RAF Sidearms
I've just pulled my old green cards from my desk and my short barrelled L85 carbine is actually called an L22! I didn't know that.
It was really good for squirelling away down the side of a seat and I would have preferred to have it in my ejection seat PSP than a rubber dinghy - especially when flying over desert badlands when a rubber dinghy is s0d all use!
AlR - quite!
LJ
It was really good for squirelling away down the side of a seat and I would have preferred to have it in my ejection seat PSP than a rubber dinghy - especially when flying over desert badlands when a rubber dinghy is s0d all use!
AlR - quite!
LJ
Personal Weapons
Slightly off point; 1966/67 RAF Khormaksar, Aden. The personal weapon for airmen was the Lee Enfield .303 plus 5 rounds. Every now and then the rounds that had been used for issue to the station guards were taken to the range at RAF Steamer Point and fired off. On one occasion when I was there only 1 in 5 rounds went bang. So then they issued us with 10 rounds!
Aaron.
Aaron.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
I remember the Pakistani ammo, economical with the powder, some rounds didn't leave the barrel let alone hit the target.
I remember firing the Sten, I was end of the line when I had a miss Fire, a second round fed in and the first fired out and the second fired right. It was fortunate the there was no one neat me.
I remember firing the Sten, I was end of the line when I had a miss Fire, a second round fed in and the first fired out and the second fired right. It was fortunate the there was no one neat me.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Not quite.
Actually at school I think we fired rather more than in the Service. I remember SMLE and Bren at Beckingham and snap at 400 yards. In Service only on the 25 yard range.
We also did .303 firing at school, no ear defenders in those days.
Actually at school I think we fired rather more than in the Service. I remember SMLE and Bren at Beckingham and snap at 400 yards. In Service only on the 25 yard range.
We also did .303 firing at school, no ear defenders in those days.
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We also did .303 firing at school, no ear defenders in those days.
Sadly, not quite enough for a Service disability
For the subsequent 50 years of shooting, I protected my ears and eyes assiduously.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
MPN, me too but they paid me as we had no hearing protection in the 60s to mid 70s although my loss characteristic fitted gunfire more than jet noise.
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Sadly, not quite enough for a Service disability
Not having the benefit of the NHS, I paid good money for that instant specialist medical opinion!
Being an ex-pat I wasn't aware of any possible compensation, until recently, only to find that HMG have stopped giving it out
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My retirement medical, with hearing test at specialists down Andover way, IIRC ... he said "you clearly have a problem, as you don't look at my eyes, you try to lipread to reinforce what you think your hearing." After all the technical bits, he then said "Yes, you have serious loss in this frequency band, which is absolutely typical of exposure to .303"
But sadly i wasn't quite deaf enough, so no extra pennies for me
But sadly i wasn't quite deaf enough, so no extra pennies for me
I recall doing an audiogram on an annual medical. MO scans the printout and says triumphantly, "You're on helicopters, aren't you?". "No". "Then you must be on Hercules". "Yes". Evidently they both wiped out the same frequencies. In the case of the Herc it was caused by doing the walkround under the running ATM. Ear-defenders? No chance, though we were issued with little ear plugs to ram in our lugholes.
To return to the thread, on supply dropping sorties in Borneo the Army insisted we take loaded Stirling SMGs, one per crewmember. These we locked in the fwd loo...not an officer's weapon, don't you know! At the DZ the nav had to lie prone in the bomb aimers compartment below the Hastings Flight Deck, so we gave him all our bullet proof vests to lie on, reasoning that they, and if need be he, would safeguard us wot were up above.
To return to the thread, on supply dropping sorties in Borneo the Army insisted we take loaded Stirling SMGs, one per crewmember. These we locked in the fwd loo...not an officer's weapon, don't you know! At the DZ the nav had to lie prone in the bomb aimers compartment below the Hastings Flight Deck, so we gave him all our bullet proof vests to lie on, reasoning that they, and if need be he, would safeguard us wot were up above.
When I was in Borneo in 1965 I was issued with a S&W .38 and two boxes of six round 1947 ammunition. These would struggle, and in several cases didn't, to get out of the barrel. Somebody told me that, with a little bit of modification, you use 9mm. ammunition.
I begged for some 9mm. from the Gurkhas and they obliged with a box of 1,000 rounds. A roll of blade tape used on the leading edge of the Whirlwind's rotor blades to prevent corrosion would tear easily into approx 5mm. strips. Winding these around the case and filling in the extractor indent of a 9mm. round left you with a ridge that would retain the cartridge in the S&W chamber when the hammer hit it.
You couldn't miss! The S&W is far better balanced than the 9mm Browning and the extra kick from having a higher charge was unnoticeable. Six rounds into a fuel drum at 25 yards was simple. The only drawback was that to unload the chambers you had to push the spent cartridges out with a screwdriver. The cases weren't reused and in any case they were a tighter fit when they came out than when they went in.
I put about 400 rounds though it in a couple of weeks without any ill effects on the weapon.
I begged for some 9mm. from the Gurkhas and they obliged with a box of 1,000 rounds. A roll of blade tape used on the leading edge of the Whirlwind's rotor blades to prevent corrosion would tear easily into approx 5mm. strips. Winding these around the case and filling in the extractor indent of a 9mm. round left you with a ridge that would retain the cartridge in the S&W chamber when the hammer hit it.
You couldn't miss! The S&W is far better balanced than the 9mm Browning and the extra kick from having a higher charge was unnoticeable. Six rounds into a fuel drum at 25 yards was simple. The only drawback was that to unload the chambers you had to push the spent cartridges out with a screwdriver. The cases weren't reused and in any case they were a tighter fit when they came out than when they went in.
I put about 400 rounds though it in a couple of weeks without any ill effects on the weapon.
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Off topic........as a cadet I was fortunate to get sent to Laarbruch for annual camp. Whilst walking through a secure building, I noticed a rack of what looked like sub-machine guns beneath a ribbon like plastic sheeting.
Does anyone know what the weapons were and where on base I probably was??? It may have been some sort of c&c building, the doors were thicker than that Tourist personality on here
Does anyone know what the weapons were and where on base I probably was??? It may have been some sort of c&c building, the doors were thicker than that Tourist personality on here
The Canadian Arctic Rangers are still issued .303 Lee Enfields. The planned replacement was recently cancelled after complaints. Nothing works better in the cold. In practice, it is used against animals which would otherwise be higher up the Arctic food chain.
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Off topic........as a cadet I was fortunate to get sent to Laarbruch for annual camp. Whilst walking through a secure building, I noticed a rack of what looked like sub-machine guns beneath a ribbon like plastic sheeting.
Unless there was an exercise going on at the time (in which case there would be weapons everywhere), you were most likely to have been either in the police flight or the guardroom where the Aug Force weapons were kept, although they would have been predominately rifles.
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I bought a 1944 Enfield No.4 Mk1 about a year ago. Only put a few dozen rounds through it but it's unbelievably accurate with no optics. I cant imagine firing it without hearing protection though!
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Nick, the earlier version had a different rear sight and was in use into WW 2 having been a sniper rifle in WW 1 out to 1000 yards or so.
I was recently staying in Guest 'Officers' Accommodation on a base of a 'valued' NATO ally. Each room had a hotel-room type safe, which I thought was nice, until it was pointed out to me that all officers in this country are issued pistols on commissioning and they have to take them everywhere, and the safes were for weapons safe-keeping.
Unrelatedly, I don't know why so many people have got it in for the Browning L9 A1 9 mm pistol. A good round, a reliable weapon which is accurate (as much as a pistol can be). I think I am one of the few of my Branch who have every 'made ready' in anger; suffice to say I was trembling so much when this happened that I had to place the weapon on a desk to line the magazine up.
Unrelatedly, I don't know why so many people have got it in for the Browning L9 A1 9 mm pistol. A good round, a reliable weapon which is accurate (as much as a pistol can be). I think I am one of the few of my Branch who have every 'made ready' in anger; suffice to say I was trembling so much when this happened that I had to place the weapon on a desk to line the magazine up.