HMForces.co.uk

The Armed Forces have a huge breadth of equipment including loads of cool weapons.

So, in your experience with the armed forces, what's the coolest weapon you've ever managed to get your hands on?

For me, its probably the GPMG - awesome bit of kit - or the LAW (Light Antitank Weapon) - but they wouldn't let me fire that one!

The GPMG is great fun, but the Giant Viper was alot better. 1.5 tons of PE6 flying through the air to make an almighty bang after about 15 seconds.

Letting off aload of explosives on Devil dog range in '91 was a fun as well. Taking cover well inside the 1000m safe peacetime limit and watching concrete flying overhead. :D

dannie says ...

higher willancs,deff agree with gpmg,was sf mode misen.but the best thing i had the pleasure to witness was live firing of the (FLIPPING HECK,i cant think off the name of it now.but was used to clear mine fields.like a roll of explosives that where fired into the air ) when it landed and the shock wave was awesome.in fact the full live firing experience with all weapons was the best light show Ive ever seen. sorry about that but I'm sure one of you can think of the name,and its on the tip o mi tongue.,,,VIPER HA HA HA

 

Read thread above your last.

1989 in hamm, 66  used on a knackered DSV i drove from dortmund and  dumped on the range.

Very satisfying spending taxpayers dosh like that.

I joined up a few years after the SA80 was introduced and all the SWEATs used to complain about it, and constantly rattled on and on about how good the SLR was. Me being a bit wet behind the ears thought they were all nutcases and said to myself surely modern engineering gets better and the SA80 is superior to that old crap these old boys are complaining about? Anyway I was lucky enough to get on the ranges down at Pirbright in the mid 90's and got my hands on an SLR... bloody hell, much better kick, a bit heavier but a 100 times more accurate. I was a marksman with that thing but  couldn't hit a barn door with the SA80!

I dont agree about the SA80 not being as good as the SLR,for a start the SLR fired 7.62 whereas the 80 is 5.56,and as for it rattling and jamming that was a problem with the A1.

The SA80A2 made by Heckler & Kock is a great weapon system and is ideal for current op's,and the SUSAT sight is to be modified to include an EOTech holographic sight which will make it even better for CQB,but anyway the Drakonov sniper rifle is cool and has some kick on her but still got to be the GPMG it's a beast.

paulvgr81 says ...

A weapon with awesome power and prescision and the only military issue rifle ive ever used has the immense destructive force of a litter of kittens, the cadet gp rifle (c'mon the cadets is the only military experience i actually have)

i remember firing the cadet GP as a lad,the power was frightning lol

Time marches on and change is something we all have to contend with.

I cut my teeth on the SLR back in 1962 and found it to be a superb weapon.  I used various other weapons and found the Armalite to be probably the best - but only second to the SLR.  With the introduction of SA80 the military found itself with a weapon that was unreliable, as was highlighted in the First Gulf War.  It wasn't 'sand' friendly and it literally fell to pieces!  As a Range Supervisor I took 12 SA80's onto the range for troop familiarisation.  At the end of the morning we had 4 serviceable weapons!  With the SLR this would never have been the case.  However, the much modified SA80 is a much better weapon than the initial issue.

Getting back to the original question though, the best (not the coolest) weapon I've ever used is the awesome GPMG, truly a fearsome weapon in the right hands but for sheer satisfaction the SLR has it all.

i will say the SLR,because its a sound ,hardy weapon+you can trade rounds with the gpmg,and we all know the fire power that combination can achieve,yes the sa80 can be automatic,but i would rather take my enemy out before they where knocking on my door step.dannie( old git+vat)

best weapon? my sharp wit and lighting fast repartee (duh.... wot?)

Well, I must say that the GPMG was the most fun for me, but the SLR gets my vote for best practical personal weapon.

On one command course, I really enjoyed (although was a bit tense at the time) leading a section of young solidiers just out of 'the box' and after 12 weeks training they were going onto a stage five shoot (thats a live section and platoon attack with 'real bullets and real bombs', also known as 'advance to contact'  :) ). My lads used SLR and one lucky lad had a 7.62 LMG (Bren Gun derivative). Afterwards they were all grinning from ear to ear, but the lad with the LMG had the biggest smile....

Although I was a bit tense with all that inexperience around me none of them let me down and it was a ball.

The guys I was most jealous of were the GPMG gunners firing ahead of us on the assault....

Challenger MBT 120mm's of pure adrenaline, never experienced anything like it in my 12 years, viper was fun to watch as was a thunder flash in a jerry can....!

And who can forget going on the ranges with the Septics when we had SLRs! Time and again we had a cabby with their Mickey Mouse M16s, which were fun to shoot, especially on full-auto. But when it came to them having a go with our SLRs, none of us could resist slyly dialling the gas-collar down to zero from the 4 or 5 we'd been using ourselves, and then watching 'em grunt as they tried to emulate us and put a 20-round mag downrange rapid fire.

And they never rumbled it either!

MsG

The SLR was a killer if you had to tab with it - SA80 more practical tho with the weight and sling. No one's mentioned Minimis? A bit lighter than GPMG and pretty affective giving covering/supporting fire:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:M249_FN_MINIMI_DM-ST-91-11997.jpg

I used the SA80 and it tore my shoulder up something rotten i was only used to the cadet gp rifle before that although i was an expert on that bit of kit the move up to 5.56 was a complete shock. I enjoyed watching the bigger soldiers letting rip with the gpmg i could feel the vibrations all the way up my legs

GPMG, SLR, .55 Boys AT, Browning GP35 9mm,  Hockler MP5 sp,