Picture of the day

[bdft]

A Soviet Mi-24 Hind pilot with an AKS-74U, Soviet war in Afghanistan, 1980's.

If he goes down he's not going out without a fight. The Mujahideen did not treat Hind pilots very nicely.
"When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, And the women come out to cut up what remains, Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains An' go to your Gawd like a soldier...."

 

[redryder]

delete

 

[Ganderite]

^^ I had an AR-10. I found it a very nice rifle to shoot. Nothing like an FN.

 

[AP]

18467588[/URL]]That right there is one of the rarest and most historically (and financially) valuable pieces of history. It's also one that under the Liberal's gun ban OIC is now prohibited in Canada and must be turned in to be chopped up.

If you think it’s that valuable … plan a trip to the Royal Military Museum in Brussels … they had many dozens of them lining walls and displayed in various designs.

 

[redryder]

^^ I had an AR-10. I found it a very nice rifle to shoot. Nothing like an FN.

Which did you prefer? And why of course.

 

[Ganderite]

I used to have a AR-10. Dutch, I think? Very nice shooting rifle. I preferred it to the FN.

 

[tree mugger]

I used to have a AR-10. Dutch, I think? Very nice shooting rifle. I preferred it to the FN.

Most of the other 7.62 battle rifles are preferable to the FN

 

[Ganderite]

True...

 

[bearhunter]

FN FAL was OK, if nothing else was available.

Clumsy, ergomically incorrect, way to long and very ammo fussy. Relatively realiable under most conditions. Wouldn't recommend shooting it immediately after pulling it off the bottom of a water filled ditch.

FN FALs, you love them or you hate them.

 

[x westie]

FN FAL was OK, if nothing else was available.

Clumsy, ergomically incorrect, way to long and very ammo fussy. Relatively realiable under most conditions. Wouldn't recommend shooting it immediately after pulling it off the bottom of a water filled ditch.

FN FALs, you love them or you hate them.

Yep, definitely long and clumsy , 8-10 of us being jammed into the M113 APC , with our FN rifles and the section C2 , I can certainly see why the C7 rifle is much more handy and user friendly

 

[bearhunter]

Yep, definitely long and clumsy , 8-10 of us being jammed into the M113 APC , with our FN rifles and the section C2 , I can certainly see why the C7 rifle is much more handy and user friendly

Not bashing the AR platform at all, it's excellent, pistol grip rifles don't work well for me ergonomicly. I much prefer the SKS over either of them when push comes to shove.

When it really counted, I turned down the Portuguese manufactured variant of the G3, FN FAL and the Portuguese variant AR10, built by Armalite. All were great/reliable designs and went bang just about every single time. Poor ammo or water in the gas system was the normal reason for a malfunction. The G3 is a roller retarded, blow back design and I've never seen one fail, other than the ammo reliability.

The one thing I don't like about the SKS is that it isn't available in 5.56 Nato, other than a very few that appear every blue moon.

Still dithering on building a 5.56 Nato SKS as an interesting winter project.

 

[maple_leaf_eh]

The AR-10 suffers from a myth that it was poorly designed and had faulty materials. I have seen a video from a reliable contributor who explains the comings and goings at Armalite, and some of the decision processes that delivered substandard rifles. Stoner was not to blame.

For what it's worth, I have been issued in the military or hunted with No.4, No.5, FN C1, C7, C7A1, C7A2, 9mm SMG, SKS, and a selection of bolt actions. The fundamental Armalite platform has all the right stuff, and as the Portuguese paras found in Africa with the AR-10s, it is one I'd take with me anywhere for real.

 

[Buckmastr]

More Soviet-Afghan pics

 

[diopter]

HK 21

 

[Grizzly Adams]

More Soviet-Afghan pics

Nice rifles, they hardly go with the apparently poor quality boots, which are just as important.

Grizz

 

[Buckmastr]

 

[Buckmastr]

"Russian Rambo" - Anatoly Lebed, Lieutenant Colonel of the Special Forces Airborne Forces, Afghanistan, 1987.

Lebed was born in the city of Valga, Estonia. He joined the Soviet Army in 1981 starting his military service in Airborne Troops. He first trained in the 44th Airborne Division in Gaižiūnai in the Lithuania and later served in the 57th Independent Air Assault Brigade in Taldykorgan in the Kazakh SSR.

Opting for a career change, he entered the Lomonosov Military Aviation Technical School graduating as a flight engineer in 1986. He served on combat operations in Afghanistan in 1986–87 as an aircrew member in a helicopter regiment. During this time he served as a flight engineer in a crew of one of the only four men awarded both Hero of Russia and Hero of the Soviet Union titles, then-captain Nikolai Maidanov, often engaging in the ground action himself.

After his return from Afghanistan, he served successively in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, in the Trans-Baikal and Siberian military districts in the 329th Transport & Combat Helicopter Regiment and in the 337th Independent Helicopter Regiment.

He retired to the reserves in 1994 and worked for the Afghan Veterans benevolent fund.

He joined a group of Russian veterans who volunteered in the Kosovo War (1998–99). In 1999, he went to the North Caucasus as a volunteer in the combined militias after purchasing his own equipment and flying to Makhachkala in Dagestan. When military operations moved into Chechnya in October 1999, he went to Moscow and re-enlisted in the service signing a contract with the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation and immediately returned to Chechnya to participate in counter-terrorism operations. From 1999 to 2007, he made over 10 trips to Chechnya and participated in special operations.

In 2003, while engaged in combat in the Ulus- Kert mountains, he stepped on a mine and lost a foot. He refused to resign from the Armed Forces, his superior physical fitness allowed him to remain in the service, to carry on parachuting (over 840 jumps) and to still do martial arts with the prosthesis.
___
Source: Reddit, Wikipedia, @incrediblehistory

 

[Buckmastr]

Soviet Spetsnaz operator with an M1 Garand captured from the Mujahideen, Afghanistan, 1980s.

 

[Buckmastr]

Another Soviet Afghan pic

 

[Buckmastr]

Shadow Sniper Team of US Army Task Force 2/69 eating their Thanksgiving meal while keeping an eye for insurgents. OP Hotel Ramadi, Iraq November 2005.