Question on the HK 416

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by waiting4something

In weapon weight sure they had it hard, but they carried less rounds and equipment back then too. Body armour didn't really come into play until Korea. Look at the guys of today compared to the guys of yesterday. Today the guys can't even run! They trot and jog. The guys of yester year ran, because they didn't have to carry much compared to what they force on troops of today. So bitch about a M249 being to heavy? God damn right I will. It's not like you just through on some duece gear with water, a chow, and your ammo, and grap your weapon. They load you down with a bunch of shit. When your foot mobile weight is your enemy.

I understand what you're saying but I do have some level of disagreement. Back then they didn't always carry less gear or ammo and I fully understand that once the military makes one thing lighter they give you more crap to carry so the weight ends up being the same.

When my father went to Vietnam to the time that I was in the Reserves, we carried about the same weight of gear despite the decade or so of time difference. I carried a pack, sleeping bag, 2 x Claymores, entrenching tool, the M60, 300-rds of ammo for it, four litres of water, 3 days worth of rations, a couple of smoke grenades, a steel helmet and a bunch of other crap I can't remember at the moment.

That was my unit, other units had different ideas of what the gunner should carry but believe me, nobody was running like a sprinter, it was a slow, tedious jog - the Army wants packhorses not racehorses and we were all foot mobile.

I'm not trying to get into a "who's got the bigger dick competition" with you but it seems that the weight of gear you're carrying was pretty much the same amount that I was carrying when I was in during the 1980s - they used to joke that if you could carry all the required gear and still run then you had obviously left something out of your kit. I understand the bitching about the overall weight carried but I still have little sympathy for bitching about the weight of a 5.56mmN compared to a 7.62mmN MG