[jester]

Enemy Weapons;

I would think it would be universal for a long range patrol or raiding force to use enemy weapons for the reasons you mentioned, to be less conspicious as well as for the lack of resupply and for leaving less of a footprint for intel.

I mean, if humping a M16 well you will run out of ammo eventualy. And if you get into a fire fight well, the sound is different and will draw every hostile in the region as each shot you make will scream, "AMERICAN! AMERICAN AMERICAN!!!" And how can they track you from engagements, if they find AK cassings, but if you leave a nice trail of 5.56 casings well its just as good as a trail of breadcrumbs. And of course locals or being seen from a distance. A glancing shot alot of times they will identify by the weapons carried. So imagine this scenario;

You are a member of the GRU, you are following reports of an enemy patrol. You hit village of old folks and women. They saw some guys yesterday morning wearing camo. It is a lesson in futility to get the description of the type of camo, to them it is all the same.

But they had "BLACK RIFLES!, Not wooden rifles." POOF!!! You struck gold! If they say, "They wore a camo uniform like you and a rifle like you." Well then that is just a patrol of some local unit and quite possibly ignored.

As for mules and horses,

I know portions of Death Valley and the Northern Rim of the Grand Canyon and Red Rock Canyon areas have several large herds of wild buros that are pretty sizable. I doubt they would suffer to much from human hunting as they are in the middle of the desert. Sure, they are in and around major highway routes, but, by then, who will have the fuel to make it to those islolated areas in the middle of such inhospitible areas? And horses are dumb but smart! After a few attacks, they will llearn and take off to areas less populated and less threatening to people.

As for numbers, we on the old site actualy had some numbers. I would check the BLM as I think they are the ones who manage the wild horse and burro adoption program they have here. But I want to say the number is about 7 million.