What Is The Soldiers' Favorite Rifle And Side Arm? by Victor Epand

Here are the opinion of various soldiers about rifles and side arms: "Well, now... although I have a real love affair going with AK-47's - and own a half dozen in various flavors - my all time favorite rifle most certainly must be the FAL. Give 7.62x51, anytime! I'll go with a 1911 .45 any day, having owned and enjoyed one for some time. As for a rifle, it all depends on what you're looking for. For me the Bushmaster M4 223 knock off is rather nice, if a bit pricey."

"America's most powerful handgun. The 50 cal. 500 Magnums. The 500 Smith & Wesson Magnum cartridge produces nearly three times the muzzle energy of the .44 Magnum round and the cartridge has about twice the muzzle energy of most rounds for common semi-automatic assault weapons used in the US, such as the military style AR-15. This gun has an 8 inch barrel. They do make a 10" version, but I think its muzzle heavy. My .50 is 15" overall and with the heavy frame is pretty well balanced."

"The gun is very controllable, especially with the 275 grain loads. Even the 440 grain hard cast loads, while producing much more power, were not painful to shoot. The ported compensator and soft rubber grips do their jobs well. I hear -"Why would you want a gun this big? The 50-caliber Magnum revolver is more gun than anyone needs." I say - Why Not? Every hand gunner should own a Magnum, why not a .500 magnum it's good to own one. And No, it's not concealable. That would make you walk funny."

"Some of you guys have some pretty nice collections. If you want to check out some serious rifles go onto any web site of look up the guns in the liberty so that way you have an easier time to find out what kind of gun you would like to add to your little collections. The setup costs a lot of money, but if you learn how to shoot it you will never miss. I graduate from college in less than a year and plan on building a rifle around a Remington 700, .308 or 7mm, maybe even a 300 magnum. Ill figures it out when I have some money."

"There are many rifles which are surprising accurate, after the barrels are properly broken in (perhaps a topic for another thread?). Most Remington 700's will fire sub 1moa, as delivered. One of my favorite rifles which I have built (refined) in the past decade was a Ruger .338. Spent a lot of time polishing and lapping parts in that receiver. The Timmy trigger worked to perfection, after installation. And that bolt locked down like a safe vault."

"You can get great accuracy out of a standard profile barrel. The bull barrels? Work much better to hold accuracy, with successive rounds. I had the pleasure of reworking a Russian AK-47 trigger group (quality of steel was enough to get wood) into a PSL. Now, the PSL's are a relatively light rifle, long barrel, based on the Kalashnikov design, but firing the Russian 7.62x54 rimmed cartridge. As long as that long skinny barrel on the PSL was cool? It has tremendous accuracy, but, after it heated up? The groups got big, very quickly."

"However, the first couple of shots - even at 600m - were dead nuts on. I have seen Mossberg's and Savage's that shot sub 1moa groups, repeatedly. I have a preference for Remington's, but, there are many other moderately priced rifles which can deliver GREAT accuracy, unless you have it in your head to venture into the bench rest world."

Author Resource: Victor Epand is an expert consultant for http://www.WarGear.info/. WarGear.info carries the best selection of military clothing, war gear, and combat accessories on the market.

MOST READ ARTICLES