From: "Brian B. Riley" <brianbr@together.net>
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 1997 11:47:15 +0800
To: "Tim May" <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: Re: Best Cypherpunk long gun
Message-ID: <199712240342.WAA15974@mx01.together.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



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On 12/23/97 12:28 PM, Tim May (tcmay@got.net)  passed this wisdom:

>Also, extreme long-range sniping is increasingly done with .50 
>BMGs, or .338 Lapua, or, at the lower end, .300 Winchester Magnums. 
>In all cases, shot recovery is limited more by the shooter 
>reacquiring the sight picture than by cycling the action, so a 
>semi-auto is mostly a waste of resources.

 In the 60's and early 70's at least, the most accurate 'sniper'
weapon in the military arsenal was the M-2 .50 cal machine gun (Ma
Deuce) with tripod and T/E mechanism and set for single shot fire.
There was a telecopic sight set for it and everything. On a 1st Recon
OP at a place called Hill 200 down river from Thuong Duc in Quang Nam
Province, Charlie liked to run dugouts and other small boats across
the Vu Gia at night and real early morning ... we used to potshot at
them with Ma Deuce from 2-3 klicks away and make good hits. We field
tested some of the first larger starlight scopes and the gave us one
rigged to mount on Ma Deuce, after three nights in a row causing
spectular secondaries Charlie gave up and moved much farther down
river. At the time they never could figure out how we saw them with
almost no moon.

 (interesting sidelight on this matter was that USMC T/O for Recon had
no 50 cals ... so we could not order ammo for it through normal supply
channels ... the only ammo we could get was by trading with the air
wing which meant all we could get was API (armor piercing incendiary)
sopposedly is highly verbotten to shoot at ground troops ... seems it
excessively ruins their afternoons!)

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Brian B. Riley --> http://members.macconnect.com/~brianbr
 For PGP Keys  <mailto:brianbr@together.net?subject=Get%20PGP%20Key>

 "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and
  write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."   -Alvin 
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