That looks a bit like a Britains soldier - especially the base - haven’t seen those in years.
Mal
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It is Mal, one of the Britains/Herald range. I loved them as a kid.
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Cool, me & my brother had a few as kids. Didn’t realise they had an EM2 armed set?
There used to be a Britains shop in Wellington, NZ, upper Cuba St, I think, that was a joy to visit, that was back in the 70’s, not sure if it still exists?
Mal
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Yeah, a hundred pounds is a hundred pounds… and it wears on you no matter what. I’m just curious as to the trade off of extra ammo beyond the basic load. And as I mentioned before, the interoperability when alongside others with different weapons and ammo… if gear gets lighter, they just give you more to carry…
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I was worried when I read “aims for you,” but after seeing a video on the optics (one of many vids, but have a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=f5YWXrZdNpA ) I feel much better. They base everything on Lo-Tek, tried and true, but have some Hi-Tek extras, like the optics calcs drop for you. It’s an American optics company that’s family and vet owned, so that’s good. And Sig seems to be at least partially American.
Switching calibers is a huuuge pain for everyone, even before you bring NATO in to it, but once the pain is done, it’s a new future.
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This is interesting. Some of you may have seen it before:
The Soldier’s Heavy Load | Center for a New American Security (en-US).
It had never been much of an issue in my own experience. In Afghanistan we had vast amounts of 7.62x39 that we used for ourselves as well as for supplying the ANA. We all also had 5.56 and 9mm. Of course it was standard practice that everyODA member carried an M9 as well as our M4. Then we had 7.62, 12 gauge shotgun ammo for breaching, and various “exotic” calibers. Same in Iraq - 7.62 for ourselves and our Iraqi counterparts. We would have taken .45’s with us but were told there’d be no ammo for them. That turned out to be very untrue. Plus .300 Win Mag, .50 cal of various types. Don’t even get me started on the various primed charges we all carried - mainly flex linears. Another caliber? Just another day in the park.
This was my “workbench” in Iraq:
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That link you provided was a very interesting read.
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Every military guy I know has back, hip, and knee problems. Those that were in longest have the most issues. Quite a few were released on disability because of back issues.
On the rifle, it seems like when the caliber change first came up a few years ago, the requirement for new guns was to have interchangeable barrels so they could swap between 5.56 and 6.8. The 6.8 Remington used the same 5.56 brass with a larger diameter bullet. I could have bought a second barrel for my XCR.
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My guess is that the XM7 will be standardized as a Carbine, not a Rifle. A retrograde model number (Rifles are at least up to M110) would be very unusual. Carbines on the other hand are only up to M4 so XM7 makes sense. (I don’t recall hearing about other models. Perhaps the XM5 and XM6 were competing designs to the XM7.)
Also, judging by the fact that the article refers to the accessory mounting rail as “M1913” instead of “MIL-STD-1913” I can see that attention to detail is not the author’s strong suit.
KL
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What use did you have for FLSC?
KL
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The British KS-1
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Hmmm…What use would an SF guy have for – what? An FLSC? I never mentioned that, but since you apparently Googled Flex Linear and came up with that, I’ll play along.
I won’t bother going into what a Flex Linear Shaped Charge does – anyone can look it up for themselves. That said, for our purposes, it’s overkill. You don’t need a shaped charge to breach most doors encountered in Iraq. Certainly not a hollow core wooden door. Even solid wood doors, as most main entry doors were, are not made from one piece of wood, and respond quite well to the effects a plain old flex linear charge made from det cord, hundred mile an hour tape, and double sided sticky tape. All rolled up in your pocket, premade, with several feet of shock tube, dual primed, and with M68 initiators.
If your question is why would a weapons guy be carrying demo, it’s quite simple. The SF engineers on the team teach us how to make our own charges and use them safely and effectively. Once initial entry is made into a structure* every man on the team is a potential breacher for any number of interior rooms. There is no assigned number one, two, three, or four man. It all depends on how you get stacked up on subsequent doors. It’s very fluid and dynamic. If a door needs to be breached, you don’t wait around for someone else to show up with a linear charge or a shotgun, (hence our need for 00 buck shot) you lock down your door, call breacher up! and the nearest dude with a charge still left in his pocket sticks it on the door.
It’s the same principle as everyone carrying extra radio batteries, or ammo, or IV bags. Speaking of which, they make great water impulse charges – det cord and hundred mile an hour tape is all you need. And maybe a four foot pole. If you don’t have any follow on questions about why we’d carry those, I’ll assume you know.
*We almost always know what the initial breach will require – water impulse, linear, (rigid is faster, so those can be premade and made ready to go at LCC) rubber strip charge…or maybe just a battering ram. Or a quickie saw. Or a Broco rig…
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When you said “flex linears” I took that to mean flexible linear shaped charge, which I had known about since 1984 or so from using it as the stage separation charge in the ICBMs and TBMs my company made. (No need to Google anything.) As I recalled the biggest ones made were only about 3/4 inch tall and not all that powerful, especially without the proper standoff. I wondered what use an SF team in SW Asia would have for such a thing. Detonating cord I can understand.
No, I didn’t ask that.
KL
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Winchester is building a brand new facility at Lake City to manufacture the new rounds for the new weapons.
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WHAT??? No ceracoat to dip your weapons? Every armchair operator will pay extra for that to match their carefully crafted uniform and kit.
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As I’ve said before - if it doesn’t help me shoot better, it has no place on my gun.
Even the skateboard tape serves a purpose:
Good stuff on this thread:
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Listening to Jerry Micklich talking about the best shooters and athletes’. He said they all strip away what is not needed to accomplish the task. Things that waste energy or time are done away with. They have studied others and practiced and honed their process so that it is efficient and repeatable on command. The armchair guys haven’t figured that out.
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Very interesting, I love to hear from professionals. It just seemed to me a changeover would take a tansitioning period. But the first-hand info is great (we don’t know what we don’t know). Nice work area, too!
I was a Cowboy Action Shooter for 10 years (heeeaps of fun!!!). I wanted my Winchester (clone) to be like the Old West ones, so I went with the original caliber, .44-40. I didn’t want an ammo mix up with my revolver (Winchester 72s are pistol loads), so I went .44-40 for that too. (All black powder, "BOOOM!). It made life easier.
One day someone accidentally grabbed my rifle and loaded .45. Went in fine, did not come out. They took the rifle apart and all ended up well, but it was an unpleasant mixup. “Anyone seen my rifle?” - “UH, funny story about that…”
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I remember carrying an old Vietnam War era XM16E1 when i was in the Reserves in the mid 90s. I was carrying an H&R M16A1 when I went through basic in 1992. The Ar platform will be around for a very long time after the military does away with it.
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I would love to do that. In fact, that’s why I bought my first Henry, but some of the events are very strict and do not allow “modern” calibers like the .357 Magnum. I bought my second Henry in .44 Magnum just because I like the first one so much.
I watched a video last year in which a twelve year old girl became Ladies World Championhip in Cowboy fast draw. That looks pretty fun too.
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