I was in the Army for nine years. I was issued an M16A2. I was not allowed to hold it by the carrying handle, nor was I allowed to use three round burst. Once I was allowed to attach an M203 but could not use it. When I asked why I was told to shut the fuck up and follow orders. Why was I, and hundreds of other soldiers, not trusted to use the basic functions of our weapons, /k/?

>>63928919 (OP)
>why aren't grunts trusted with high explosives?
Because 90% of people in the army are named Hernandez and have 82 iq.

>can’t carry the gun by the carry handle
>can’t use 3 round burst even though the setting is deliberately engineered in.

Seriously? The fuck is their problem?

>>63928919 (OP)
Shut the fuck up and do as you're told.

>>63928919 (OP)
>issued an M16A2
You were a combination of at least three factors: 1) support job, 2) enlistoid, 3) probably disliked by your peers.

In the combat arms roles of the army everyone carried M4s since 2005 or earlier. When not deployed, we shot about 5k live rounds a year in training from our rifles, more in beltfeds, at least 6 AT4s and M67s a year, and as many 40mm chalk rounds as we felt like, which wasn't many because you can only do about 30 before your shoulder gets sore. Then some random senpai fire with Mk19s, M2s, pistols, breaching shotguns, door charges and other random stuff. Then a few sim round shoot houses, a few times paintball, and once the arcade-style indoors compressed air gun simulator; and a blank iteration for each live fire range.

This was considered good training but absolutely not special in any way. It was the entry level zogbot life.

>>63929012
I had to burn 100 rounds of 40mm through a 320. Fuck that man.

>>63929012
92M, so yes, quartermaster. It's not unusual for quartermaster companies to have older equipment.

>>63928919 (OP)
>carry handle
Doctrine and procedure changed. Back in the 1950s having a carry handle on a rifle was seen as a positive thing as rifles were expected to be unslung during combat, and if a soldier needed say carry ammo cans or an aid litter they would carry the rifle single handed on the carry handle or center of balance and the item on the other. Alternatively the rifle would be slung on the back, but that gets it all the way away from being able to use. You can see this in old manuals. In Vietnam you started seeing more use of rifles being slung while carried in for combat, and doctrinally by the 80s things had swung towards rifle keeping slung. The carry handle is an artifact (and before anybody talks about it being an artifact of the original charging handle design it was originally multipurpose but even through various redesigns it stayed because of the use to be carried). Since troops are dumb and don't need a history lesson it boils down to "It was never meant to be carried by the carry handle, so don't!"

>3 round burst
Shit modification introduced after Vietnam. Everyone quite quickly realized it sucked.

>Once I was allowed to attach an M203 but could not use it.
I have no fucking idea because that's such a vague statement. Maybe, based on the rest of your post they thought you were even more retarded than the average soldier?

>I was in the Army for nine years.
And you're still asking these questions despite the fact you should have been an SNCO by this point.

>>63928919 (OP)
So as a RSO and O1 I give you a few reasons. It's all about perceived safety. In the officer track, you get one shot at command and if something happens and I mean fucking anything that can potentially be your fault? Well say goodbye to commanding troops again. Using burst or auto on a rifle COULD (or did at one point somewhere in the army) make someone shoot over the berm so if I let you do it and literally anything happens including a fucking ND I am in some VERY hot water. It doesn't help we often don't have enough ammo anyway to let people shoot anything besides the prescribed 200 rounds a man. I would like to make it to at least major so I'm going to say no to ANY potential risks.
This extends to the whole carry handle debate. Now realistically the 4 rules are the equivalent of telling a kid the stove is always hot and n very to touch it. If you're following them well I'm about 99.9% confident I won't have an incident. But now if you're flagging everything at random (even with an unloaded gun) someone can say 'hey he wasn't following my commands which makes it his fault'
Mind you this goes up and down the COC too. The general in command of the base puts this stuff out too because his ass can get put in a sling just as quick.
As for the UBGL idk man probably couldn't get the ammo or ranges for it.

>>63929061
It's not usual to act like that or be treated like that. You were the company retard. It explains why you were in nine years. A normal careerist would have hit 20 before getting out unless they were blown up. A normal one-term type would have done 3, 4, or 6 years. An exception who bailed mid-career would have done a combo of 2 contracts adding up to about 7 years. You stretched it out but nobody wanted you there, am I right?

>>63928919 (OP)
>9 years in the army
>Area
>posting on /k/

You were probably a flagrant dipshit with no self awareness

>>63928919 (OP)
>Why was I, and hundreds of other soldiers, not trusted to use the basic functions of our weapons, /k/?
Your CO got the measure of you and decided you were even less trustworthy with than the average Jarhead for ....entirely socioeconomic factors of your upbringing. Trying to explain things to you would have wasted the time of both you and the person talking at you.

>>63929133
Oh no, I was beloved. I had a rotating harem of profile malingerers.

>>63929061
>92M

>>63929173
Worse. Colorblind.

knives and bayonets were forbidden too because Iraqis thought they were too scary

>>63929151
>profile malingerers.
What does that mean? The army wanted them out but they disagreed?

>>63929012
This. I was a crayon eater. In boot I had the second best rifle qual in my company. We got like one day with the M2, Mk19, and M240G at MCT. Then they made me an avionics geek and I only requalified with the rifle twice in five years. I only got one long weekend at the JWTC and that only because I volunteered.

>>63929243
I always felt bad for the Army support MOSes that we deployed with. As a gigapog chairfag we all got swagged out M4s with M68s, PEQs, KAC grips, and Pmags. Meanwhile the Army ADA and MCT guys had clapped out stock M4s with iron sights. Brutal mogging.

>>63929295
Storytime from the Army: My unit was doing a pre-deployment rifle range. A gaggle of admin support people from a different unit were going to be deployed and wanted range time so they shared the range with our unit. The admin people were support for an SF taskforce so they had totally pimped out gear that none of them knew how to use.
They had Eotechs on their M4s and at one point one of the admin chicks was just unable to make a basic 25m grouping with it. Our unit kind of watched but since it wasn't one of us we didn't do anything. This chick tried and tried and tried again and just couldn't zero with a fucking Eotech. One of her NCOs went over and was trying to help her. He asked things like "Ok you see the red circle right?" and she'd be like "Yeah.". "Ok put the dot inside the circle in the center" etc.
Finally the dude gets frustrated and takes the M4 and looks through the Eotech and its not even turned on. He is like WTF? And the chick says she thought you just needed to put the front iron sight wherever inside the Eotech window and it would be lined up. He barely keeps from boiling over asking what the fuck she thought she was saying when she said she saw the red circle and dot reticle and she was just nervous and agreeing to anything. He turned the Eotech on and they got a zero done quick after that.
But like. Holy shit dude.

>>63929202
People -- mostly women -- who make up bullshit injuries or illnesses to dodge work.

>>63929344
Back in the day it was not uncommon for women to have total meltdowns at the idea of deploying (despite the fact the ones melting down were in support jobs and would be in megaFOBs living comfortably and in very little danger) to the point where they'd intentionally get pregnant to get out of deploying.

>>63929390
Still happens. Getting pregnant is incentivized. You get better pay, better insurance, priority on-post housing...

>>63929397
I mean beyond those baseline incentives, it would be about timing. As soon as a unit was confirmed on a deployment schedule there would be a predictable wave of pregnancies.

>>63929331
lel. I got bitched out by an Air Force rangemaster for holding my M4 by the magwell during a qual because "that stance was invented for the MP5 and the higher velocity bullet will cause the gun to go flying"
>mfw

>>63929012
If it was my full time job I would want to shoot a fuckton more than 5K rounds a year. That actually kind of sucks.
>>63929122
This and only this. The rest of this thread is a bunch of seethers and trolls. OP couldn't be allowed access beyond what he peers would be allowed to do.

>>63928919 (OP)
Did they call you things like Private Fucktard and make you do things like mop the sidewalks?

>>63929422
When I first got an Aimpoint, it was before we had proper folding BUIS (this was very early in the days of optics) so we just ran them with no rear BUIS, and I had an NCO try and make everyone carry a spare carry handle in their cargo pocket. His idea would be that when (not if, when) the red dot failed you'd swap it for the carry handle. None of this stuff was QD mounted, the Aimpointed had locktite even on the screws. It was just total ludditism. He freaked out about what we'd do.
Like two week later we got BUIS and it stopped his whole buttache, but that same guy also insisted on having his BUIS flipped up and Aimpoint turned off because he still trusted it more.

>>63929397
>Subsidization is incentivization

Ayyy, get a load of this! We have a libertarian in the wild in current year 2014+11!

>>63929422
I mean, the mechanics of holding by the handguard are more stable for precision shooting, but uh yeah, that's some very crazy and specific reasoning.

>>63929390
>>63929397
>>63929412
in all seriousness thought it was pretty well known there is absolutely some amount of biological procreation drive when people actually get the idea they're facing super high risk/future death, whether it's rational and justified or not. if someone was kind of on the fence hard deadlines focus minds and sweep away cultural clutter. maybe not even a bad thing given us birthrates lol despite it being irritating in the moment

>>63929565
So women are just a bunch of low planning creatures lead around by their instincts rather than any adherence to duty or responsibility?
I'm glad we agree.

>>63929636
>So women are just a bunch of low planning creatures lead around by their instincts rather than any adherence to duty or responsibility?
not universally but overall? yeah. at least under that kind of pressure.
>I'm glad we agree.
yep

>>63929061
>92M Mortuary Affairs Specialist
What do you even do all day let alone 9 years? It's not like there's a ton of combat or non-combat related deaths happening every week.

>>63929459
>Subsidization is incentivization
This is literally true. There's no way you can spin this in any different way when this is the most direct endorsement of activity you could offer.

>>63928919 (OP)
Because the average enlisted is so retarded it makes you wonder how many people actually passed the ASVAB versus being here on a waiver. Every soldier is assumed braindead retarded until proven otherwise

>>63929793
Human behavior is a tad more complex than macroeconomics.

>>63929922
Right, but we default to shit like hiking taxes on tobacco and sugary drinks to disincentivize their consumption. Or tariffs to penalize imports.
On an individual level there are complex personal choices, but on a collective level once it averages out you do see how incentives and penalties work.

Because you're a retarded grunt doing unimportant shit that does not justify the cost or danger of those things.

>>63928919 (OP)
Maybe there was a reason you weren't allowed to use burst or auto.

Why would you even want to use full auto? Your rate of fire on semi is high enough (unless you suck) but you actually hit your targets.

>>63928919 (OP)
>Once I was allowed to attach an M203
Fake as fuck neverserved detected

>>63930338
Semiauto is for aimed shots at long range, and it's good for CQB in the hands of professionals (FA is a way to boost conscripts up to their level in CQB as it were); but there's at least one situation FA is legitimately better for an average soldier. The USMC did a study in the 10s showing FA improves hit rate against transversely moving targets at 50-70 meters by 50%, from 40% to 60%. This is the archetypal scenario where a man is running across an intersection while his buddies lay down cover fire at you.

>>63928919 (OP)
The Marine Corps issued me an M16A4 with a 4x acog in 2016 when I first got to my unit.

Then in 2018, I was issued an M4 with a 4x acog before a big deployment to Afghanistan.

Then in late 2019/early 2020 (Can't really remember if it was 2020 yet or not) I was selected for the M27 IAR program, with a Trijicon SDO.

Then in 2022, I was re-selected for the M38 and put into a Desig. marksman role with a Leupold TS series. I think it was a 2x-8x (I was a sgt at this time.)

I was kept on the M38 until I got out in 2024. I don't know how the hell you got left on just one platform, buddy. I even went through three different handguns. First the M19, then a Glock19x, and then the Sig M17.

We trained with the MK19, and M203 monthly. I probably put about 40k cheeto rounds through the MK19, and around 1k HE rounds. The M203 was more like a present. You got to shoot a few every now and then, probably less than 50 a year would be my guess.

>>63930371
>M19
Lmfao. I meant the M9. A Beretta 92FS that was old as dirt, and rattled like a keychain if you shook it. I think my brain was putting M9 and Mk19 together for some reason.

>>63930338
>>63930364
None of this matter for OP because they had burst and burst sucks ass.

>>63930364
I mean yeah, I'd use FA sometimes during room clearing and situations when you're within maybe 30 feet max but that's mostly suppression and not effective fire that is the benefit there.

>>63928919 (OP)
They pegged you for a dumb son of a bitch. And since you have to ask, they were spot on. I'm guessing you're mixed race? Irish or Italian?

>>63929182
Then how do you KNOW you’re not brown? Huh wise guy?

>>63930502
Sentinelese.

>>63929459
There are people who believe that incentive structures are not real. These people are allowed to vote.

>>63930364
You forgot to mention that the study only showed improvement when the shooters had already switched to full auto prior to the target appearance.

>>63929012
>as many 40mm chalk rounds as we felt like, which wasn't many because you can only do about 30 before your shoulder gets sore
Goddamn I love the 203/320, but yeah, never had a weapon bruise my shoulder like that before or since

>>63935677
Hence the Geissele HSS spring selector nigga.

>>63935691
Call me when it finds its way onto some military issue guns.

>>63935677
Well yeah no shit, but if you're watching an angle like that, the point is that it's a good idea to switch to full auto

He made this thread twice. The first time, he forgot to change "/pol/?” to "/k/?” and deleted the thread. This is a 1pbtid troll. You are being bamboozled.

>>63929012
>>63935686
I put over 200 through a mosin in roughly 40 minutes a long time ago. Just bare steel butt against a scrawny kid's t shirt. Looked like my entire side got hit by a car. Was in pain for more than a week.
Some 40mm can't be as bad as that.

You mil guys are actually huge whiny pussies.

>>63928919 (OP)
I used my gibs on a degree that fast tracked me into working with special needs students and some of the literally retarded children are smarter than some of the people I met in the army. You were probably one of those people.

>>63928951
They get off on making your life worse

>>63928919 (OP)
>be me
>usn 1996-2005
>issued m14, m4, m16a3, m79, m203, m60, m9, m11, m500 at various times
>shot all of the above plus m2 and mk38 on deployment
>maintained quals for most of the above plus 38 revolver, m1911, and m240 on shore duty
>spent one week each summer on shore duty, 40-50 hour week, just shooting off ncea from other commands so they wouldn't get burned by the end of the fiscal year
>literally wrecked m16a3's with automatic fire trying to get through all that 5.56mm, as in they were dx'd and sent back to crane as junkers
>not even going to get started on the trainers and force v force with sims
>sometimes checked out weapons on weekends (with permission) and transported them to our range in my pov because i was into shooting long distance with irons and our decommissioned rifle range went out to 500 yards
>actually took a few years off from shooting recreationally after i got out because i was so fucking sick of it

Sounds like you signed up for the wrong job at the wrong time, anon. Early GWOT was the goddamned wild west.

>picrel range in question, has been the subject of greentexts here in the past