Steyres could'nt put a round through a Landrover skin, unless there was access to a long round. However I did have access to Thumrait's Remington 380. Virtually flat out to 800 yards, less kick than a 303 (they said it was worse, they hadn't fired one), great 'scope, outstanding!!
The house boss had an afternoon banging off with an M1. She enjoyed and was good-shooting wise.

Forget No.4's......the No.5 Jungle Carbine was/is the mutts nuts:ok:

Nothing has changed there then!

Anyone at Brize in 87'ish during Taceval when SF mate did something unspeakable with fuelled VC10K and a thunderflash? Guard was beratted by CO and asked why he was seen running away from the incident and not toward the fully fuelled 10k and attached thunderflash!!

Yes, the good old days were better.

We had a RAF medical Service then, with hospitals all around the world providing high standards of care, even for aircrew.:{

You think so? I'm not a fan of heavy recoiling rifles, but I don't think my No. 4 Mk I has that much recoil. The key is you MUST keep the butt stock tight against your shoulder. If you don't, then the rifle will accelerate before hitting your shoulder and it WILL hurt.

But the No. 4 Mk I rifle is rather heavy and the .303 is a bit down on energy compared to 7.62 Nato, IIRC. The No. 4 has very nice sights and a lovely, smooth, fast throw to the bolt. No Mauser-style action that I've used has ever matched the feel of the No. 4 bolt throw. Not all that accurate, however.

The FAL/SLR has a big following, but frankly the appeal escapes me. I've got one and I'm not a fan. The receiver is overly long, putting the handguard and balance point too far forward (unless you are built like a gorilla). It is easy to field strip. But I've jammed mine several times -- open up the gas port just a bit too much and the empty cartridge casings don't fully eject and get caught between the dust shroud and the bolt carrier. I've never particularly enjoyed kick the operating handle of a rifle to get it open...

I find the M14 balances much better for me and has better sights and a better trigger. I've also had better luck with the M14 magazines than FAL mags -- less likely to have the base plate fall off and dump the contents of the magazine at your feet.

Downsides of the M14 is that takedown is more complex and you have to clean from the muzzle. Also the safety lever for the M14 is not in so great a spot.

I've got a couple Garands. They're lovely rifles, but a bit heavier than the M14. Loading them is dodgy, though I've so far managed to avoid M1 thumb.

Shandyman
I was there as a young SAC AATC sitting in Brize Radar (aah those were the days of making ATIS recordings) local control watching the whole thing. Wondering if the crash bays would absorb the subsequent fireball before it engulfed the tower (and me). My how we laughed... not.

Remember a VC-10 in Germany in early 1990's being used as a film prop for some Hollywood blockbuster complete with USAF titles et al- producer storms around playing the 'big shot' chomping on cigar generally being an arrogant tw@t - then, when statically placed under the centre of aircraft attempts to light cigar.

Large aircrew mate appears as if by magic from nowhere, knocks penis extension from shocked luvvie's mouth and proceeds to tell him in no uncertain terms just how big a c*** he was being, what the consequences of his actions were, and what his chances of reproducing were if he repeated them......also threatened to take 'his' VC-10 away

Magic moment - Wasn't you BEags was it?

BTW Film went straight to video

Orac- If you got 40 runs in 30 mins wasn't that you finished for the month? I'll amend the 2128 appropriately......may have forged your sim totals for you in the past……

Maple01, no,'twas not I!


Meedja luvvies are one stage worse than journos in the vicinity of aeroplanes!

40 was the minimum, no maximum thankfully. A long time ago but I believe my highest monthly total was around 600..

40 live/40 Sim IIRC, and no good having 80 live and no sim, axminster shuffle before SLOPs. Never understood that!:confused:

What of the 'Mighty' SMG?

All this talk of boots and rifles! In the good old days we had REAL weapons. Things so bright & beautiful, even those cool pilot sunglasses were no use and they had to put black-out curtains in the aircraft. Rifles were for playing with during our annual skive down at Bisley every year and boots were for wearing with seaboot socks out on the Line. The downside was the genuine grandad shirts - it took years for the collar stud scars to fade after we went to collar attached.

In't good old days we had holiday camps all over the world. Changi was particularly nice. Cheap beer, cheap fags, cheap food, and for the singlies, loads of cheap women. Hong Kong was interesting, over our side the bright lights and good life, over the border, Mau suits and the little red book. A kind of far eastern version of Berlin. Ah! Berlin! the sweet fraulines...

Malta made a nice detachment in January - not too hot but warm enough for shirt sleeves. Cyprus was OK except for the fighting-drunk Pongoes. Germany was of course a piss artist's dream but I remember the girls being exceptionally friendly too.

As ever there was the dread risk of Muharraq, Masirah, Sharjah or that ultimate in misery - Salalah. Khormaksar wasn't exactly a dream location either, towards the end, but it was an OK sort of place up until 1964.

But wherever Innesworth sent you, there was little danger of being shot at or bombed, as even Northern Ireland's "troubles" were still in the future.

Mini skirts and mascara - them really were't days, they surely were.! Sigh.... :ok:

:uhoh:
:suspect:

he's reminiscing about when his legs looked good enough :p

As for 'aircrew arming' pre SLP. We had every type of revolver you could imagine. Very good at bird scaring but little else. Standing at about the 10 yard point we were luck to hit any target let alone the one we were aiming at.

First 9mms we used to fire at 25 yards. Now that was impressive. Then they wanted us to get nice little groups and brought us in to 15 metres.

Me, I thought the nest place for all the bullets was downrange just as fast as I could pull the trigger.

It must have come as a bit of a shock to you, Pontius, when they stopped putting the bullets in from the muzzle end?