Comments by "LRRPFco52" (@LRRPFco52) on "Garand Thumb" channel.

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  14.  @SumTinWong01  I’ve been shooting and working with AKs since the 1980s. Have fired and broken down multiple variants since that time, to include Norincos, Russian Type 2s, Romanian PM 63s, East German MPI-AKS-74s, AKMs, North Korean AKs, Egyptian Maadis, Arsenals of all types, Yugoslavian M76s, Valmet Rk62s and Rk76s, SAKO Rk92S and Rk95s, Galil ARMs, Galil SARs, Galil 7.62s, Saigas, and a bunch I’m forgetting. The Russian variants can be hit-and-miss like most of the others. FSBs are typically never TDC and are difficult to zero. The pins that retain the piston to the bolt carrier have walked loose and started to score the gas tubes on the Romanian PM63s we had when shooting high volume. East German guns ran really well, don’t recall any issues. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a malfunction with a 5.45x39 rifle. None of them compare well with the quality of the Finnish guns. The Finns simply out-class all the others, but they are boat anchors to carry, even the stamped steel Rk76 has twice the sheet steel thickness you would need. I’m only discussing actual military rifles mostly here, with the Saiga and civilian Norincos being the exceptions. I’ve shot plenty of civilian import WASRs and Arsenals in the US. Romanian guns have gone up and down depending on the time period. I generally avoid them like the plague. As far as assembly methods and materials “quality” among any of the Warsaw Pact guns, the only ones that show attention to detail and upper European hints of quality are the Polish and East German guns. The Czech Vz.58 is a well-made rifle with much better machine work and finish. Basically all AKM variants are trash in Warsaw Pact outside of the Poles and Eastern Krauts. You get the sense that really depressed people who didn’t give a rip cranked the things out, and it shows.
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  25.  @robertcummingsjr3771  Even for a stud in his prime, the prospects of humping a basic load of 7.62 NATO or anything like it meet the harsh reality of magazine depth, load bearing kit space, and combat endurance even before we started wearing IBAs/plates. There just isn't enough room on your body to carry enough mags, and we're increasing weight substantially with 6.8x51 vs 5.56x45. For endurance, I'm talking about react-to-contact, setting a base of fire, and then maneuvering. Battle rifle cartridges don't allow you to do much of that, because initial base-of-fire fraction is too high. Compare: 5.56 basic load 7 mags/210rds 1 mag expended for RTC/BoF = 30rds, 1/7th expended, still have 180rds to bound with and execute actions-on, repel attack, sustain fire while immobilized, or continue mission and still execute. 6.8x51 basic load even if we go to 8 mags is 160rds. You can burn through a 20rd mag fast during react-to-contact/ establish base of fire, often having to mag-change and eat into the next mag. Now you're down to 130rds and you haven't even bounded yet. Keep in mind a minimalist 4 mag micro chest rig with 80rds of 7.62 NATO sucks to carry, not even talking plates, PC, MBITR, NODs, grenades, smoke, IFAK, and water. If I bound to another position and lay down more fire, I'm already through at least 2 mags now, or 25% of my total load, leaving me with 120rds before even any actions-on an OBJ. That's an example of a fire-disciplined soldier too. Others will have burned through 2-4 mags, so when we consolidate and reorganize, I might be one of the guys who has more ammo than most and will have to redistribute ammo. This type of thing has happened with units that took SR-25s or SCAR-Hs into fights that lasted longer than they expected. The M5 is absolutely inappropriate for mass issue.
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  60.  @scoots60  We had M21s in my first 2 Scout Platoons, and we had M14s in my first line unit, along with M16A1s, even though I went through Infantry OSUT with M16A2s. I have worked with and lived with all of those rifles pretty extensively across multiple continents, as well as the M4/M4A1. I like the M14/M21, but would never choose one to go outside the wire if I had other options for a DM or light sniper system. Nobody in Ranger Regiment wanted anything to do with an M14 once the SR25s came into the inventory, and even prior to that, they used M4A1s with ACOGs suppressed in the Sniper sections, along with free-floated Recce carbines, barreled with accurate pipes and float handguards. JSOC dropped M14s and went to SR25s in the early-mid 1990s as well in their Sniper sections. Old inventory M14s were issued to line units for DMRs with varying degrees of success in GWOT, but SOF units who actually had a choice used SR25s, SR25Ks, and SCAR-Hs. Some Teams tried going with all-7.62 NATO load-out, and ditched that idea after 1 or 2 missions due to weight and limited mag capacity. They tried configuring their kit with as many mags as possible, to include mag pouches on the backs of their plate carriers so dudes would act as combat squires for each other, which was just unnecessarily cumbersome and clumsy in a tactical sense. This is one reason why 6mm ARC in a standard AR-15 receiver set was chosen to supplant or replace 7.62 NATO semi auto sniper systems in certain units. We keep re-learning the lessons we already knew after the 1914-1918 Great War about appropriate rifle cartridges. 5.56 was the only cartridge adopted that benefitted soldier's load and combat persistence. 7.62x51 was warmed over .30 Cal in a slightly shorter case, pushed to higher chamber pressure to meet the same mv as the Garand. Didn't really change anything for Joe tentpeg other than having a detachable magazine and overall excessive weight.
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  74.  @gordonjohnson405  I was there from Feb ’96 to Feb ’97, and our BC was LTC Fuller when I got there, then LTC Milley. Fuller was a Grenada Ranger with old school scroll from 2/75, mustard stain, country boy, awesome BC. The best BC I ever had in all my time in the Army across 7 different units.  We’d be out doing morning PT as a Recon Team and see this guy out running with his full ruck in OD Green Jungles by himself. It was LTC Fuller. He thrashed the new Lieutenants in the Currahee Club too. Made them low-crawl with their faces to the floor until they all had road rash from the carpets. It was beautiful. I remember his Change of Command ceremony where he said, “Alright men. I believe speeches should be like miniskirts, the shorter the better! Pass and review! Currahee!” Then from one of the line companies, someone called out, “Dogpile on the Colonel!” So imagine the better part of all the EMs dog piling the BC in his change of command ceremony. Great Battalion. All we did was train and I loved it. Milley was more reserved, sketchy-eyed, always sniffing the wind to see if what he was doing would be kosher for his career. He wasn’t particularly bad or good, just there. He signed off on our proposal to institute a Battalion DM program for the line companies that we ran out of the Scout Sniper Platoon, since our PL was prior service E-6/B4 and SOTIC Qual’d, Panama Vet and we had an ODA split team from Okinawa run a Sniper short course for us the summer of 1996. We rarely got to go downrange south of the Imjin River. You had to have a liberty pass for either a day or overnight, and only a certain % of the Battalion could get them, so I could count the number of times I took that on maybe 2 hands. Some of my SPC4 mafia mates and I went down to see the Seoul War Museum, which was cool. The DMZ was really our home for the full year, with rare exceptions. We did MPRC and EIB south of the Imjin. Lots of incidents happened when I was there with Norks.
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  127. I spent many years from 2005-2016 doing a lot of multi-day high volume courses in Finland, often with mixed attendance of AKs, Rks, and ARs, the occasional FNC, a Bushmaster ACR, shorty AKs from Arsenal, and a franken-74. During winter conditions in either Arctic or sub-arctic locations, it was usually -25° to -30°C (-13°F to -22° F). Not once did I ever see any of the hundreds of weapons experience surface moisture freezing like that. We just never let the rifles get into that state. Not once did any of the controls freeze-up that I can recall on any of the designs. What did fail? Interestingly, there were more malfunctions with AK variants than ARs during firing. Mostly FTExtract followed by double feed. That was always with Russian garbage steel case ammo. The Finnish military brass-cased ammo is of a quality similar to German and Swiss ammo. I've never seen an Rk92 or Rk95 malfunction, but they were typically fed brass-cased Finnish ammo. The AKs that malf'd were usually Arsenal out of Bulgaria. Polymers broke, especially my early gen MIAD grip and the toe of an aftermarket M4 waffle stock. One of the most reliable configurations was 11.5" AR set up as close to a TDP build as possible. The Finns kept very detailed records over the years of what types of malfunctions they experienced. They said AKs were about as reliable as low quality imitation AR-15s, namely Bushampsters. Rk62, Rk92, and Rk95 had the highest reliability, followed by TDP-compliant AR-15s. Then AKs and Bushampster AR-15s.
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