This weapon was discovered by me moments ago. I want to show it to you and explain how it works. First, the enemy is out of sight. You have good reason to know he is hiding in an area. So you fire this weapon. The round passes the enemy then explodes sending shrapnel back into the enemy. Taking him out. This can be a game changer to fight terrorism. Has this been discussed? [video=youtube;W-7L0Frj6vQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-7L0Frj6vQ[/video]
It's nothing new, R&D began during the 1990's. Once finally developed and field tested it was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010. I'm old schooled, I prefer to stick with something that works, the "blooper" aka M-79 grenade launcher. At 6 lbs. a lot lighter than the 14 lbs XM25 CDTE.
I was wondering so put it out there for experts. I know when I was in the Army, we had the BAR. It is a heavy weapon to lug around. Not many of us desired to have to carry one. We had the grenade launcher one used on our M-1 Garands. I never fired a grenade from that platform.
From those who used the BAR, they say it was the best Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) ever to be fielded into combat. At 16 lbs. empty it was a heavy weapon but to be able to control a full automatic rifle it has to be heavy. As you may remember the BAR had little recoil compared to the M-1 Garand. A extremely accurate weapon when fired in the semi auto fire. Rule of thumb: Every 10% increase in weight of a rifle or handgun...10% decrease in recoil. I got to fire the BAR in a familiarization course once because Marine ship detachments still had a few BAR in their armories aboard ship during the 60's and 70's. The full automatic M-14 was suppose to be the BAR replacement but the M-14 at 9.5 lbs. was just to light to be able to control the weapon at full automatic fire. So during the Vietnam War we never really had a true SAW. The Automatic Rifleman in a fire team just had a M-16 A1 sometimes with a bi-pod that he kept on full auto firing those small little varmint rounds (5.56) at Charley. So the Army and Marines went almost 20 years without a real SAW until the 1980's when the M-249 SAW was adopted weighing in at 17 lbs. empty. But it's still chambered for the 5.56 varmint cartridge. So Robert, what was your personal opinion of the BAR ?
I set the Fort Ord record on the 300 and 500 yd ranges so know the BAR very well. Rather than recoil into the shooter, it actually pulls away slightly. I never could have got the record but for my ability to squeeze just 2 rounds per pull. More and the barrel simply moved off the bullseye. Also, at those distances, we fired prone. This is the best way to fire it in fact. The bipod supports the end of the weapon. It has a metal shoulder plate that helps steady it in your shoulder. For fully automatic weapons, back then, I liked the M-60 but never fired it for qualification. I enjoyed the M-14 as well though the one I had issued to me in Germany never was fired by me. The M-14 did move as you say and to keep it aimed at a target was difficult due to the bouncing. At least the 3 weapons ammo had similar punch.
You're 100% correct. It was his weapon of choice. He would break into National Guard armories and always took the BAR's and left the Thompson machine guns behind.
