Really bad weapons...

[HorseSoldier]

Strangely, I used to date a girl years ago whose mother owned a company that made pretty good money doing surveillance on warehoused rockets and missiles, mostly (from what I gathered) watching for signs that the fuels were decaying or leaking. Apparently a pretty involved process.

[dragoon500ly]

Face it, the only decent anti-tank weapon that the Soviets had was the RPG7...and it still had a high misfire rate...not to mention, since it was fin-stabilized, that cross-winds played holy havoc with accuracy!

In spite of the stated effective range and the fancy sight, most RPG users just use the iron sights and don't fire at anything more than 250 meters.

[dragoon500ly]

Back in 1895, the US Army made the decision to retire its collection of Colt and Smith & Wesson .45 revolvers, most of these weapons dated back to 1873 and there was a lot of intrest in the new smokeless powder cartridges. So Colt sold the Army on what became the M1895 .38-caliber revolver. It was a smaller caliber, it was double-action and it was easier to shoot than the old thumb-buster single action revolvers. Looked like a great weapon.

Until the Spanish American War.

In the aftermath of the SAW, the US came into possession of the Phillippine Islands, and soon found themselves involved in putting down the local resistance. It was quickly discovered that the .38-caliber round just didn't have the same knock-down effect as the old .45 and the US Army scrambled to refurbish and reissue as many of the "old" revolvers as possible. It also spurred Colt to develop the M-1911 pistol, one of the longest serving, and most reliable, hard-hitting weapons of the 20th Century.

Even though the M1895 emerged with its reputation in tatters, it did see a second chance during World War One, when cases of the pistol were brought out of storage and issued as training weapons for the Doughboys.

[Panther Al]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

In the aftermath of the SAW, the US came into possession of the Phillippine Islands, and soon found themselves involved in putting down the local resistance. It was quickly discovered that the .38-caliber round just didn't have the same knock-down effect as the old .45 and the US Army scrambled to refurbish and reissue as many of the "old" revolvers as possible. It also spurred Colt to develop the M-1911 pistol, one of the longest serving, and most reliable, hard-hitting weapons of the 20th Century.

You know that whole escapade as always left me amused:

Here you have US soldiers in a far off land fighting die-hard muslim insurgents and it is found that their 9mm(ish) pistols are not up to the job, so they bring back a .45 pistol.
Fast forward a hundred years and here you have US soldiers in a far off land...

What is they say about learning from history?



On a earlier post about fuel tanks and tank drivers, just think of the M1 driver: fuel tank to the left, fuel tank to the right, a hatch that won't open with NV installed, a heater that always leaks a few inches behind his head to the left, and a halon nozzle a few inches behind his head to the right.

[dragoon500ly]

You know that whole escapade as always left me amused:

Here you have US soldiers in a far off land fighting die-hard muslim insurgents and it is found that their 9mm(ish) pistols are not up to the job, so they bring back a .45 pistol.
Fast forward a hundred years and here you have US soldiers in a far off land...

What is they say about learning from history?

That the US military doesn't read its own history? LOL!

You can almost see some staff weenie telling the general all about how cool the 9mm is and how everybody else in NATO is using it...

Makes you wish that ole George Patton was there to say "It takes a .45 to knock the $#&(%^(&@%^@@^%$^@ down for good!"

On a earlier post about fuel tanks and tank drivers, just think of the M1 driver: fuel tank to the left, fuel tank to the right, a hatch that won't open with NV installed, a heater that always leaks a few inches behind his head to the left, and a halon nozzle a few inches behind his head to the right.

Could be worse, at least he doesn't have 30 rounds of main gun on either side...

[Panther Al]

I always thought that the US going to the 9mm as something of an unofficial apology for forcing the 7.62 round down NATO's throat only to dump it ourselves a few years later.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Panther Al

I always thought that the US going to the 9mm as something of an unofficial apology for forcing the 7.62 round down NATO's throat only to dump it ourselves a few years later.

And then forcing the 5.56mm NATO round down NATO's throats...