Posted on 03/06/2008 10:27:33 AM PST by gandalftb
They are. The Iraqi Army is paying cash on the barrel head for these rifles.
L
Canoe paddles!
The M-14 in my opinion is the most accurate semi-automatic ever made. Used to have one, too heavy for deer hunting, geez, getting old. Carry an AR-15 now. Funny we shipped 8,000 M-16s to the Israelis for distribution to the Palestinian Defense Force, first thing they asked for and threw away their AKs.
My Saiga .223 has never failed to chamber, I feed it 5.56 and various .223REM, brass, steel case, surplus whatever I put in it...
Yeah, the ammo angle is interesting...but it stores better than the author admits...and the 3rd world firefights aren’t spraying a lot of ammo from infantry before each soldier dies or retires.
I do, however, like the idea of Iraqi friendlies going to .223 so that local bad guys can’t just steal our guys’ ammo for their AK-47’s.
The better reason, though, for swapping the Iraqis over to M-16’s and the like is that these are more accurate weapons at a distance than AK-47’s and 74’s...and we want friendly Iraqis concentrating on shot placement rather than shot quantity.
Let the bad guys “fire for effect.” Our side should be shooting for kills.
Perhaps true for small caliber automatics, but most certainly *not* accurate to say when thinking in terms of bolt action rifles (or even lever-action weapons such as a Winchester 30-30).
As far as durability comparisons go try this with your Remington 700 or your granddads Winchester.
Pull one of them from underneath the rotting corpse of an enemy soldier who's been laying in a rice paddy for a few days. Hose it off with plain water and toss it in your locker for a month in the SE Asian jungle heat and humidity.
Take it to the range, kick the action open because it's rusted shut. Put 120 rounds through it.
Repeat the toss it in the locker part and the 120 rounds part (without cleaning) once a month or so for 11 months.
Then get back to me about it's 'durability'.
L
An interesting Discovery Channel video.
I'm sure you more experienced hands and operators may have varying opinions on the selection of Top 10 and the order thereof.
I just had to chuckle at the scene that showed some guy trying to straighten the barrel of an AK by beating on it with an adjustable wrench.
Regards, and Stand Fast!
/jasper
The men under his command were reconfiguring a firebase and they were using bulldozers to rearrange the berms. One sweep of one of the dozers revealed the body of a Viet Cong, who had been killed in an assault the previous autumn. The body had been entombed in the dirt of the berm for six months. He was still clutching his AK.
Hackworth pulled the weapon off the body, pulled back the charging handle, and fired off a round. After the weapon had been buried in the jungle for six months.
Ammo is not particularly difficult to manufacture from scratch even for a poorly industrialized nation. It isn’t a high tech process.
Less with generic 7.62, but 5.56x45mm NATO is terribly hard to machine and load to the specifications of the M-16. The propellant has to be formulated to rigid specifications and exact amounts, or the machine gun is very prone to misfire and jamming.
It is a fickle weapon at best, and I suspect that it was done precisely to prevent M-16s or their ammo from proliferation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.