith.”
7.62x39? If you are going to use that round then wouldn’t you just buy the AK?
I had the good sense to load up on ammo when I bought it 8 yrs ago. I’m not saying how much I have but if my house ever catches fire the fire department better run. :)
You ain’t alone... lol!
Not if you want a rifle with a "Garand-style Action" and the feel of a venerable old M14 in a carbine size and made in the USA.
No - it was a flawed design: how do you clear a double-load jam? You have two choices (while people are energetically firing at you): 1. Knock the two cartridges out with an assembled cleaning rod (you were in the Air Force so you probably don’t know that the US issue steel jointed cleaning rod had to be screwed together to use - we would drill holes in the triangular forearm to accommodate the assembled rod).
If that didn’t work - and usually didn’t - you had to knock out the rear receiver pin, remove the bolt, carrier, and charging handle and try to punch the brass out. If you were successful and still alive, you reassembled all those pieces, put the magazine in, chambered a round and tried again.
If such a jam ever occurred with the M14 (it never did) all you had to do was lay on your back and kick the operating handle to force the bolt open.
Can’t tell you how special that made us feel. A least-bidder weapon with crappy sights, low reliability, no close-quarters utility, and extremely inefficient ammo. It was supposed to have “catastrophic effect” but more often than not when you hit somebody, they kept on running.
The stupid decisions only compounded the problems.
The army may be “looking” at 6.8 but that’s where it will stay. You don’t know anything about the army acquisition process. They’d still be using Trapdoor Springfields if they could.
Would hate to see what’s left of the tinkertoy charging handle if you tried to kick it on the M16a1 lol.
Sorry, Bub -
The M-14 in proper tune is unequalled. Still holds the 1,000m record for iron-sighted rifles at Camp Perry and no one has broken my record at the Puuloa Rifle Range - 34 consecutive V-ring bullseyes at 600m. Made the newspapers on that one (1978).
The only reason I limited at 34 was that I ran out of ammo!
Here’s a topic guaranteed to start a, er, “vigorous” discussion. There are actually three criteria here: game-changers in design, war-winners, and mass-production champs. The Sturmgewehr, for example, was definitely a game-changer but doesn’t fit either of the other two criteria. The sadly excluded Mosin-Nagant was not a game-changer but certainly qualifies on the other two counts. The Garand fits all three, as does the Mauser 98 (a design so good that we stole it, us and everybody else). The SMLE is weirdly perfect in its own way, which I didn’t believe until I fired one. (So much for my three criteria. Oh well)...
Knew that but I get CRS. Oldtimers disease as it were.
I had a friend tell a story about his unit in a firefight in Vietnam and the M16. His buddy was hammering away at a NVA soldier at fairly close quarters and getting hits but the guy wouldn’t go down and was charging with a fixed bayonet on his rifle at the guy firing the M16. The guy firing the M16 was about to get stuck like a pig when another GI with an old M1 Carbine raised it and cut loose on the NVA soldier in full auto. He said the NVA went down like he was cut in half. He hated the M16 while in Vietnam.
We were both lucky: my shot hit his left hand and tore the edge of his hand off with his little finger (no other rounds had hit him) and after I bandaged him up and took him with me, he helped me with my tourniquet and carried me to the medevac chopper later that day when I got shot.
The funny post script was when my new Lieutenant crawled up to me and said "Rick, I'm sorry you're hurt - but can I have your M14?"
After I had "loaded" up, I then joined FreeRepublic...
"loading up" for my long guns was very simple when 7.62, 30-06, .223, and, even, BMG 50 were dirt cheap...
Most of it now in the hands of our grandchildren and great grandchildren...
The Lee magazine rifle (in various forms) served the British military for something like 60 years, in large measure because it was a far better infantry weapon than most other bolt-action designs. In 1914, an instructor at the British Army's School of Musketry scored 38 hits on a 24 inch target, set at 300 yards, in just 60 seconds - using (of course) a Lee-Enfield rifle. I doubt anyone could put 30 rounds on target in a minute's time, with a Mauser, Moisin-Nagant, or Springfield.
It's also worth remembering that the Lee-Enfield was basically an American design. In retrospect, the United States should have adopted the Lee magazine rifle in the late-1800s, rather than the short-lived Krag...
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