Worst Environment For a Gun/Gun Fight?
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stevelyn
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I've lived in and worked with firearms in three of the four environments. Never been in the jungle, but there are places I've been that are similar.
The marine environment is by far the worst place to have a gun. The combination of dampness, salt air, rain and wind wreaks havoc on guns and mandates you regularly clean an inspect them. Exposure to salt water requires flushing with warm or hot fresh water drying thoroughly (hot water expedites this) and then clean and lube in the usual manner.
In my experience the arctic and sub-arctic are the least harmful to guns and their operation. The climate although cold is relatively dry with a low average humidity. Yes, if care is not taken a weapon can freeze up. This is usually due to bringing a weapon in from the outside and having moisture condense on it an then taking it back outside before it warms to room temperature and dries. Most folks I know leave their utility guns in a secure area outside of their homes during winter to help minimize this problem. Going light on the lube or using a synthetic will keep guns from malfunctioning due to frozen oil and very light if any on the grease.
I've take my K2 out predator hunting at -20 (any colder, I stay home and throw wood on the fire) slung across my back while riding a snowmachine (snowmobile for you L48ers) and it has still worked when I needed it with snow sticking to the bolt and ejection port.
The marine environment is by far the worst place to have a gun. The combination of dampness, salt air, rain and wind wreaks havoc on guns and mandates you regularly clean an inspect them. Exposure to salt water requires flushing with warm or hot fresh water drying thoroughly (hot water expedites this) and then clean and lube in the usual manner.
In my experience the arctic and sub-arctic are the least harmful to guns and their operation. The climate although cold is relatively dry with a low average humidity. Yes, if care is not taken a weapon can freeze up. This is usually due to bringing a weapon in from the outside and having moisture condense on it an then taking it back outside before it warms to room temperature and dries. Most folks I know leave their utility guns in a secure area outside of their homes during winter to help minimize this problem. Going light on the lube or using a synthetic will keep guns from malfunctioning due to frozen oil and very light if any on the grease.
I've take my K2 out predator hunting at -20 (any colder, I stay home and throw wood on the fire) slung across my back while riding a snowmachine (snowmobile for you L48ers) and it has still worked when I needed it with snow sticking to the bolt and ejection port.
10-Ring
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Once you get to miserable, it really doesn't matter the temperature, hot or cold!
Nightcrawler
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Assuming you're referring to the M16...I don't know who told you the M16 (A1 or A2) is "state of the art". An M16A2 made by FN yesterday isn't any more modern than an M16A2 made by FN 10 years ago. The local ROTC unit here doesn't even have A2s, they have A1s.
I've carried an M16A1 that was so old the receiver was marked "Colt AR-15", putting the manufacture date sometime in the 60's. I think that was probably the only original part left on the rifle, but it's hardly a "new" weapon by any stretch of the imagination.
The worst environment for use of a weapon would probably be desert. Fine, talcum-powder like dust can get into every pore, every nook and cranny, and does so everytime you kick some up (anyone who's ever ridden in the back of a track in a dusty environment can attest to this). Fine grit can be VERY hard on a weapon; it can get in between the moving parts and gum things up pretty bad.
Cleaning can get the grit out, of course. But when you're riding in your track on the way to your engagement area, getting covered in dust from the trip, you're really not in any position to tear your weapon apart and clean it (not to mention dust sticks to wet lubricants like crazy).
The M16, in my experience, does okay in dusty environments, but it's important to keep the dust cover closed, the barrel capped and your magazines covered. The SAW works a little better being a somewhat mechanically simpler design (with a better gas system).
Cold environments (VERY cold artic type environments) present problems all their own. For one, from the human standpoint, operating many weapons with thick gloves on can be difficult. If you don't believe me, buy some thick winter gloves (you folks that live down south, and consider forty degrees and rainy to be winter might have trouble finding them) and see if you can even get your finger in the trigger loop of a typical pistol.
That notwithstanding, very cold environments also require special lubricants that won't freeze, and you have to be constantly trying to keep your firearm dry, as any moisture can freeze.
I would have to say that outer space is the worst environment. The extreme temperatures can't be good for weapons (try from near absolute zero to several hundred degrees), and even a grazing hit anywhere on your body can be big trouble if you're unable to seal the rupture in your space suit...
jacketch
Member
The worst environment would be a LIBERAL one. The bad guys would have guns and you wouldn't!
OEF_VET
Member
Hmmm, tough choices, but I went with the desert. Partly because it hadn't been selected yet, but also because that's where most my experience is at.
What Nightcrawler said about dust getting everywhere is dead on, especially in a freakin sandstorm. He's also right about how tough the cold can be. Having suffered from frostbite, I'm personally not too partial to the cold environments too much anymore.
And the M-16 is state of the art? What decade are we talking about? Most of our allies have already gone to something else (Brits - L85, Germans - G36, French - FAMAS, Australia and Austria - AUG). The only reason they keep the M-16 around is because we stick with it, and they can use us to get spare parts when they deploy somewhere with us. Heck, we even had a competition to replace the M-16 back in the '80's. We're still looking to replace it with the new (state of the art) OICW.
Frank
What Nightcrawler said about dust getting everywhere is dead on, especially in a freakin sandstorm. He's also right about how tough the cold can be. Having suffered from frostbite, I'm personally not too partial to the cold environments too much anymore.
And the M-16 is state of the art? What decade are we talking about? Most of our allies have already gone to something else (Brits - L85, Germans - G36, French - FAMAS, Australia and Austria - AUG). The only reason they keep the M-16 around is because we stick with it, and they can use us to get spare parts when they deploy somewhere with us. Heck, we even had a competition to replace the M-16 back in the '80's. We're still looking to replace it with the new (state of the art) OICW.
Frank
Frohickey
Member
Nuh-uh. Its very bad to get shot from behind with bullets that you fired from your own gun, as the bullets make its way around the Earth.
Gunfight in an active erupting volcano? I think that you will have ammunition cookoff. Better hope your mag well can contain the cookoffs. Better yet. Hope your sunblock can handle high temperatures.
UnknownSailor
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I don't think the average British trooper who came in while the L1A1 was still issued would say that the L85 is an improvement. As far as the OICW goes, even the US Military will never be able to afford to field those on a wide scale. At $34,000 a copy, (instead of $475 for an M-16), don't be suprised if the OICW goes the way of the H&K G11.
My vote for toughest place for a shootout? A 747-400 full of passengers while airborne.
Sportcat
Member
In a pit of angry, pregnant, ticked-off rattlesnakes!
Mizzoutiger
Member
Nightcrawler~
No, I wasn't talking about the M16 as being state of the art. Although, the we do use the A2s. Those being newer than the originally fielded VietNam era rifles. Those that served in Nam didn't fail because of environmental reasons. Ofcourse, I don't have to tell you this. It's well known that those models had problems with barrel fouling and other mechanical failures. Chroming the bore helped out a lot.
No, I wasn't talking about the M16 as being state of the art. Although, the we do use the A2s. Those being newer than the originally fielded VietNam era rifles. Those that served in Nam didn't fail because of environmental reasons. Ofcourse, I don't have to tell you this. It's well known that those models had problems with barrel fouling and other mechanical failures. Chroming the bore helped out a lot.
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