any iraq / afghanistan vets here?

[reel762]

got a question for you guys

[LorDiego01]

wouldn't it make sense to just type your question?

or are you really aiming for redundancy?

[reel762]

ok, other than the AK series what are the 2 most common rifles used against U.S. forces?

[mjd932]

ok, other than the AK series what are the 2 most common rifles used against U.S. forces?

Um, pretty much all I ever saw was Russian hardware...

[reel762]

Um, pretty much all I ever saw was Russian hardware...

did the M44 mosin ever make its appearance?

[RReno]

There's a huge variety of crap out here.......SKS, some Mosin, some Enfield, some home made junk.......all kinds of stuff.

[reel762]

There's a huge variety of crap out here.......SKS, some Mosin, some Enfield, some home made junk.......all kinds of stuff.

homemade as in homemade rifles?

[OneLungMcClung]

homemade as in homemade rifles?

Yes. I haven't been over to The Suck yet, but I can tell you that gun making is a pastime in some cultures over there.

Although these are Chechen home made weapons, they still fit the bill, cause once in a while you see this in the IZ:

http://englishrussia.com/?p=965


I asked this same question of an associate of mine from CA who is a Marine, had done 2 tours early on in the war: what kind of weaponry he ran into. The reply was interesting. Obviously, the overwhelming majority of it is Modern Soviet era weaponry: the AK-47 (suprising lack of AK-74s in his encounters, he said), the RPK, the PKM medium machine gun, and Dragunov sniper rifles were fairly common. Beyond that though, he once in a great while saw some other unique stuff: HK G3, Old but functional Enfields (remember that Iraq was a UK colony for many, many years, all the way through WWII), FALs, Mosin Nagants, a MAS-49 (!), some PPsH submachine guns, an M-16 clone (early A1 model, which means it wasn't captured from us....), a wild variety of handguns not limited to Makarovs but including Berrettas, H+K, old Sigs, American 1911s, some revolvers (he didn't know, he only saw them on a table of seize weaponry.)

I, personally, can't really answer your question (and please remember, I haven't been there) based on what he said ("what are the 2 most common rifles after the AK used vs US forces") because it seems that it depends on which sector/province you are in and what your function is.

Hope that helps.

[RReno]

Yeah that pretty much covers it.........and as he said, a lot of it depends on the area you're operating in too. By far though the standard 1960's era Soviet aresenal forms the majority of what is in use by forces native to the region. Wouldn't be surprised to see that start slowly changing over the next couple of years however since the U.S. has seen fit to start issuing the Iraqi security forces (Military etc...) U.S. M4 and M16 rifles now.