Thread: Went shooting yesterday....

Originally Posted by Bowzer

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Vie...Item=123673525

Wow, and only $9000! Great find, definitely a better buy than one of those stupid overpriced ARs. Why would anyone waste their money on an AR when they could get one of these for only nine times as much money? The fact that it has no advantage over an AR except for a somewhat more reliable gas system (as well as having several disadvantages compared to an AR) definitely justifies the extra $8000 on the price tag. Especially since we all know how much time civilian rifle shooters spend in harsh, sandy combat environments!

Give me a break. Yeah, I suppose it's not technically "impossible" for a civilian to get a semi-auto G36, because there are a small number of ultra-expensive NFA-regulated SL8 conversions floating around the market. I think I can still stand by my claim that a semi-auto G36 is not a reasonable alternative to the AR15, and is not available to the average civilian shooter (both because of price, and because of the very small number of these conversions that exist).

Also, this doesn't change the fact that some of the other weapons you listed--such as the XM8--really are completely unavailable to civilians (the XM8 isn't available to ANYONE, actually--the program was cancelled). So I say again: It doesn't make a lot of sense to tell a civilian sport shooter than the AR is a bad choice, and then say that a better choice would be a rifle that's completely unavailable to civilians.

Originally Posted by Bowzer

Wastage? I can give you hard facts of thousands of lives that were saved due to FIRE SUPERIORITY in Vietnam.

Well yeah, we can all agree that "fire superiority" in general saves lives. That's obvious. The real question is whether the M16A1's full-auto setting, in and of itself, provided enough of a fire superiority advantage to offset the unfortunate fact that troops using it tended to rip through their entire magazine in a second and a half without hitting anything. If you have facts proving that the M16A1's full auto provided such a fire superiority advantage, then please, show them to me. Personally, I doubt such facts exist--because the Army reached exactly the opposite conclusion when it reviewed the lessons learned from Vietnam--but if you have these facts, then let's see them.

EDIT: Just out of curiosity, do you have any objections to the AR platform other than it's gas system? Because if not, you can easily get a gas-piston AR for a lot cheaper than a $2500 SCAR or a $9000 SL8 modification, or even a $2000 AUG sporter clone. And of course it will have much better aftermarket support in terms of parts, accessories, etc.