[TML] Me and my Mossberg

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 10/22/07 8:12 AM, Tod Glenn wrote:

> During my time in service, both as an Infantryman and Infantry
> officer, I never had an issue with my M16.  There were major problems
> with the weapon early in the Vietnam war, but most of those were
> addressed long ago.  The fact is that the M16 family, when properly
> maintained, is a very reliable system, and despite stories to the
> contrary, it has proven to be very reliable in the sandbox, and most
> troops are highly satisfied with it.
> 
> The M16 is not the AK, no doubt.  But the AK sacrifices everything
> for reliability - including accuracy.  Yes, I want my gun to go bang
> every time.  But I also want to be able to hit the guy shooting at me.

During Basic (1989) on a 7 mile march, the ejection port was closed the
whole time.  During the mock ambush, the 1st round jammed, and it took 2 Dis
to get it loose.  Yes, these were in fact A1 models, which I also used while
stationed in Berlin (I guess techies don't need the new, good stuff), so I
can't speak to later improvements.  But the Army only changed over starting
in the late 80's, so there were a bunch of then still in service in the
90's.

But, if it doesn't go bang, the accuracy is 0%.



On 10/22/07 8:12 AM, Rupert Boleyn wrote:

> When you look at the expected user, the AK is accurate enough - it's not
> going to make most of the intended, let alone it's actual, users worse
> shots than they already are.

True, I was on the low end of qualifying, and usually had to go thru 2 or 3
rounds of practice-qualify even to get that far.  And I didn't seem to be
all that unusual.



On 10/22/07 8:12 AM, Anthony Jackson wrote:

> A lot of the grousing can be assigned to cult of the rifle
> people, who refuse to believe that marksmanship is not of paramount
> importance.

In my case, *lack* of marksmanship certainly trumped whatever the weapons
qualities may have been.  :)