The Gun Thread

Oh well. Just getting to shoot M4 is awesome by itself. I mean...holy shit. I don't know if that's outdated or not, but Jesus shooting that thing just felt so amazing. -sighs- Still, it would have been great if I got to try my hands on guns like M249. That reminds me.

In the last few days in KATUSA training, we had some recruiters for various positions. The infantry recruiters didn't say much. He just showed us a video of the training they do and showed us over a dozen kinds of different weapons. And let me tell you, there was no shortage of volunteers.

Infantry is fun, but it also fucking sucks.

No matter what job you're assigned to, you'll find something to bitch about, and you'll be envious of somebody else's job. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, as they say.

I once heard a tanker say that the infantry had it good because an infantryman only had to clean and maintain his rifle. A tanker has to clean and maintain his personal weapon, the tank's main gun and machine guns, the engine, drivetrain, suspension, all the auxiliary equipment, etc, etc...

Then armorer has to reject the still dirty weapons at the window so they don't have spend 30 minutes dicking around with the solvent bath and can instead inspect, certify as dead lined, paperwork, and then order replacements for the rifle the tanker left leaning against the tank tread and forgot about when they got back into the tank.

See then there's Mechanized infantry...

Don't get me started. I got a run over rifle from one of them to. Marine left his rifle against LAV tire. Pressed against that hard packed rocky soil in the Mojave it was not a pretty sight.

Oh god.

We had a set of NO Ds-in-a-bag that fell into the gap around the Bradley's turret. We couldn't get them fixed, and so it became a battalion rite-of-passage for new LT's to take over the investigation into them. I was getting calls from "Uh... Second Lieutenant Bootfuckery" for almost three years after I got out.

Enter the HK433, Heckler & Koch's new rifle. They're claiming that it incorporates the best of the G36 and HK416 designs, which I presume precludes the likelihood of this being an upper you can get separately for your AR.

Seems like it can be chambered in .300 BLK, with 7.62x39 "conceptionally incorporated".

Will it melt though?

Melting prone polymers, proprietary magazines, direct impingement and a mag well prone to jam?

H&K hasn't been doing well lately. Sure the M320 grenade launcher has replaced the M203 in the US. The HK 416 won the marbles in France (irony, France now defended by a German rifle).

But I hear H&K is losing money. The huge US Army gun contract went to Sig Sauer, lots of Asian militaries need rifles and they are going with American firms or buying local.

This new rifle is just re-arranging the deck chairs on the HK-titanic before the iceberg hits.

How long before they are bought by FN, BAE or some other non-german firm?

That wouldn't be anything new - they were a subsidiary of a British arms manufacturer back when they were asked to improve (fix) the L 85 A 1.

Also, H&K has never really had a market in Asia. Saying they're about to go belly up because of a market they have no real stake in is pretty silly.

So HK finally joins the "modern assault rifle" party. I swear... HK:FN::MG 4:Minimi::HK 433:FN SCAR

Plus winning a big government contract like France's rifle replacement is a pretty big deal. Most of HK weapons work pretty well but they are mind bogglingly expensive and they have that nasty proprietary BS. Though it seems the HK 416 and 417 have moved away from that somewhat.

edited 4th Feb '17 9:12:08 AM by TuefelHundenIV

The French Army is the largest land army in Europe. Landing that contract's a pretty huge deal.

Was browsing the local auction house yesterday. They occasionally have a gun or two up for bid. In the display case, one item was advertised as a "shotgun buttstock." The bidding card was covering it up, so I asked to see it.

It was a Winchester Model 12 receiver and buttstock, which had seen better days, but was complete and mechanically sound. I believe it was a takedown model, and somehow, somebody lost the other half of it (the barrel/magazine/forend assembly.)

The attendants shrugged and said, "That's how the seller described it, we just go by what he says." Well, a complete receiver is worth quite a bit more than just a wooden buttstock. His loss will be someone else's gain...

Especially if they can find something to fit the rest of the assembly and turn it into a fully functioning fire arm.

That's the idea. The parts needed aren't exactly cheap, but they're readily available. It would cost a few hundred bucks to get it shooting again, but hey — a Winchester Model 12 is nothing to turn up your nose at.

Very true. Collectors might pay more then you spent to fix it up to boot if you were inclined to sell it.

That's debatable. Collectors can be very nit-picky about "original condition" and so forth. A gun that's been pieced together out of spare parts would be a shooter, not a collector's item.

Still, if you can get it cheaply enough at the auction, you might be able to break even once it's put back in working order. Or better yet, keep it and have yourself a "perfect repeater" for a fraction of the price that most others sell for these days...

I decided not to bid on it myself, but I told a friend who's interested in it.

Hmm good point. Better to keep it as a shooter if you wanted it.

By the way, I noticed there isn't a standardized NATO round for rocket launchers like there is for every other type of firearm (9x19mm for pistols and submachine guns, 5.56x45mm and 7.62x51mm for assault rifles, sniper rifles and machine guns (Along with .50BMG for anti-material rifles and HM Gs), 12 gauge for shotguns, and 40x46mm for grenade launchers). Kinda odd.

Because standardized rockets aren't really much of a thing. Just about every rocket launcher technically has proprietary ammunition. It's just how stuff works.

edited 7th Feb '17 1:06:05 AM by LeGarcon

There is no point either rockets are the weapon AND the amunition.

You can make guns better, but you cant make the launchers better, all the improvements come from the rocket themselves.

In addition only like two rocket launchers can even be reloaded since the tube is so damn cheap compared to the rocket itself, being basicly a simple plastic tube with some wiring and a sight....

Finaly at 2,000 to 200,000 a pop, its not like they are feilded in a high enough number for standardization to mater.

edited 7th Feb '17 1:06:07 AM by Imca

Rocket launchers are kind of an oddball case for individual arms and tend to tie into that nations doctrine for their use.

This leads to some interesting examples such as the Polish RPG-76 Komar.