Evening (or morning, afternoon wherever you're located ) !

Recently I completed an extremely difficult project in honor of a childhood hero, SFC Randy Shughart. The details of that project can be found here: http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_6/453092_SFC_Shughart__BlackHawkDown__M14_Tribute.html

Now, this is just an idea, not yet a plan, but I'd like to do the same type of build for Gary Gordon. I learned about everything M14 when doing Randy's dedication, but I know next to nothing about the ARs used during Operation Gothic Serpent. There use to be a thread here that had all the details one could want to know, but I believe it has permanently disappeared due to inactivity. So please help me out here and share everything you know about the AR of that time frame!

For a fact, I know the optics used were 3000s or 5000s. Here is my write up for the optics used: http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_18/682892_Black_Hawk_Down_Aimpoint_Write_Up.html
I also know he had a silencer on his AR, but no idea what type or manufacture.

Any input?  I hate that thread is no longer accessible. I am adding all the pictures I can think of to this one in hopes of keeping the build specs alive.

Update: Found it in the archives. Knew I was missing something. Mods, feel free to delete this thread. I'm sure BHD posts are repetitive around here.

I've long presumed that the two Blackhawk Down snipers used standard 10X sniper scopes that would be virtually useless at close range but see AimPoint red dots in the photos.  Was the 10x what they actually used or not?  I was a police sniper with a 3x-9x scope (long ago) that was better for police use than a standard military 10x, but now days would prefer a 1x-4x or 1x-6x on a semi-auto AR-style 7.62 police sniper rifle for all-around use.  1x for close range fast moving targets and 4x or 6x for longer distances, and of course lighted reticles.

I spent 8 months researching in-depth. Here is my research on the optic. By all accounts, Randy was using an Aimpoint for aerial shooting. Read here: http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_18/682892_Black_Hawk_Down_Aimpoint_Write_Up.html

Shooting accurately from a moving helicopter is by no means an easy feat. A red dot on a semi-auto weapon was an ideal setup.

Well, a 1x AimPoint red dot certainly would be a much better choice than a plain 10x scope for the situation they were in!

This is the old Somalia exhibit at the Airborne and Special Ops Museum in Fayetteville.  The M14 is close, but they're using an XM-177 stand-in for the 723 with OPSINC can.






Closer to period-correct:

The details of the exhibit there really irk my nerves a bit. I'm glad and grateful they are honoring these men and what they did, but the small details are awfully incorrect or inconsistent. They have the Aimpoint 2000, 3000, and 5000 on display there. I have seen no evidence that the 2000 was still in use in Mogadishu. And isn't the stand in you mention an air soft replica?

Once I build a few more rifles I may consider working with them to fix up the displays and possibly loan my own M14 to them.

Great looking tribute rifle!

I came this close to going to Somalia with 10th Mountain but a week or so before we were to deploy the XVIII Airborne Corp was made the lead element and I was cancelled. I was with an aviation unit at the time, 3/25 Assault Helicopter Battalion.

It wouldn't surprise me if they used an airsoft stand-in.

Aimpoints on one of my TDAs were rotated out quickly as they broke so it wouldn't surprise me if they were or weren't all correct.  Aimpoints in the early 90s were all IPSC pistol spin-off developments as they tried to make them smaller and shorter, each generation only lasting a few years.  At one point I had a grey C-More sight for a Haiti carbine because the manufacturer hadn't made a black production run for a while.

Here's an example of when the red dot was the hot new thing after Jerry Barnhart won some matches.  Long tubes got muzzle blast from the pistol's comp, and some (like the C-More) got all kind of blast crud on the forward face of the optic lens.

You're looking at it all wrong.

The purpose of the Museum isn't to cater to the shooting crowd who know all the minute details, but to educate the general public who have no idea of the situation, equipment, courage and sacrifice.

Hence why I added that I'm thankful for the overall purpose of the display.   For people like myself, and some of the historians and authors out there, researching and documenting details are extremely difficult as is. Displays with equipment loaned directly from SOCOM mixed with displays of airsoft and other things are greatly misleading.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_127/449652_going_for_a_1993_Somalia_car15_build_and_need_your_help.html

I believe this is the thread you were looking for, it has been set to prevent it from being lost. It just lives in the A2 forum now.

Thanks! I don't know why, but whenever I found it on google it would take me to the main page here. I appreciate the link!

An awesome place to visit!