SLR / SA80 or M16!

Just remembered something which has confused whilst day dreaming of carefree times spent in mud & rain............. Imagine infantry section advancing to contact, opposition put up resistance from afar & observant squaddy sees where it's coming from. "Watch my trace" he shouts ( or used to shout), slips in a tracer round in his .303" and marks the target.

What's the drill with magazine type weaponry like SLR & SA80 which don't have an easily accessible breech ?

Gordon. wrote:

Quote :

No Op BANNER tours then, Gordon ?

After my time Brum

No Annual Classification then ?

'ang on a minute . . . that question was asked on the 2nd of June last year !

Did I put a second class stamp on it or something ?

I never fired tracer so i wouldn't know really, is this an Infantry thing?

jim wrote:

I never fired tracer so i wouldn't know really, is this an Infantry thing?

Same as Jim.

Never fired any tracer rounds.

I think the GPMG had them in some sort of order in their belts. I never fired the GPMG but did use the old Bren upgraded to 7.62 high vel rounds.

We also had Brownings .303s which where damned heavy, for cupola mounting on our AVREs. I never even saw these fired let alone fired them.

Personal weapon most of the time was the 9mm SMG.

In fact, we had Brownings, Carl Gustavs A/T, and 165mm demolition guns on the Cent AVRE and in 3 years never saw any of these weapons fired or used on the ranges. I wonder why they gave them to us ?

Every fifth round on a LMG belt was Tracer, that enabled the No 2 to spot.

Shelldrake wrote:

Every fifth round on a LMG belt was Tracer, that enabled the No 2 to spot.

LMG Sir ?

BELT Sir ?

With a magazine of twenty rounds, load !

brum wrote:

Shelldrake wrote:

Every fifth round on a LMG belt was Tracer, that enabled the No 2 to spot.

LMG Sir ?

BELT Sir ?

With a magazine of twenty rounds, load !

Aye, but I bet it stopped them getting sore thumbs from pressing the rounds into the mags Brum ?

I hated that.

brum wrote:

Shelldrake wrote:

Every fifth round on a LMG belt was Tracer, that enabled the No 2 to spot.

LMG Sir ?

BELT Sir ?

With a magazine of twenty rounds, load !

Amdt No 1.


Delete:- LMG


Insert:- GPMG

[quote="pete26"][quote="brum"]

Shelldrake wrote:

Every fifth round on a LMG belt was Tracer, that enabled the No 2 to spot.

Aye, but I bet it stopped them getting sore thumbs from pressing the rounds into the mags Brum ?


I always had bother when pushing 5 rounds from the charger into the breech of a
No.4 (having set them up one up.one down) until I trimmed back my thumb nail so it wasn't snagged on the metalwork. Then I'd got trouble squeezing blackheads.........

And that tracer thing Jim...... Yes it was a foot slogger SOP. Didn't do much of it,
but we were taught they kept a few loose tracers in a fag packet, or somewhere, for target identification. Easy to slip one in on top of what was in the mag of an Enfield when the bolt was opened and certainly there was no thought of loosing off half a mag on a Bren.

As an apprentice, I qualified on the SLR,Bren and SMG.
Never saw an SLR or Bren again,apart from MPC courses.I lugged a SMG all over Germany (no mag) and actually fired it once in 4 years. I think i fired it one more time in Singapore,and that was that..

I ran the Weapons Instructional Wing at 11 Sig Regt Catterick 1968-72 and taught Weapons & Fieldcraft for the R Signals Staff-Sergeants Courses. Our weapons were SLR, SMG, LMG (7.62mm), 3.5 Rocket launcher & 9mm Browning Pistol. We also borrowed locally the GPMG & Carl Gustav 84mm for additional instruction. Further weapons were taught as background activity such as 36 grenades, 2 inch Mortar, One & half inch Schemullie & smoke grenades. We also had a US Military smooth grenade which was a version of their M67 grenade, but shown as interest background activity only.The SSgt's Course covered a six week period and other subjects taught by my Instructor colleagues included Drill, Regimental Accounts, NBC and 'Q' Accounts.

During week five of the course we spent 5 days at the Tank ranges at Warcop where live firing took place plus the Course personnel participated in a night exercise.

My memory is a bit rusty as it is over 40 years since leaving Catterick but I hope my facts/figures are correct.

Never fired Tracer, either.
Fired SLR, SMG, LMG, GPMG, Browning 9mm, Shotgun, LAWS 66mm, the one that fired those large nylon rounds in NI, can`t recall the name.
But never any with tracer rounds.
I was REME after all and firing guns was a strange thing to be doing.

Firing guns is very strange..Noisy bloody things..Shouldn`t have been allowed..

And dangerous.
Guns are heavy and hurt when you drop one on your foot.

bigmal wrote:

And dangerous.
Guns are heavy and hurt when you drop one on your foot.

Especially when its an artillery piece. Ask Shelldrake !!

bigmal wrote:

the one that fired those large nylon rounds in NI, can`t recall the name.

I was a baton gunner on my solitary Ulster tour in early 1974. They were rubber bullets then shaped like a dildo out of hard black rubber.Thousands got fired, but not a one was ever recovered. We even gave some to WRUC at Newtonards Police station as they didn't have them at that time and asked for some. I was only 20 then and a callow youth and I had no idea what they might use them for.

The PVC rounds came after, but which where more 'hurtful'.

jimsigs1 wrote:

bigmal wrote:

And dangerous.
Guns are heavy and hurt when you drop one on your foot.

Especially when its an artillery piece. Ask Shelldrake !!

We always treated them with respect, never dropped them - they are our Colours dontch'a know? (sniff).

Must have been a bit of an effort hauling them up a flagpole

Gordon. wrote:

Must have been a bit of an effort hauling them up a flagpole

We lowered the flagpole. FFS

Shelldrake,

This is what I call a GUN (taken during my visit to Gettysburg March 2012)

YOU may call that a Gun, I would call it a piece of metal and wood that the Americans have left to rot and go rusty. Needs stripping back and redoing, I dread to think what the inside of the barrel looks like, needs a becket on the end. Disgusting

YOU may call that a Gun, I would call it a piece of metal and wood that the Americans have left to rot and go rusty. Needs stripping back and redoing, I dread to think what the inside of the barrel looks like, needs a becket on the end. Disgusting

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We lowered the flagpole. FFS

Of course...How silly of me..

Routed the Confederates in their day -but then that's the difference between the Royal Regiment and the Union Army of USA. But then I'm only a Scalleyback.

- .- - .- ..-. --- .-. -. --- .-- ... .... . .-.. .-.. -.. .-. .- -.- .

Quote :

But then I'm only a Scalleyback.

And therefore you should know better than to get into debates with inebriated gunners..Shame on you..