Hello All, Having had the plesure of working US forces last year and seen all the "Gucci" gear that you get I,d like totalk to anyone from the same sort of background and talk GUNNNNSSSS!!!!! The Marine Sgt Armourer who I met last year in Afghanistan was very knowlagable and loved his job as much as me!!!
I'm not an armorer, but I like firearms, and own many.
The SA80 is one weapon I've never used. I understand that a lot of the problems with it have been "fixed" by HK. I hear it's very accurate. My issue with it is it's a right handed rifle. I would assume that British Forces train right handed, regardless of whether you are left/right handed? Does that create problems for lefties? Or, is there some technique to shoot left handed? I heard a while back that you guys are switching, eventually, to the HK G36? Is this true?
I don't have any complaints about our M16 / M4 family of weapons. They work, and they are accurate. They can be a pain to get all the gunk out, but, if you are reasonably responsible about cleaning (I was always fastidious about it), they function fine.
Yes, the A1 was terrible and the troops lost confidence in it after poor performance in Gulf war 1 (Dessert Storm/Sheild) H&K have done a marvolus job ironing out all the main faults, 16 Modifications in one go. The A2 is starting to show its age now as most are seeing a lot of action in Afgahnistan and Iraq. My Regiment has weapons that have fired (Est) well in excess of 50,000 rds.
At the moment I've heard nothing about a new weapon comming on line for us, but I wouldnot pick a G36 because I know a few Germans and 36's are alredy falling apart!!!
Apart from the M4/M16 family, I also had the opportunity to use the Sig 552. Now that is a fun and handy weapon. I didn't care for the proprietary magazines, though. It would have been nice to have been able to use M4 mags, just for logistics.
How about a specific question: What do you all think of the SA80?
