Quote:
Originally Posted by sjard
That would make sense. When I first heard about thermal sights in the late 80s, they were large (18"x20"x10" box) tripod mounted things, requiring liquid nitrogen to work.
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Yes- as were the ones our surveillance teams had when I was in Germany in 1990.
PS- I have a CMP Garand, M1903a3, and M1 carbine. The carbine was my grandfather's. Price when he bought it from CMP= $17.50 plus $2.50 shipping and handling. If you want an "assault weapon" that is likely to be found in civilian hands the M1 carbine fits the bill, especially with a 30-round magazine. (I seem to recall that they were often seen on the hands of Bad Guys on the old
SWAT TV show.) They are also notoriously easy to convert to full-auto by the simple expedient of filing the sear down a bit, and in fact will often turn full-auto spontaneously when the sear gets worn through normal use. In such a state they cannot fire in semi-auto. Conversely, great steps were taken to ensure that the many civilian AR15s could not be so easily converted- for instance Colt sold them with different pin positions and sizes so that only Colt
civilian trigger groups could be installed.
There were also a lot of non-USGI M1 clones made by various companies (Auto-Ordnance is one) and a vigorous aftermarket in parts and accessories. The non-USGI magazines of that era kind of suck, by the way, and should get a malf penalty,
especially the 30-round ones. They're notorious.
I think that I just might kill for a Rock-Ola M1 carbine. An IBM one would be a close second, with Saginaw Steering, National Postage Meter, or Underwood very distant thirds. (My grandfather's is a ten-a-penny Winchester.) A Bad Guy screaming "rock-n-roll!" because his M1 was made by the Rock-Ola Jukebox Corporation would be a nice touch...