10 May 03

Small arms feedback from the Gulf War from a SpecOps friend in the area. This is confirmation from the First Gulf War:

"The M855, steel penetrator, 62grain 223 round, combined with the short, M4 rifle has, once again, established a poor reputation. Most of our opponents were skinny and lightly clothed. None wore body armor. At close range, our rounds easily penetrated through and through, but cases of immediate incapacitation were rare, even when they were hit several times in rapid succession. Many complaints on this issue. The M855 does penetrate solid barriers, but no better than the Soviet 7.62X39.

At long ranges, the M855 round does not have enough power. At those ranges solid hits did not take people down quickly. Damage was disappointing. Again, there were many complaints.

Our soldiers and Marines did their job. They hit, and hit consistently. The M855 ammunition failed, and failed consistently. An upgrade is long overdue.

With this experience, we now all have a strong opinion that a better caliber is needed, before the next war! Right now, there is a movement underway within US Army Special Operations Command to develop a SOF Combat Rifle (our next individual rifle) for Special Forces. When asked, we all expressed the opinion that we need better terminal performance on people, at all ranges, right out to five hundred meters."

Comment: In Vietnam, our opponents were also skinny and lightly clothed, but a single hit from an M16 shooting 55gr hardball almost always took them down in short order. The 55gr hardball round we used then was limited to 150m in range and didn't penetrate well at any range, but it did a nice job otherwise.

Evidence suggests that the new, short M4 rifle, combined with the 62gr "penetrator" round fuses the worse of both worlds! Penetration is nothing special, and terminal performance is poor at any range. Let us pray that bureaucrats stop dithering and correct this obvious deficiency before the start of the next war!

/John

10 May 03

From a student:

"I am entering the Cook County (IL) Sheriff's Police Academy. I planned on buying and using a G23 (40S&W). I have been informed that Glocks and H&K USPs are not allowed, only S&W, SIG, Beretta, and Ruger. Only calibers allowed are 9mm and 45ACP; no 40S&W and no 357SIG."

Comment: Some police officials bring their personal political agendas to the job and see nothing wrong with imposing them on everyone else. Someone entrenched at the Cook County SO "just doesn't like Glocks," and it will be that way until he leaves or is (finally) overruled.

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened."

Winston Churchill

/John