Quote: DHBirr wrote:Heh, well, I'm not any sort of historian. But I'm a 5'7" guy - and I was just about average height in my company. Asian military,
Quote: An M16's annoyingly long.An ironic statement considering that military rifles in WWI, for instance, were long enough that men could use them as crutches.
see? Which means, of course, that a good number of fellows were shorter than me. Sure, I bet the M16 isn't a giant or anything. But it's all a
matter of scale. =)
I understand the M16's quite light - certainly the lightest I've carried. But it's also the longest I've seen. The Singapore Armed Forces now
uses a local weapon called the SAR-21 for most units. It's a bullpup. A bit heavier, but a lot smaller. Shorter, more compact. The size matters.
I used the M16 as a training weapon. Carrying it around all day, 'specially squirming through mud or leaping off bits of concrete, it damn well feels like
a honking great broomstick that catches onto everything.
No idea how long the base rifle for the OICW is, but with all the extra gear attached, it looks fat and awkward. Forget weight, just the size...even
dismantled, how would you carry all the pieces? Well, maybe you'd have webbing designed for it, but...ick.
-- Acyl