CF Issued Junk

[Disenchantedsailor]

The dope lit the stove inside the tent

probably too bloody lazy to stop and light the thing on return from filling it, and didn't want to make his poor fingers cold, #1 Candidate for villiage idiot, I had a simaler experience last year and when we were done putting out the 10 man and our kit, I turned the purple K extinguisher on the villiage retard to ensure he knew exactly what I was thinking.

 

[George Wallace]

probably too bloody lazy to stop and light the thing on return from filling it, and didn't want to make his poor fingers cold, #1 Candidate for villiage idiot, I had a simaler experience last year and when we were done putting out the 10 man and our kit, I turned the purple K extinguisher on the villiage retard to ensure he knew exactly what I was thinking.

When you have the sum of all fears village idiots, you'll see him/her too lazy to go outside to refuel before lighting.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Somewhat older junk, the SMG, most of the mags were trashed, the folding stock bit the hand that holds it, all sort of things sticking you in the back/ribs no matter how you held it, not terribly accurate. Just fired an Uzi recently, it was quite a bit more accurate than a SMG, I remember wishing we had UZI's back then instead of the SMG.

Of course you could not fit a bayonet on the UZI......

 

[geo]

How about the rubber plug for the old rubber air mattresses?

How often did it happen to you when, at half past oh my gawd dark, you're woken up amidst 9 other huddled bodies by the sudden "pop" of a plug popping out & the air suddenly being expelled.  There you are, quickly testing, rocking around to see if it's your mattress that's suddenly going soft on you... The sudden curse of someone realising it's them & scrambling to stop the flow of air and get the mattress reinflated (if it's at all possible).

 

[Gunner98]

Somewhat older junk, the SMG, most of the mags were trashed, the folding stock bit the hand that holds it, all sort of things sticking you in the back/ribs no matter how you held it, not terribly accurate. Just fired an Uzi recently, it was quite a bit more accurate than a SMG, I remember wishing we had UZI's back then instead of the SMG.

Of course you could not fit a bayonet on the UZI......

The SMG trigger and spring getting stuck and firing a full mag rather than a burst.

 

[geo]

Let's face it, the SMG and it's predecessor the Sten were both very basic weapons... they filled a need - able to send a load of lead downrange & force the people on the receiving end to keep their heads down while you were attempting to do something.  Asside from that, not a very useful weapon.... except looked good as a prop for the Imperial stormtroopers in Star Wars.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

How about the rubber plug for the old rubber air mattresses?

How often did it happen to you when, at half past oh my gawd dark, you're woken up amidst 9 other huddled bodies by the sudden "pop" of a plug popping out & the air suddenly being expelled.  There you are, quickly testing, rocking around to see if it's your mattress that's suddenly going soft on you... The sudden curse of someone realising it's them & scrambling to stop the flow of air and get the mattress reinflated (if it's at all possible).

I do remember waking up after a very heavy party on a range exercise, floating in about 3" of water inside the marque tent on my air mattress, The idiots in the advance party had set up the tents in a depression and it had rained pretty hard through the night, a hangover with wet gear sucks!

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Let's face it, the SMG and it's predecessor the Sten were both very basic weapons... they filled a need - able to send a load of lead downrange & force the people on the receiving end to keep their heads down while you were attempting to do something.  Asside from that, not a very useful weapon.... except looked good as a prop for the Imperial stormtroopers in Star Wars.

I found that the Uzi didn't have "chattering" feel of the SMG, on my first try I was able to produce 3rd cloverleafs on the target. Granted the range was short, but given some practice and some training,I am sure I could have gotten good hits at longer ranges, it would have been a much better weapon.

 

[Danjanou]

Loving this trip down memory lane, melmac, SMG mags, the C2 Bra, 64 pattern webbing, old rain gear, the old GPMG and the joys of trying to do a barrel change and headspacing and timing.


Still trying to wonder what moron let Colin near an Uzi though. 8)

 

[garb811]

For MPs it was the widowmaker holster issued with the Sam Browne and, if you were a lady MP, the note book holder which also doubled as your .38 ammo pouch with each round held in an individual leather loop.  Oh...and the .38.  Particularly if you were a guy and were issued it due to working in civies.  I used to have to jam my opposite thumb between the grip and the palm of my hand to get a semi-decent grip while firing it, long before anyone even dared to suggest after market grips, let alone putting them on.

Propane fueled patrol cars (and staff cars for that matter) made a ton of sense too when you were forbidden to park them in the garage in the winter and MSE would have a fit if you left one idling.  More than once I left the guardhouse to respond to a call in the winter and had to try more than one car to find one that would start.

I never had the pleasure but guys a few years older than me have lots of nice things to say about the AMC Concord? patrol cars.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Loving this trip down memory lane, melmac, SMG mags, the C2 Bra, 64 pattern webbing, old rain gear, the old GPMG and the joys of trying to do a barrel change and headspacing and timing.


Still trying to wonder what moron let Colin near an Uzi though. 8)

I had to pay for that pleasure, but it was worth it to satisfy my curiosity.

Did we mention the Zit fertilizer or the wonderful traction abilities of non-directional bar type tread tires?

Anyone here old enough to remember the 14.5mm Arty simulator?

 

[Old Sweat]

"Anyone here old enough to remember the 14.5mm Arty simulator?"

Guilty. It was not one of Canada's more inspired purchases. For those who never had the pleasure, it was a bolt action, single shot indirect fire weapon that was aimed like a normal artillery equipment. It fired a low velocity round with a spotting charge that 'burst' at the sharp end. Some of the rounds were air burst, which meant they popped anywhere along the trajectory. While the term had not yet been devised, its ballistics operated on the chaos theory; not only could a butterfly flappings its wings in Amazonia deflect it, any resemblance between its fall of shot and the firing table data were purely coincidental.

The trainer was designed to practice FOO parties without using real ammunition and was a step between the puff range and live fire. It was soundly despised by everyone in the artilery except perhaps the staff officer responsible for the ammunition budget.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Puff ranges!!!

Now I have to admit I liked the puff range that we had, used to work underneath it providing the "puff" as required!! (Does that make me a "puff daddy"? 

If I recall the FOO's had special binos for the puff ranges to help keep things in scale?

 

[Old Sweat]

As I recall there were a set of table used to build a puff range so that the view from the observer's position was correct. In other words the grid system used to lay the range out was not really based on grid squares as we see them on a map. Unfortunately that meant that it did not work for anyone else - like the rest of the class - seated on the benches on either side of the centre position.

I got pretty good at shooting without binoculars and adjusting for line by fingers and worm rule.

 

[DirtyDog]

I actually bought an accuwedge for my AR-15 in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1988.  When I saw them on C7s, I laughed.  The accuwedge might cure a bit of slop in an AR caused by banging the upper receiver almost closed onto an inserted take-down pin, but putting them in new, tight (relatively) C7s only created more damage by having people lean on the rifle or scope to close it.

Every time I find one, I take it out. 

I've seen a LOT of damage done, albeit mostly cosmetic, by people jabbing at the take down pins with the jaws of a gerber because the pins were so tight from the pressure of the wedge.  Many a gashed up recievers.

 

[Penny]

OK troops let's hear it, what are the worst POS that the CF has issued you?  For me it's that junk they call raingear and the WW boots.

Getting back on topic, I'd love to see a return to the v-neck t-shirt that didn't strangle you like the round neck PT shirts do.
I'd also like to toss back the sleeping bag liner that shredded in to several strips the first time I used it. Good if you needed bandages in a pinch, but that's about it.
The liners for the snow boots never seem to fit, but in contrast to assurances from the issuing clerk I think they are mis-matched.

I'm dating myself here a bit but I miss my tan uniform. It was very nicely tailored and unlike the current Army skirt - didn't look like a formless green sack.
I don't miss the moon-shaped tie with the elastic string. Was it called a dickie?... Whatever. I like the new tie.
As for the ladies oxfords - no one ever wears them. Why not just issue a standard pump? Just wondering.

- Just my two cents.

 

[muskrat89]

The trainer was designed to practice FOO parties without using real ammunition and was a step between the puff range and live fire. It was soundly despised by everyone in the artilery except perhaps the staff officer responsible for the ammunition budget.

We also used them to practice direct fire (anti-tank) drills. Funny, my wife and I were talking to my daughter about pneumonics the other day, and IRTDOLF is still in my brain, waiting for me to utilize it whilst saving the gun position....

 

[daftandbarmy]

The C5 MMG - the only weapon I've ever seen that had to be issued with a huge friggin' screwdriver to keep it working.

 

[TCBF]

The C5 MMG - the only weapon I've ever seen that had to be issued with a huge friggin' screwdriver to keep it working.

- When they converted the cal .30 U.S. (.30-06) M1919A4 Browning Machine Guns (BMG) to 7.62mm C1 GPMG in the late sixties, they didn't get it right.  That was a real pain.  Ten years later they fixed some of the problems and re-named it the C5. Once you knew the gun, it was good to go.  The key was to pull the trigger bar from the lock frame, insert it into a hole in the barrel casing and then lean on it, bending the tip to the right angle to change the timing of the gun.  Purred like a 600 RPM BMG after that, it did.

 

[daftandbarmy]

- When they converted the cal .30 U.S. (.30-06) M1919A4 Browning Machine Guns (BMG) to 7.62mm C1 GPMG in the late sixties, they didn't get it right.  That was a real pain.  Ten years later they fixed some of the problems and re-named it the C5. Once you knew the gun, it was good to go.  The key was to pull the trigger bar from the lock frame, insert it into a hole in the barrel casing and then lean on it, bending the tip to the right angle to change the timing of the gun.  Purred like a 600 RPM BMG after that, it did.

I guess that's why they gave us huge oven mitts with the gun too, just in case it scratched when you gave it a pat.  ;D