Familiarization-Fire with the French & Germans
The XO organized a great event the other day, inviting the French, Germans, Djiboutians, US Army, and U.S. Embassy personnel to come together with some of us for a fam-fire. Everyone brought a few examples of their weapons and some ammunition. We set up the range and provided tables, an awning, and coolers of water. GySgt W did a great job setting up the range and preparing everything for the event.
Once everyone had arrived and placed their weapons on the display tables, each country briefly described their weapons and their operations. We brought examples of our Beretta M9 pistol, M4 carbine, M16A4 service rifle, Benelli M1014 Joint Service Combat Shotgun, M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, M240G medium machine gun, M2 (Ma-Duece) heavy machine gun, Barrett Mk-82 .50cal sniper rifle, and a US Army M24 7.62 sniper rifle. The French brought their FAMAS service rifle and PA-15 pistol. The Germans brought their Heckler & Koch G36 rifle, MP-5K, MP-7, and an HK pistol. The Djiboutians brought several AK-47 assault rifles, pistols, and a revolver. The U.S. Embassy provided Colt Sub-Machine Guns (a 9mm fully automatic version of the M16) and their standard service pistols.
Once the preliminaries were over, everyone had a chance to look the weapons over, then select the weapon they wanted to fire first. As the hosts, we ran the range and I alternated as a safety coach or the range instructor (providing the firing commands for the line.) We were pretty strict to maintain safety, bringing a group up to the firing line together and giving commands to "Load" a magazine, "Make Ready" - place a round in the chamber, and "Fire!" everyone's favorite command. Once everyone was finished shooting, the coaches checked their weapons and magazines to ensure that they were empty, and the shooters were allowed to advance downrange to check their shooting skills (or lack thereof in some cases.)
Everyone brought a lot of ammunition, but we generally limited everyone to 10 rounds per weapon to allow everyone a chance to shoot. In between working the line, I was able to shoot a variety of weapons. I shot the German G36, French FAMAS, MP-5K Personal Defense Weapon, AK-47, a Sig-Saur pistol, our M9 pistol, and my M4 carbine. So I was able to do quite a bit.
My favorite rifle was the G36. It was light, shot smoothly, and had a terrific red-dot sight. I also liked the clear plastic magazines which allowed you to see how many rounds you had left at a glance. Although plastic, they were very durable and do not suffer from lip bending problems like our metal ones (if you mistreat our metal magazines, the lip at the top that guides the rounds sometimes gets bent, preventing the magazine from feeding rounds correctly, leading to jams.) The G36 features a polymer (a fancy term for fancy plastics) receiver which accounts for its light weight. It is also supposed to be incredibly reliable and not so reliant on operator cleaning for proper function.
I next fired the French FAMAS rifle, a bullpup design (bullpup rifles feature their magazine behind the pistol grip, unlike the conventional M16 & G36 designs. This makes for a shorter & lighter weapon that is easier to carry around, particularly in tight spaces.) The FAMAS has some great design features, it is very easy to convert it to left hand or right handed shooting, something that the M16 does not allow. The recoil on the FAMAS felt a bit harsher than that of the G36, taking a moment longer to bring the sights back onto target. It was still a fun weapon to shoot.
The Sig was a fun pistol to shoot, but the lack of a safety always makes me nervous, even though it is perfectly safe.
The MP-5K Personal Defense Weapons was a cool little machine pistol. Designed for close defense, its max effective range is only 50m. The MP-5K is a scaled down MP-5 and does not have a buttstock, making control on automatic fire very difficult. One of the Germans gave me a full 30 round magazine and I had a great time shooting all of them. I was able to easily place all my single shots on the target from 15m, but when I placed the weapon on automatic fire, I could not get more than one round on the target. Even firing short, 3 round bursts, the last 2 rounds always went over the target and into the berm. Later, the Army Lieutenant was shown how to lay the weapon on its side and supported by his forearm; something I've seen in a few movies but always discounted as Hollywood, but he then managed to keep the weapon from firing high.
The AK-47 is always a fun weapon to shoot and this time was no exception. I shot a few rounds in the semi-automatic single shot mode, then finished with the rifle on full automatic, firing in short 3 round bursts. With the buttstock, I was able to keep almost all of the rounds on the paper, unlike the MP-5K.
Finally, I shot our own M9 pistol and the M4 carbine. I took some extra ammunition for the M4 and finished up firing it on burst. Once again, with the buttstock I was able to control the weapon and kept the majority of the rounds on the paper.
The Germans also brought an MP-7, a relatively new weapon. The MP-7 is a 4.6mm machine pistol used for personal defense. The round is designed to penetrate body armor and is supposed to do so reliably out to the maximum effective range of the weapon, around 50m. Unfortunately, they did not have any ammunition for the MP-7 and we were unable to shoot it, I did get my picture taken with it.
In the end, this was a successful exercise, bringing members from four different countries together to meet and get to know each other. We are working on continuing these efforts and hopefully they will lead to great cooperation in the future.
DominicsDad, in Djibouti
Once everyone had arrived and placed their weapons on the display tables, each country briefly described their weapons and their operations. We brought examples of our Beretta M9 pistol, M4 carbine, M16A4 service rifle, Benelli M1014 Joint Service Combat Shotgun, M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, M240G medium machine gun, M2 (Ma-Duece) heavy machine gun, Barrett Mk-82 .50cal sniper rifle, and a US Army M24 7.62 sniper rifle. The French brought their FAMAS service rifle and PA-15 pistol. The Germans brought their Heckler & Koch G36 rifle, MP-5K, MP-7, and an HK pistol. The Djiboutians brought several AK-47 assault rifles, pistols, and a revolver. The U.S. Embassy provided Colt Sub-Machine Guns (a 9mm fully automatic version of the M16) and their standard service pistols.
Once the preliminaries were over, everyone had a chance to look the weapons over, then select the weapon they wanted to fire first. As the hosts, we ran the range and I alternated as a safety coach or the range instructor (providing the firing commands for the line.) We were pretty strict to maintain safety, bringing a group up to the firing line together and giving commands to "Load" a magazine, "Make Ready" - place a round in the chamber, and "Fire!" everyone's favorite command. Once everyone was finished shooting, the coaches checked their weapons and magazines to ensure that they were empty, and the shooters were allowed to advance downrange to check their shooting skills (or lack thereof in some cases.)
Everyone brought a lot of ammunition, but we generally limited everyone to 10 rounds per weapon to allow everyone a chance to shoot. In between working the line, I was able to shoot a variety of weapons. I shot the German G36, French FAMAS, MP-5K Personal Defense Weapon, AK-47, a Sig-Saur pistol, our M9 pistol, and my M4 carbine. So I was able to do quite a bit.
My favorite rifle was the G36. It was light, shot smoothly, and had a terrific red-dot sight. I also liked the clear plastic magazines which allowed you to see how many rounds you had left at a glance. Although plastic, they were very durable and do not suffer from lip bending problems like our metal ones (if you mistreat our metal magazines, the lip at the top that guides the rounds sometimes gets bent, preventing the magazine from feeding rounds correctly, leading to jams.) The G36 features a polymer (a fancy term for fancy plastics) receiver which accounts for its light weight. It is also supposed to be incredibly reliable and not so reliant on operator cleaning for proper function.
I next fired the French FAMAS rifle, a bullpup design (bullpup rifles feature their magazine behind the pistol grip, unlike the conventional M16 & G36 designs. This makes for a shorter & lighter weapon that is easier to carry around, particularly in tight spaces.) The FAMAS has some great design features, it is very easy to convert it to left hand or right handed shooting, something that the M16 does not allow. The recoil on the FAMAS felt a bit harsher than that of the G36, taking a moment longer to bring the sights back onto target. It was still a fun weapon to shoot.The Sig was a fun pistol to shoot, but the lack of a safety always makes me nervous, even though it is perfectly safe.
The MP-5K Personal Defense Weapons was a cool little machine pistol. Designed for close defense, its max effective range is only 50m. The MP-5K is a scaled down MP-5 and does not have a buttstock, making control on automatic fire very difficult. One of the Germans gave me a full 30 round magazine and I had a great time shooting all of them. I was able to easily place all my single shots on the target from 15m, but when I placed the weapon on automatic fire, I could not get more than one round on the target. Even firing short, 3 round bursts, the last 2 rounds always went over the target and into the berm. Later, the Army Lieutenant was shown how to lay the weapon on its side and supported by his forearm; something I've seen in a few movies but always discounted as Hollywood, but he then managed to keep the weapon from firing high.
The AK-47 is always a fun weapon to shoot and this time was no exception. I shot a few rounds in the semi-automatic single shot mode, then finished with the rifle on full automatic, firing in short 3 round bursts. With the buttstock, I was able to keep almost all of the rounds on the paper, unlike the MP-5K.
Finally, I shot our own M9 pistol and the M4 carbine. I took some extra ammunition for the M4 and finished up firing it on burst. Once again, with the buttstock I was able to control the weapon and kept the majority of the rounds on the paper.
The Germans also brought an MP-7, a relatively new weapon. The MP-7 is a 4.6mm machine pistol used for personal defense. The round is designed to penetrate body armor and is supposed to do so reliably out to the maximum effective range of the weapon, around 50m. Unfortunately, they did not have any ammunition for the MP-7 and we were unable to shoot it, I did get my picture taken with it.
In the end, this was a successful exercise, bringing members from four different countries together to meet and get to know each other. We are working on continuing these efforts and hopefully they will lead to great cooperation in the future.
DominicsDad, in Djibouti
posted by DominicsDad at 10:36 AM
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