You'll never believe what I shot today!!

[Phirebug]

Well, yeah, you probably will, but when I tell you the rest of this I'm going to get a lot of :eek: and a lot of :nonono:


The local "strike team" of our iraqi police unit wanted to show off some of the weapons they have confiscated and "refurbished" (iraqi gunsmithing seems to involve three or four guys shouting at each other, hitting the weapon with their fists, and ultimately finding some Americans and asking them for some WD-40)

The only weapon they brought out that I didn't get to shoot was the one I really wanted to shoot-an Iranian G3!! It was all jacked up though. (well...all of them were) the mag was all bent up so it wasn't feeding right, and a couple of the rounds ejected the usual 38 miles, but most of them would just kind of fall out of the ejection port, almost like the ejector was missing them completely and the next round coming up just kind of bumped it out.

They had a few AK-47s, which were neat, but nothing really spectacular.

They had a PKC machine gun that would have been cool if it would have fired more than one round at a time without an immediate action drill that was absolutely comical to watch. (again...much shouting and pounding with fists)

The pinnacle of our day was an MG-42 that they confiscated from some guy's house. Now...I didn't get to tear the weapon apart or anything, but as far as I can tell, it hasn't been rechambered or adapted to fire anything but the original cloth belt.

We were firing 7.62 NATO with standard m60/240 links.

yeah. :eek: :nonono:

I cannot imagine how it not only fed, chambered, and fired the rounds, but did so without exploding.
I was thinking about this. 8mm mauser is actually 7.92x57, if I remember correctly. 7.62 nato is 7.62x51. that makes the bullets .3" smaller than the bore, and the headspace is AT LEAST 6mm too large.
Not only that, but it was actually CYCLING disintegrating links. Didn't it originally feed from a cloth belt?

It would only fire four or five rounds at a time before it would jam, which, sadly, made it the most reliable weapon they brought out today. I did finally break down and fire off a quick burst just to say I did, but only after all of the Iraqis and a lieutenant shot it without incident.

And, after that amazing display of malfunctioning weapons, they were absolutely amazed at our m16's and m4's. They simply could not believe that you could fire an entire magazine simply by pulling the trigger 30 times.
:America:

[weasel_master]

Maybe it was an MG3. I believe you can use m60 links with it and it's chambered in .308. Even if the guns weren't functioning right, it still sounds like a neat time.

[M1 Tanker]

Sounds like quality entertainment Phirebug :) I'm guessing maintenance isn't their strongpoint.

The MG42, like the MG34, fired from a non-disintegrating metal 50 round belt. The MG1 and MG2 did also, but they were 7.62 Nato and not 8mm. The latest version of the MG3, which is probably what you had, fires 7.62 NATO from standard M60/M240 links. If it wasn't a MG3, it wouldn't have fed the first round.

Did ya get any pics of the IA's finest at work?

[SteelCore]

sounds like one big, happy, dysfunctional gun family ;)

They'd marvel at the reliability of my WASR-10 Hi-cap!\

"they were absolutely amazed at our m16's and m4's. They simply could not believe that you could fire an entire magazine simply by pulling the trigger 30 times."
--WOw. that's what I've come to expect from a rifle...well one with 30 rounds i the mag, anyhow.

Thanks 4 the entertaining report,
as always, watch yer 6, and thanks 4 serving.:America:

[Optimus Prime]

sounds like the Afghan Air Force... last I heard it consisted of 6 Migs that weren't flight ready that we found in an abandoned hanger somewhere

[cbear]

Well this is good news for our boys, if these are the same weapons that are being fired at them.

Get us some good pics phirebug, your trudging through a living museum.

Take care

[texlurch]

They'd freak if they saw us bump firing a clip thru our homebuilt AK's.... LOL!!!!

[Grasshopper]

Well this is good news for our boys, if these are the same weapons that are being fired at them.

Get us some good pics phirebug, your trudging through a living museum.

Take care

No shi7, get some pictures if you can!
Oh ya, keep an eye out, you need to come home in 1 piece.
God bless!

[Norton]

That is cool, was it a WW2 era German Mg 42? I saw a Marine photo of captured WW 2 era German weapons in Iraq back in 2004.

[g3shooter1]

Very Nice!

Have you guys captured any STG44s or PPSh-41s yet?

This thread is worthless without pics!

[M1 Tanker]

I wouldn't say it was worthless without pics...I think Phirebug has his hands full as it is :) If he gets pics, I'm sure he will post'em.

[SteelCore]

but on the topic of shooting stuff you're not suposed to shoot, a buddy of mine's son i getting ready to deploy to the sandbox as part of a bomb squad unit. He said after lotsa specialized training, the easiest way to defuse a bomb is with a .50 cal at about 800yds...preferred method.

[97th Signalman]

When I was in the Army in Germany in 1960-63 I spent eleven months on TDY with the Bundeswehr. MG3 machine guns were their standard tactical crew-served automatic weapons. They were just the modern West German version of the MG42 chambered to take the standard Nato cartidge with standard Nato metal-link belts. Externally they looked exactly like the MG42. The quick change system for the barrel was amazing and easy to do (if you had heavy insulated gloves).

[Optimus Prime]

but on the topic of shooting stuff you're not suposed to shoot, a buddy of mine's son i getting ready to deploy to the sandbox as part of a bomb squad unit. He said after lotsa specialized training, the easiest way to defuse a bomb is with a .50 cal at about 800yds...preferred method.

That's exactly why we had two issued to our BN. Made a lot of people wonder why an Engineer unit needed a couple Barret's... hehe.

[Phirebug]

my buddy has pics and videos of all the guns, i just haven't been able to get them from him yet. hopefully soon.

our EOD team has a barrett too, but they never use it. not sure why. they prefer to just defuse bombs with C4.

[Optimus Prime]

We traded ours with the SF guys for four or five sweet Humvees I think... we never had a use for them really either.

[okie shooter]

On using 50 cal or any other bullet to set off High Explosives, unless you hit the more sensetive components of a high explosive train, you just dont set off most high explosives with rifle bullets. TNT, Comp-B and other fills of conventional explosives are designed to be insenstive, thus you have to have other items in the train to set them off, starting with a cap, det cord, black powder charges, then some even need a second explosive that is more senestive to shock but less than the primary explosive to get it to go. Fun stuff to learn.

Thus after inspection and the guys are there already, setting a c-4 , running a cap and or det cord or some sort of timeing delay fuse is no more dangerious than the initial inspection as long as they don't upset the item. Ironically even with a blasting cap and c-4, I personaly have set a charge that didnt set off the primary explosive in a round, abet a small round, while testing a machine, thus we had to repack the test round with c-4 and do it again. Not the funnest thing walking back up to a set up that exploded once but the secondary charges didnt take the primary charge out. I am sure in the field they just use plenty of extra explosive, and bag it to direct the charges the way they need to go.

Where I work the disposal crews(not even eod) day in and day out destroy forty to eighty pits of explosives, plus maybe burn 120,000 lbs of propellants in a day, plus burn high explosive scrap. Guess its all in a days work, I have never heard of a incident, other than schrapnal hitting vehicles or buildings, of any accidents there in the almost eleven years I have worked here either. If you are save its just another days work.

[SteelCore]

Sorry I don't have more detail...mebbe the used Incendiary rounds, or DU or something...or that mebbe it works in some situations, or beats walking up on live ord while some dude could be waiting in eyeshot with a cellphone to det it...

Just dunno...I do kow he had a lotta schooling on ordinance and bombs.

[Optimus Prime]

We had them supposedly for setting of mines from a distance. I don't think they'd do much to a 105 round either, but if you know enough about an AT mine and put a round in the pressure sensor area you'd probably set it off. Like I said though, we never actually used them for that, and the SF boys had alot more use for them as actual sniper platforms, and we had more use for some decent gun trucks.

[Phirebug]

i think eod said once that the problem they had with using the barrett is with some of the arty rounds, the incendiery ammo will set them on fire instead of detonating them, which just makes it tougher because then they can't get near it until it stops burning. besides, they have a little robot (we call him johnny 5) that they like to play with a lot more than the barrett.

anyway, here are a couple pics...my connection is way to slow to try to post videos...maybe if i get up here at 3am sometime i'll try to put some up on youtube or something and link to them.

[Optimus Prime]

Looks like a good time... always cool to catch brass in the air.

[SteelCore]

Thansk for those.

Me, I don;t like to catch brass int he air, especially from CETMEs and ARs...it get pretty hot...AKs sometimes too.

[cetme]

thanks for sharing! Stay safe.