# How Marines Feel About Their Gear



## GAP (25 Jan 2007)

How Marines Feel About Their Gear
Military.com | January 23, 2007
Article Link

(Editor’s note:  This piece was forwarded to the Military.com staff without attribution, which is usually a show-stopper for us, but it has such good detail that we wanted to share it with readers of Warfighter’s Forum.) 

1) The M-16 rifle: Thumbs down. Chronic jamming problems with the talcum powder-like sand over there. The M-4 carbine version is more popular because it's lighter and shorter, but it has jamming problems also. Marines like the ability to mount the various optical gunsights and weapons lights on the picattiny rails, but the weapon itself is not great in a desert environment. They all hate the 5.56mm (.223) round because of its poor penetration on the cinderblock structures common over there.  Even torso hits can't be reliably counted on to put the enemy down.

2) The M243 SAW (squad assault weapon), .223 cal. Drum-fed light machine gun: Big thumbs down. Universally considered a piece of junk. Chronic jamming problems, most of which require partial disassembly (not fun in the middle of a firefight).

3) The M9 Beretta 9mm: Thumbs neutral. Good gun, performs well in desert environment; but Marines don’t like the 9mm cartridge. The use of handguns for self-defense is actually fairly common. Same old story on the 9mm: They’ve seen bad guys hit multiple times but continue to fight.

4) Mossberg 12ga. Military shotgun: Thumbs up.  The Marines use this weapon frequently for clearing houses with good effect.

5) The M240 Machine Gun: 7.62 Nato (.308) cal. belt fed machine gun, developed to replace the old M-60:  Thumbs up. Accurate, reliable, and the 7.62 round puts 'em down. Originally developed as a vehicle mounted weapon, more and more are being dismounted and taken into the field by infantry. The 7.62 round chews up the structure over there.

6) The M2 .50 cal heavy machine gun: Thumbs way, way up. "Ma deuce" is still worth her considerable weight in gold. The ultimate fight stopper, and the most coveted weapon in theater.
More on link


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## Exarecr (25 Jan 2007)

The good ole "50". Every grunt I ever new loved to fire the beast of the air waves. Just leave the receiver group with somebody else thank you very much.


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## Pampers (25 Jan 2007)

Was teaching it to the troops last night

What's old is new, and Mr. Browning's finest is coming back into vogue after a much lamented disappearance.


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## FormerHorseGuard (25 Jan 2007)

watched a program on the military channel ( star choice 555) and they were rating the weapons that were used across the world since the out break of war from WW1 to present more or less and they rated the M16 as number 2 but the old stand by M14  was rated lower but they said it was being bought back to service for overseas because of sand jamming the M16 family. anyone else hear that?


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## chanman (25 Jan 2007)

It's been posted here back in 2005, along with debunking: http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/36600.0.html

Also, how did someone at military.com not spot the M243/249 SAW typo?


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## nowhere_man (26 Jan 2007)

GAP said:
			
		

> How Marines Feel About Their Gear
> Military.com | January 23, 2007
> Article Link
> 
> (4) Mossberg 12ga. Military shotgun: Thumbs up.  The Marines use this weapon frequently for clearing houses with good effect.



I hope that the military versions are better than the civy ones The mossbergs that I have seen wernt worth the metal their made of. I'd feel a whole lot better with my Remington 870 going into a house.


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## PJ D-Dog (28 Jan 2007)

GAP said:
			
		

> How Marines Feel About Their Gear
> Military.com | January 23, 2007
> Article Link
> 
> 4) Mossberg 12ga. Military shotgun: Thumbs up.  The Marines use this weapon frequently for clearing houses with good effect.



The Marines have done away with the M500.  They now use the M1014 automatic shotgun although a few M500 may be kicking around in some places.  The Navy still uses the M500.

PJ D-Dog


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## Big Red (28 Jan 2007)

The initial post is bullshit.


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## armyvern (28 Jan 2007)

Big Red said:
			
		

> The initial post is bullshit.



I'm sure you mean the article in the original post was Bullshit!!


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## GAP (28 Jan 2007)

As noted at the top of the article...



> Editor’s note:  This piece was forwarded to the Military.com staff without attribution, which is usually a show-stopper for us, but it has such good detail that we wanted to share it with readers of Warfighter’s Forum



I don't know one way or the other at this late date, but posted it as information. If you have better data, by all means fire away.


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## Big Red (28 Jan 2007)

The Librarian said:
			
		

> I'm sure you mean the article in the original post was Bullshit!!



Heheh, yeah the article not the post.


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## geo (28 Jan 2007)

Hmmm

If memory serves me right, there was a hoax letter home to dad that was circulating around last year that pert well crapped all over all sorts of kit but was found to be, bogus...

While the 7.62 has its uses, the 5.56 allows troops that much more firepower...

The M14 & the C1 were semiauto, heavy, 20 rd mags, heavy, and the extra ammo was bulky as well.


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