Guns and Ammo Thread

[Beetlegeuse]

Here's some Korean gun pr0n from the 1992 Los Angeles Rodney King riots, the weapons the Korean shopkeepers armed themselves with.

One of them is a Daewoo's take on the AR15. Been drooling for one of those since I saw them in Iraq.

For a time I had an office in one of Saddam's palaces around Baghdad that was a hub of high-level activity. Coalition commander Gen. Casey, among others, had his office in the same building so there always were lots of "high-profile" members of the coalition allies (and the American press) about. One day I found myself standing at a urinal next to a Ukrainian army officer (in a camo uniform) who 25 years before would have been my blood enemy. It was all I could do to resist the urge to perform open-heart surgery on him with my Randall.

But I digress. The ROK (Korean) soldiers were part of the coalition. Getting to rub up against them dramatically increased my respect for them. For one thing, they were one of only two coalition countries who saluted not just their own officers but allied officers as well. The other country was ... not coincidentally ... Iraq. Americans didn't salute nobody because we don't salute anybody when we're in a war zone because it tells the enemy who the high-value targets are.

So the Koreans saluted American officers, presumably because it was the US who spared at least half of the Korean peninsula from Communist occupation in the 1950s. And I admire people who show appreciation to (and respect for) old allies.

Oddly, the Koreans drove Barbie jeeps. They weren't pink but they were tiny, like the old Suzuki jeep from the 1970s with the 80-inch wheelbase. Small like a clown car in a circus.

Except the Koreans were YUGE. Linebacker-sized. 6-feet plus and 200 lbs, broad at the shoulder and narrow at the waist. I figured they had specifically selected abnormally large guys for this duty to make their army look more impressive. So the Barbie jeeps really did look like clown cars when four Dick Butkus-sized guys (in full battle-rattle) unfolded themselves getting out of them.

Beautiful. It uses a long-stroke Op-Rod so it's got something in common with both the AR and the AK. And it looks a lot like the Stoner 63, which was long the favorite of the SEALs. Bad-ass.

Robinson Armament has a knock-off of the 63 they call the M96 expeditionary carbine (which accepts belt-feed) they build from time-to-time that has a pretty fiercely loyal following.

Anyway, I applaud the Los Angeles Koreans for their choice of rifles. It's got some quirks but it's overbuilt like a bank vault.

[almostgone]

Here's some Korean gun pr0n from the 1992 Los Angeles Rodney King riots, the weapons the Korean shopkeepers armed themselves with.

One of them is a Daewoo's take on the AR15. Been drooling for one of those since I saw them in Iraq.

For a time I had an office in one of Saddam's palaces around Baghdad that was a hub of high-level activity. Coalition commander Gen. Casey, among others, had his office in the same building so there always were lots of "high-profile" members of the coalition allies (and the American press) about. One day I found myself standing at a urinal next to a Ukrainian army officer (in a camo uniform) who 25 years before would have been my blood enemy. It was all I could do to resist the urge to perform open-heart surgery on him with my Randall.

But I digress. The ROK (Korean) soldiers were part of the coalition. Getting to rub up against them dramatically increased my respect for them. For one thing, they were one of only two coalition countries who saluted not just their own officers but allied officers as well. The other country was ... not coincidentally ... Iraq. Americans didn't salute nobody because we don't salute anybody when we're in a war zone because it tells the enemy who the high-value targets are.

So the Koreans saluted American officers, presumably because it was the US who spared at least half of the Korean peninsula from Communist occupation in the 1950s. And I admire people who show appreciation to (and respect for) old allies.

Oddly, the Koreans drove Barbie jeeps. They weren't pink but they were tiny, like the old Suzuki jeep from the 1970s with the 80-inch wheelbase. Small like a clown car in a circus.

Except the Koreans were YUGE. Linebacker-sized. 6-feet plus and 200 lbs, broad at the shoulder and narrow at the waist. I figured they had specifically selected abnormally large guys for this duty to make their army look more impressive. So the Barbie jeeps really did look like clown cars when four Dick Butkus-sized guys (in full battle-rattle) unfolded themselves getting out of them.

Beautiful. It uses a long-stroke Op-Rod so it's got something in common with both the AR and the AK. And it looks a lot like the Stoner 63, which was long the favorite of the SEALs. Bad-ass.

Robinson Armament has a knock-off of the 63 they call the M96 expeditionary carbine (which accepts belt-feed) they build from time-to-time that has a pretty fiercely loyal following.

Anyway, I applaud the Los Angeles Koreans for their choice of rifles. It's got some quirks but it's overbuilt like a bank vault.

I went through BCT @Jackson as a 17 year old and we had 2 former ROK soldiers in our company. One was in my platoon, the other wasn't. I don't recall, but I'm guessing they had became citizens of the US and enlisted. Anyway, the one in my platoon was almost twice my age and came very close to smoking my time on Victory Tower. The guy was just flat out unstoppable. You could tell by looking at him he was tougher than woodpecker lips.