The Combat 75 Military Surplus Thread. Past, present and future.

[kebabking]

Decent thread on the white paper.

The general concensuss is of an interesting and we'll thought through IR, with an underfunded mess of a defence white paper. Some of the stuff was just silly, slapdash mistakes - 'Army Chinooks' for example, alongside more serious problems: a military that is going to be much more forward deployed worldwide, while reducing our airlift capabilities to support it by around 30%...

Glasgow accent/all fur coat and nae knickers/Glasgow accent.

 

[StoneRoad]

<snip>However, the wider renting thing applies to all military hardware - we see it in the defence review: unless you (fairly) constantly apply money to your gear for upgrades and refurbishment it quickly becomes obsolete. In the 15 years of Iraq and Afghanistan we effectively stopped spending money on the upgrade paths for anything that didn't get used in the desert, so stuff that should have happily been able to carry on in service for years (decades?) is now going to be turned into razor blades because it is now so behind that no upgrade path is either available, or so expensive as to be impractical. Warrior, AS90, E-3D AWACS, and many others are going for this reason.<snip>

Does that mean some Warriors might end up in the surplus market ?

After having a play day with a Ferret a couple of decades ago, the following afternoon I got invited to try a trip in a Warrior.
That was "interesting" ...
Having the latter would certainly solve having nowhere to park problem ...

 

[A380]

Does that mean some Warriors might end up in the surplus market ?

Who lives in a van? Or wants to?

Van Life is apparently a big thing. Anyone keen? Maybe it will get more popular post-pandemic....wfh in your van. I'm toying with the idea of using a van as a mobile base for cycling in sundry parts of Europe. Sublet the flat and hit the road for 6 months. I'd take my cat. That's probably half...

www.urban75.net

 

[StoneRoad]

vhttps://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/who-lives-in-a-van-or-wants-to.373573/

not enough room inside ...

 

[not-bono-ever]

Apropos of Fuck all but the free Syrian army rebels found a stash of 5000 Stg44’s a decade or so ago and were using them in the conflict.Yankee gun nuts and nazis pay 30k apiece for these ww2 relics

 

[LDC]

Apropos of Fuck all but the free Syrian army rebels found a stash of 5000 Stg44’s a decade or so ago and were using them in the conflict.Yankee gun nuts and nazis pay 30k apiece for these ww2 relics

A smattering of WW2 weapons are still kicking about in that part of the world. This classic was being carried by an ambulance driver there. Particularly impressed with the electrical tape and bit of hosepipe replacement handle!

 

[T & P]

I know fuck all about guns and have little interest in learning much about them, but I like the 'gansta' positioning of the trigger and handle, at right angles from the barrel

 

[Chz]

I know fuck all about guns and have little interest in learning much about them, but I like the 'gansta' positioning of the trigger and handle, at right angles from the barrel

It's more that the clip goes in sideways. But I can see how you'd think that and it's funny as hell now that I see it.

 

[spitfire]

View attachment 260031

A smattering of WW2 weapons are still kicking about in that part of the world. This classic was being carried by an ambulance driver there. Particularly impressed with the electrical tape and bit of hosepipe replacement handle!

I've fired one of them, a bit better looked after than that but it was still like firing some scaffold poles knocked together with nuts and bolts. Fucking burnt my hand on the shroud as well.



eta: Found a pic, definitely a bit newer.

 

[LDC]

Looks like the same version too! It's a small (and geeky) world.

 

[spitfire]

Looks like the same version too! It's a small (and geeky) world.

Thankfully we were shooting at nothing more dangerous than washing machines and old fridges. They don't shoot back.

 

[A380]

Thankfully we were shooting at nothing more dangerous than washing machines and old fridges. They don't shoot back.

View attachment 260059

Did you have to shout ‘freeze!’ before opening fire?

 

[spitfire]

Did you have to shout ‘freeze!’ before opening fire?

There was no quarter given or asked for.

 

[Idris2002]

Was this when you were in Fianna Eireann?

 

[spitfire]

Was this when you were in Fianna Eireann?

Haha. No, we had Gustavs. Only NCOs were allowed to fire those though. I was given an FN to play with. But we also had similar vintage weapons as the sten as fire support, the estimable Bren, still in service in 1988.

They even let me fire the FN.

(should stress this was not full time army, I was a weekend warrior only)


The picture above was taken in Oklahoma, specially licensed full auto day out.

 

[StoneRoad]

View attachment 260031

A smattering of WW2 weapons are still kicking about in that part of the world. This classic was being carried by an ambulance driver there. Particularly impressed with the electrical tape and bit of hosepipe replacement handle!

That looks remarkably like a mutilated twist-grip off a motorbike.
Plus some snazzy welding ...

 

[LDC]

That looks remarkably like a mutilated twist-grip off a motorbike.
Plus some snazzy welding ...

Yeah, think it's not hosepipe actually when I looked closely again, it's more like something you suggested. Think the welding might be original tbh. Imagine it coming in from France in the 1940s is the most likely route of how it ended up there.

 

[StoneRoad]

Years ago, when I was in the ROC, as usual after our training exercises we couldn't do anything until after the debrief, so we needed to find something else. That was usually a map-reading exercise / treasure hunt, ending at a decent pub ...
This time, however, our officer had finagled us a visit to a rifle range as the last part of the "hunt" before ending up at a suitable establishment for drinks and food. Turned out that I already knew the range officer (a major in the TA).
So, after a safety briefing, we all got to lie down and fire 5 + 5 rounds at a fairly short range.
I'm a short-arse so they had to find an SLR with a shorter stock for me, they did find one, but that put me in the last group to fire.
During the briefing, the range officer said that if someone hadn't live fired before, a grouping within the width of your spread fingers was quite good.
Most people got near that, or thereabouts.
Clever clogs here, managed to get my two closest rounds within about 2" and all ten well within my small hand's width.
Range officer was impressed.
I wasn't, my shoulder was sore, despite really tucking the stock into place and my hearing, even with cans and plugs took a while to get back to normal.

 

[T & P]

View attachment 260031

A smattering of WW2 weapons are still kicking about in that part of the world. This classic was being carried by an ambulance driver there. Particularly impressed with the electrical tape and bit of hosepipe replacement handle!

I might have complimented this gun earlier but come to think of it, it’s rather discriminatory against us left-handers, certainly if the magazine’s orientation is permanently fixed

 

[spitfire]

Years ago, when I was in the ROC, as usual after our training exercises we couldn't do anything until after the debrief, so we needed to find something else. That was usually a map-reading exercise / treasure hunt, ending at a decent pub ...
This time, however, our officer had finagled us a visit to a rifle range as the last part of the "hunt" before ending up at a suitable establishment for drinks and food. Turned out that I already knew the range officer (a major in the TA).
So, after a safety briefing, we all got to lie down and fire 5 + 5 rounds at a fairly short range.
I'm a short-arse so they had to find an SLR with a shorter stock for me, they did find one, but that put me in the last group to fire.
During the briefing, the range officer said that if someone hadn't live fired before, a grouping within the width of your spread fingers was quite good.
Most people got near that, or thereabouts.
Clever clogs here, managed to get my two closest rounds within about 2" and all ten well within my small hand's width.
Range officer was impressed.
I wasn't, my shoulder was sore, despite really tucking the stock into place and my hearing, even with cans and plugs took a while to get back to normal.

On one of our trips to the range the end of the day was the NCO's turn, we were in the butts doing the targets.

They fired 4 shots on semi at 400 yards, 300 yards, 200 yards and then at 100 yards they opened up with the remaining rounds on full auto. Absolutely frightened the shite out of us at the wrong end of the range when the bank behind the targets erupted with 8 guns firing 7.62. Totes hilaire.

And yeah, they do have a kick.

 

[A380]

 

[existentialist]

View attachment 260227

You can see where they photoshopped out the stool

 

[A380]

You can see where they photoshopped out the stool

And the conveyor belt.

 

[LDC]

View attachment 260227

Asking for a caption competition that is!

 

[T & P]

Asking for a caption competition that is!

Air shuttle service to the forthcoming Festival of Brexit unveiled.

 

[fishfinger]

Is it a new cheaper troop transport helicopter?

 

[StoneRoad]

There'll be an ex-Hawk available shortly, but it will need fetching and then repairs.

[the two pilots are safe]

 

[sleaterkinney]

Pevensey Castle in Sussex was begun by the Romans in the 290s and later adapted to become a medieval castle. The site is so defensively important that it was refortified during World War 2.

 

[David Clapson]

Turn up your speakers....

 

[bmd]

View attachment 260031

A smattering of WW2 weapons are still kicking about in that part of the world. This classic was being carried by an ambulance driver there. Particularly impressed with the electrical tape and bit of hosepipe replacement handle!

Isn't the grip a handlebar end? I mean, we've all been there. Looking at your STG44 like "this needs something" gazing off into the far distance when, suddenly, who should appear around the corner but Dave on his bike. Shoot Dave, steal grip, job done.