Posted: 7/19/2004 6:35:12 PM EDT
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I know it's hard to believe, however, I just spoke with a freelance contractor who had just spent some time in Iraq doing security type work. He told me a lot about his combat experience and what he uses over there, etc. However, first I must tell you about some exciting news about the M14. He told me, and I quote, that they have created new USGI 25 round mags for the M14 and that they are currently in use. He said that they are the same as the 20 rounders, just a tad longer. He also said that they are created to feed reliably from full auto fire. He said that there are also 30 rounders in production, but they are not deployed in any great number yet. He said the 30 rounders are straight, but have a slight curve in them. Anyway, he also says that the M14 is in great use over in Iraq and that a lot of troops are using them, esp the special forces. He mentioned about how a company is beginning to make M14 receivers with a scope mount built in for military use (LRB). He told me that as a freelance contractor (mercenary) for the armed forces he has access to just about any weapon there is. However, he told me the two weapons he uses most over there is the M4 and the FAL. He mostly carries the M4 as that is his favorite weapon (used to shoot 3 gun matches, etc with it) and because most combat ranges are around 50-100 yards. He has seen combat multiple times, but has never used his FAL in combat. For the M4 he primarily uses either green tip, or some of the heavy 70 grain bullets. He reports that the 70 grain bullets are effective at creating stops at the ranges combat typically breaks out at. I asked him about how effective the green tipped bullets were are creating stops. I was wondering if he was afraid of over penetration to which he responded, ”Hell no, I don’t care what they do long as I ain’t down range”. Then I clarified that I was curious if the green tip penetrator rounds produced good stopping power, or if they over penetrated? He said that he usually hit them with 3-4 rounds in quick secession due to the fast follow up shot ability of the M4. So even if that ammo doesn’t produce one shot stops, it doesn’t matter if you are tagged 3-4 times with it. No one has survived that bombardment. When asked about how well his M4 was performing over there, if he had any problems with jamming or reliability in the desert environment, he said that it functioned fine and he experienced no problems with it. I’m sure he cleans his weapon often, though. Another thing he told me, which interested me, was that no one there, including himself, used iron sights. Almost everyone was using optics of some type. He himself was using some red dot (wasn’t a red dot, but something similar, I forget the name) sight. I asked him if such scopes were really that much better than irons for combat? His response, ”Hell yeah!” I then brought up the question of durability of optics versus iron sights, and how many people fear that optics are brittle and will break, or fail, or run out of batteries. His response, ”No, no, they work fine. That’s all lies”. He also wears class 4 body armor over there. He is going back very shortly for about 3 more months. Of course, I encouraged him to use the .308 rifles more often, especially the M14. I really hounded him to at least “try out” the M14 over there. Told him he’ll like it. He said he’d think about it. *(He really likes the M4, so who am I to tell him to not use it?) That’s about all I have from him at the moment, sounds very interesting. I may get to speak with him one more time and ask some more questions, so if anyone has anything they would like me to ask for them let me know and I’ll rely them to him and post the responses here. That’s all for now, I’m out. |
Hmmmmmm.......... |
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I was over in Iraq for over a year. I saw one M14 rifle and it was definatly a beat to hell used one. The guy also had an M4, he had both slung over his back. I doubt that the M14 is seeing a great amount of use over there. It is in use, but it's not all that common. |
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I have heard inklings of Florida LE Agencies acquiring M14's for almost nothing through a government sponsored project. The 25 round mags were also mentioned. Suwannee County, IIRC. It wouldn't surprise me. FA M1A's or M14's would require larger capacity mags by todays military standard. Good Read! HS1 |
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Read this same post in a different forum, it seems even more true if you read it twice. www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&postid=1128126#post1128126 |
Here's another: M1A-M14 Forum Man, 4 edits to fix that link. |
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Ok without a doubt we are seeing moreuse of the 14, it just makes sense. But I don't think theyd dick around with the mag capacity, I don't think any of the original companies that made m14 mags are still in that business, It would be hard enough to rebuild 20 rounders that fed reliably but aint no one is gonna up the capacity on a new project that they have no expereince with. |
Oh, hell, I just glossed over that. Doesn't mean there aren't any, though.... I'm certainly not defending the guy. Don't know him nor have I set foot in Iraq. I was just curious why the flag went up... |
I have. The FALs are almost always carried by Iraqis. A photos show GIs using them from the early days of the war. I gather these GIs were issued only M9s and picked up the FALs locally. DSArms started a rumor that they were selling FALs to various secret squirrels, but I believe it's all BS. |
could have been dsa hype, but i dunno, i seen quite a few new looking fals in pics over there |
If true, I stand corrected but I have been watching Lumpy's threads and all the other stuff from Iraq and I remember seeing one FAL on our side way back about a year ago and that was a maybe. I think there would be PLENTY of discussion about FALs in Iraq on this board if it were true and I just havent seen it. |
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The popular consensus among us FALophiles is that the Iraqis have a lot of great condition FALs which are directly from FN in Belgium. Most FALs pictured have been type II paras. FN stopped producing these rifles at least 20 years ago. Now if I ever see a 16" FAL with a rail interface hanguards I will believe DSA. Evan Marshall has alluded to FALs being used by secret squirrels, bu that doesn't count for much in my book. |
